Fostering a Culture: Gaming in the Library

Matt and Kelly are from the Bloomington Public Library here in Illinois

Purposeful programming:
– what do teens represent in the life-cycle of a library patron?
– builds on the holistic approach to serving lifelong learning (ie developmental assets)
– fits into an overall strategy of technology programming
– maintains purpose, space & value in the minds of our public

BPL does Game Fests – started with Battlefield 1942 (with violence toned down), Mario Kart Double Dash, Sims 2, DDR Extreme
been doing this quarterly for about a year
also have board games and show a movie during Game Fests
serve water, not soda!

started with “ya got game” – high school boys laughed at the slogan, so they changed it to “Game Fest”

community support & promotion:
– game stores
– Acme Comics
– marketing at the schools
– FlatCon — http://www.flatcon.com/
– DDRfreak – http://www.ddrfreak.com/
– grants and alternative support//funding

had a kid drive from 2–1/2 hours away just to play DDR at BPL
EB Games donated strategy guides

show anime movies during Game Fests

have a “Next Generation Computer Club” – they’re a Project Next Generation site, which means they’ve received computer lab equipment for kids to use for creating content
http://www.bloomingtonlibrary.org/png/

their outreach includes the “Students Involved with Technology Conference” – http://www.sitconference.org/
kids make mini-movies that are shown at the theaters – B-N Film Fest – http://www.bnfilmfest.org/

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