American Libraries

AL: So here we are at the breakfast of day two of ALA Tech Source: Gaming, Learning, and libraries learning in libraries. Literacy? Libraries—learning? Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium. I think I got it right that time. What do you think about the first day one and what are you looking forward to day two?

Stephen Abrams: Day one was awesome, amazing new research that has never been published before. The cost of the conference alone is in seeing stuff like that. Big thinkers, people doing the real stuff, amazing. Plus, the gaming last night was incredible to watch.

AL: Yeah, we got some video of you playing Super Mario Kart. I could tell you were kind of struggling.

Stephen Abrams: I'm fifty-three.

AL: Did you attend the gaming event last night?

Michelle Boule: I did.

AL: What did you think about that?

Michelle Boule: It was really funny because all of the keynotes in different ways talked about one concept over and over and that was: that gaming really brings together people of all different walks of life and people of all generations. And you really saw it in action because Eli had his five-year-old son playing Dance Dance Revolution with a librarian in their forties. It was hilarious and there's not very many other places where that happens. So it was really funny to see people let their hair down and play Guitar Hero. The best thing about this conference so far is the mood. Besides the fact that what we've been talking about is really interesting, geeky stuff that I love is that the mood is totally different; it's laid back, people are having a good time. It's more like it is big party and we're all just hanging out and talking about all the geeky things that we love the most. So for me the atmosphere is really different.

Henry Jenkins: The game metaphor helped him to understand the political process and almost immediately he was beginning to apply this to thinking about the news. There was a clear transfer of knowledge that we were observing. He loved this game; he wanted to share it with all of his friends. And so he wanted to take it to school on Monday and the school library had a policy that kids could come in during their lunch break and use their computers, which is a good policy except that their policy was that kids could come in and do research but they couldn't play games. And so predictably enough, the monitor—we'll call Ms. Crabapple—the librarian, who I think of as standing in the gateway, trying to sort out on the fly what constitutes play and what status learning—a false distinction I think we're all going to hear this weekend, but one that she was given the task to do. And I don't want to vilify her as being a bad person, but predictably enough, looking at the box which said, "game" she said, "you can't bring that game to school." And that was her philosophy. And I think if the kid had come with a book about the political process in the fall of 1996, even one with Doonesbury cartoons plastered all over it—teachers would have been leaping for joy. But the fact that he wanted to bring a game into the library was sufficient for her to shut it down. And it was that moment as a parent I was really angry.

Cindy Hart: The speakers so far have been awesome. I think it's the best conference I think I've probably ever attended so far.

AL: What do you think of that last speaker, James Paul Gee?

Cindy Hart: He was great. I've read his book and a couple of articles that he's written and I think there's a lot of ways that as librarians we can take what he says and mix it into our services.

AL: So what candy is it?

Cindy Hart: Lemon—from the back
table.

AL: Is it good?

Cindy Hart: Yeah.

AL: So how would you rate the candy at the conference? Is this your first experience with the candy?

Cindy Hart: Yes, it is.

AL: I had one of those little mini Snicker bars that they were handing out yesterday. It was very Snicker-y.

Cindy Hart: I missed those.

John Kirriemuir: I'm talking about the use of Second Life in libraries. I've been doing an informal survey on which libraries use Second Life. More are actually using them. It’s a wider survey of Second Life in academic departments and universities in the U.K.

AL: Do you think the coming academic year is going to be the big test year for academic course in Second Life?

John Kirriemuir: In the U.K., yes. Definitely.

AL: So we're recording right now. So I'm getting ready to give my talk. I'm up here and this is what it looks like if you're a speaker here at an ALA conference. To take it to the next level, I should hook up a heart monitor to my heart and have at the bottom my heart rate going at the same time that I'm speaking.

Here's Jenny Levine, one of the conference organizers after the first day of the conference. Jenny, how are you feeling? Kind of like the locker room. Did you bring your “A” game with you today?

Jenny Levine: If I had an “A” game, I would have.

AL: So it's the start of day three of the ALA Tech Source Gaming, Learning in Libraries Symposium in Chicago. It's Tuesday morning. It's been a very exciting conference, very manic. And I'm wondering if the energy level will be a little bit lower today than it has been on Sunday or Monday. Let's go find out.

AL: In your course, you talk about a particular crucial development in the modern gaming, computer gaming.

Greg Trefry: Well, in the classes we kind of designed to give everyone a broad overview of all the theoretical topics around games. So every student has their own idea of what they think is a similar moment. But there is an interesting shift when you get to Miyamoto when he was on Donkey Kong. And for me that's when games really became interesting. He has the character who later becomes Mario in Donkey Kong. And it adds a level of personification to the games to where they become a fuller, richer world has made it really interesting. There's also interesting topics around games and libraries. One from how they're archived to allowing people to go back and play old games, which is a challenge we faced in my class. But then there's things like tournaments that engages the community and gets people to play them. And that's really exciting.

Paul Waelchli: I read a blog called Research Quest and when I started this—to me—the process of information literacy instructor is very similar to what I've done for years playing games, is that I'm evaluating sources, I'm determining a need for information, and I'm finding ways to apply it, which are really the keys to information literacy: finding, evaluating, and using information so there is that potential to make those connections.