Back to online gaming . . . .

When I started this blog, I was thinking about how online gaming could be mixed with library use to increase the relevance of libraries. Reality set it when I realized that most libraries don't have enough computers to make playing online games in a group at the library feasible. So in my last post, I talked about how console games could step in and help to solve that problem. The teen services librarian at RHPL is making that idea a reality, and I'm sure many other public libraries have similar programs.

I still think that online gaming can be very relevant to libraries, and I'm not alone. Here's an article from D-Lib Magazine titled Parallel Worlds: Online Gaming and Digital Information Services that discusses online gaming. The author concludes with this statement: "Though digital library systems and online games provide extremely different services, there is much that the development community of each could learn from the other. Both types of 'always on' service, used by millions of people, involve simultaneous participation by many distributed online people, accessing and affecting large quantities of data. Technical, interface, and communication attributes from online games are of relevance to the developers of online information and commercial services. Some tools, developed for games, are being used by such services. It will be interesting to see whether there will be a further take-up, or cross-pollination, of concepts, technologies and ideas between these sectors."

School media specialists are becoming more aware of the potential of online gaming as well. In the School Library Journal, there was a fascinating article titled "Meet the New You." The authors of this article describe how they set up a "partnership to create Eye4You Alliance, an island within the teen grid [Teen Second Life]. By setting up shop in the virtual sphere, we hoped to establish a dedicated space for youth that was both informative and interactive and could function as a bridge to other youth organizations." Librarians and teachers are working together to make the experience fun, but they are also making it relevant to students' studies: "A social studies class examining immigration, for example, is building a virtual Ellis Island, complete with the Statue of Liberty and Lower East Side tenements."

If there aren't enough computers for online gamers to actually play together at the library, there are other ways for patrons who are gaming fans to interact. Public libraries could sponsor book clubs that focus on fantasy books, which the online games often mirror. The first title that immediately springs to mind is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There's also the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. This article about Dungeons and Dragons from Wikipedia lists many, many more authors whose work the creators of that game drew on for inspiration.

Another idea that I had was for a library to sponsor a book club, but the club could meet virtually in Second Life or Teen Second Life. This type of meeting would save the library's resources and would certainly be ideal for libraries that have limited (or no) meeting areas. It seems to me that participation might be increased with a virtual book club because folks would not have to get in their car and drive through bad weather to get to the meeting.

The last link I want to post here is one that is probably familiar to my Wayne State classmates. It is Betsy Stoll's blog, called Binary Footprints. Betsy is pursuing her MLIS degree at WSU, and she is "especially interested in the ways Second Life can be used for education, business, or just to connect." She has many wonderful ideas, and reading her blog really makes me want to try Second Life. But, like most students, I don't have the time right now. Being addicted to one game (see my first post about World of Warcraft) and doing my school work is about all I can handle.