Among Us Xbox Can 39;t Play Online
Osoulo Lejeune
Jenny Levine is the author of the popular blog The Shifted Librarian blog. She is currently Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide for the American Library Association's Information Technology and Technical Systems and Publishing departments.
This data clearly shows just how ingrained gaming is for this generation. Even for those who do not play video games often, they have a frame of reference about games and gaming that other generations simply do not. To at least some degree, they understand the language, symbols, and lessons of video games as knowledge currency, and they can discuss them with their peers in a way that members of older generations cannot.
On the day of the event, as the start time approached, library staff members and the RTAs began by setting up the projectors and refreshments. Students were allowed to bring their equipment, regardless of platform (Xbox, GameCube, or PlayStation) as well as their games and controllers. Students brought games like Halo 2 and Madden 2006 (football), and during tournaments, the library used only student-owned copies of Halo 2 on student-owned Xbox machines. The only real problem with the setup was that too many devices were plugged in during the first event, which caused a fuse to blow, which, in turn, caused a brief break in the gaming! (Like gamers, though, the library's team learned from the experience, and it has not happened again.)
Even though students ask for more gaming events, the staff of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library continues to hold game nights once a semester, preferring not to increase the number in order to maintain the high level of interest. Womack plans to continue the model of hosting an open-play game night during the fall semester and a tournament night during the spring semester, though he reports he's going to explore the option of collaborating with other Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) schools to hold a regional gaming tournament.
Although Womack hopes to be able to purchase gaming consoles for the library in the future, a follow-up survey of attendees showed that 100 percent of them did not mind bringing their own equipment. They liked both the open-play nights and the tournaments and indicated a preference for three-hour-long events on Friday nights.
Although some of us at the library play DDR, none of us had any experience running a tournament. I contacted the president of the DDR club ahead of time, and he was very helpful in assisting me with the tournament rules. During the tournament, the DDR Illini members were more than willing to help with setup of the console. Gift certificates to EB Games were given to the top four winners. We had the tournament in a large room with the game projected onto a large screen on the wall. There was plenty of water and Mountain Dew for all.13
My colleague, David Ward, and myself have been primarily responsible for our initial collection development. We met with the manager of our [local] EB Games to see what the best-selling games were in our area. We purchased the top ten or so games for the four major consoles. We also purchased a couple of games that had just come out that week that we knew would be top sellers. After we purchased the games, they were given to our catalogers to be put in our OPAC.
When a librarian came to Dean Ralph Alberico at the CISAT Library at James Madison University (Harrisonburg, Virginia) and asked him whether or not he thought the library's staff needed to address the issue of students using the library's computers to play online games, Alberico saw an opportunity. As a result, he and Health andHuman Services Librarian Jennifer McCabe decided to use McCabe's proposal for an online tutorial (prompted by an associate dean at one of the JMU colleges) as the basis for an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant to create a series of games to develop, teach, and assess the health-literacy and information-literacy skills of JMU students.
JMU was awarded the grant in September 2005, and McCabe, so far, has spent 20 to 40 percent of her time each month working on it. Although she estimates that she and her colleagues will have a finished product in mid-to-late 2007, McCabe hoped to have a beta version playable during the fall 2006 semester (see figure 19).
Prior to publication of this issue, McCabe and her team members were designing the graphic elements; they were beginning to work out the logic in the game; and they were writing some scenario narratives. (The concept of the game, the game world, and many of the in-game activities had already been defined.) In regard to content, players of the game will encounter core competencies in the three basic areas of healthy literacy. The game will also emphasize two of the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards. McCabe explained the game's concept:This game is aimed primarily at health science, nursing, and social work students. I hope it will be useful for most pre-clinical health science students, as well as some psychology, kinesiology, and even communications sciences and disorders (speech pathology and audiology) students, since healthy literacy is something all health and human services students need to know about. It is aimed at undergraduate students of all grade levels.
I also think that librarians are uniquely positioned to try innovative instructional approaches. Because the teaching we do is different from the teaching that full-time instructional faculty [members] do, it is easier for us to experiment. For this reason, I think librarians can expose full-time teaching faculty to some things they might never have the time or energy to try otherwise.21
Another benefit of collaborative gaming in libraries is the broad network of partnerships a library can form. At JMU, McCabe has taken a leadership role within the community and is working with faculty in the psychology, communications, and instructional-design departments among others. The entire experience has given her a new lens through which to view libraries and library services.Going through the process of designing this game has given me a lot of insight into library instruction and other services the library provides. It has also allowed me to think about what makes something fun, what role fun can play in creating successful educational experiences, and what motivates people in general. Ten years ago I would never have imagined myself doing something like this, and it may be the hardest thing I have tried (professionally); but I am having my own kind of fun with it.22
Despite some students' unfamiliarity with gaming and the fact that the class was playing two first-person shooter games (Counterstrike and Diablo), the field trip was a success and helped illustrate to Williams and her students how motivating the fun nature of gaming can be.On our gaming field trip, almost nobody wanted to stop, although one student felt sick from all of the onscreen killing. The majority [was] in favor of gaming in libraries, as long as limited resources allow it. A couple of students are now exploring further into social and community informatics, the study of society's transition into the digital age. This is great because librarians cannot sit by as the digital world is created by others, when we are actually experts in the democratic construction and use of information resources.
Clearly, there are myriad possibilities for gaming in academic libraries. What skills will librarians and information-science faculty need to teach in library schools in order to create librarians who can fulfill the potential of these possibilities and take gaming in libraries to the next level?
UIUC students participating in the library's gaming event. According to librarian Christopher Paul Hamb, the library owns one copy of Guitar Hero, but students have brought in extra guitars so they could engage in a mini-tournament.
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