Application Day

Yesterday was the day for the college professors to talk about theory and studies and the background information. Today is supposed to be librarians talking about how we can apply all of these ideas to our settings. I’m especially interested in this topic. In addition to the speakers yesterday, I’ve been trying to pick Atabong’s brain and talk with others during lunch and such. Yesterday convinced me that it is happening and is going to continue to happen, so either we get on the boat or miss an opportunity—-just like Blockbuster jumped in when we were slow to warm up to videos, someone said yesterday; you don’t see book rental places, do you, since we came up with the idea for book loaning, but missed our chance to be innovative with videos—-now is our time to get on board with the new gaming technologies since the gamers are out there and not going away. But how should that look at our library? We’re already going with the idea of tournaments, but where from there? Games and gaming software in the collection? Do we focus on consoles, PCs, online, or all three? Do we target kids and teens or all ages? Special events or daily use? Where are we going with all of this? I’m hoping today will help me come up with some good answers to these questions.

Back in the auditorium, listening to another speaker. Hehe. He’s from OCLC, says he gives a lot of talks to librarians. Usually they range from middle-aged to the age of death, so it’s refreshing to see a room with a lot of younger faces. Hmm, “digital immigrants.” He’s talking about younger folk who have grown up with computers and gaming and how they are different than older folk who have had to immigrate. No matter how well they adapt (and many don’t), they’ll still have an accent. The “natives” have been shaped by the digital environment, think and process differently. I’m sure I’ve got a bit of an accent, but not too bad. He’s beginning to shift to application now; after laying out how younger folk are different, he’s going into how we need to be different to reach them. (Not his first point, but) we need to rethink privacy. That’s a big issue in libraryland. In one study, he says, they offered people on the street a $5 Starbucks gift certificate in exchange for computer passwords. 85% went for it. We don’t use our real names on this blog so we can stay a bit “hidden,” but that’s not an issue with our younger friends. I can appreciate the idea of removing some of the barriers to service by lessening our emphasis on privacy, but think there might be too much resistance to make it happen. “Short cuts, not training.” Don’t show them how to do it, show them how to do it more quickly/easily. Also, add cheat books to the collection. Offer services on IM—-again a privacy and security issue. “Bring Digital Natives into your planning process (even if they DON’T have an MLS).” Interesting . . . someone in the audience just said their staff uses IM to communicate all day; could be a way bring people on board. More audience questions, this time about changing the “brand” image of the library as a “box of books.” Certainly the reaction I got from all readers of this blog when I first presented the idea of gaming, that libraries are about books and the rest is way off.

That’s actually a whole other topic, the idea of the “brand” of the library. It goes back to that high/low culture debate that I mentioned yesterday. In library school I remember a professor who read us an excerpt from an article about how we needed to change our “Marian the Librarian” image and how we needed to do things like outreach to get beyond our four walls to be a fuller part of our communities. It was from the 1920s. And we’re still saying the same things and it seems nothing much has changed. This speaker earlier said in a study from the 1950s the library ranked as the 7th place people would go to for information, behind friends, newspapers, and such, and we rank about the same in digital terms. People see us as a quality, reliable place to get information and books, but nothing more. I think libraries should be about information in all of its forms (book, video, digital, etc.) and all of it’s uses (learning, research, entertainment, etc.). I also think they should be community gathering places (meeting rooms, voting, socializing, book clubs, etc.). We already do much of that and have been for a long time, yet the perception of what libraries are (and should be) doesn’t change. Is there something especially appealing about the idea of libraries as studious book places and librarians as stodgy, or is there something we do to continue encouraging that image regardless of our claims otherwise?

A hardcore, serious, lifelong gamer is the new presenter (Eli Neiburger). 95% of teen boys play videogames. In their minds games are content too, so why wouldn’t a library have them? Even though gaming is an $11 billion industry, it’s still a niche market that is just now becoming the mainstream (as the kids who grew up on them grow up), so now is the time to get on board. Speaking of library image, “that’s ‘the bun’ talking,” he just said. You don’t ask the board to do this, you tell them you are; anything different would be micromanagement (you don’t ask if you can have a Harry Potter book club). Tournaments are to video games as storytimes are to picture books. Ann Arbor Library District: sixth month tournament season that builds to the championships (easily reproducible program in a series, like storytime). DDR, Kids’ Kart, Adult Kart and Super Smash (ages 12+), Madden. The only parents who’ll complain will be the ones without kids; no complaints from parents of the participants. “We’ve already, as an industry, lost a generation, the ones in their 20s.” Offer them something of value now or be irrelevant to them for the rest of their lives. His handout/PowerPoint has all the “how to” details. Recommends console over PC events. Has a blog for results, standings, trash-talking in between tournaments to help build momentum for championships, plus a lot of other stuff to explore. Can register your wireless devices on your library account to have access to the library network at their library. We’re watching a DVD of their live TV broadcast of the 2004 championship tournament. He emceed and got some of the kids to provide color commentary. Really cool. If we’re going to imitate anyone for our event, this is the guy to learn from.

(I’ve left a lot out, of course, of all the presentations. I wanted to focus more on capturing my thoughts and reactions. Full notes are available from those in blogger alley (like The Shifted Librarian) and the presentations are going to be available at the website.)