Libraries Rock National Gaming Day
Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 11/16/2009
Libraries were buzzing this weekend over National Gaming Day (NGD), the annual event sponsored by the American Library Association, which took place Saturday, November 14."We had a pretty good turnout at our local library. VERY fun!," tweeted Michael Sanchez, who volunteers at the Lake Wales (FL) Public Library. “It’s always a great time and I really appreciate the free games,” reported Lake Wales’ youth services librarian Kara Wiseman by email. Toy giant Hasbro donated more than 50,000 boxed sets of the card games Monopoly Deal, Scrabble Slam, and Pictureka! to 16,700 libraries for the event.
In this its second year, NGD had 1,364 libraries registered to participate, according to the event's Twitter feed, while 617 signed on for the 2008 event.
Serving a small city of 13,000, Lake Wales hosted just 20 people for this year’s NGD, due in part to other competing activities in the community, says Wiseman. “We played Mario Kart Wii, Monopoly Deal, chess, Magic: The Gathering and many others... I think of the games donated this year for NGD, Monopoly Deal was the hit of the day. I shared in a couple of very competitive games and had a lot of fun,” she wrote.
Brandon Robbins covered things at Wayne County Public Library in Goldsboro, NC, where he serves as young adult services coordinator. “National Gaming Day was a big success yesterday. 50 people in attendance, every game was played,” he posted to Twitter. Robbins says NGD attracted about 15 to 20 kids “mostly regular families with a few new faces.” The favorite game at Wayne County? Hands down, Pictureka, per Robbins.
The Skokie Public Library hosted a number of NGD activities, among them a Scratch for Beginners course. “All 12 slots in our YS Computer lab filled quickly, with another eight on a waiting list, emailed Dave Nelson, of Skokie’s youth services department. “We ended up with the 12 plus another 4 from our waiting list, all 6th through 8th grades, to work on a basic game design project. We received some great feedback about Scratch.” About 35 took part in a Beatles Rock Band Tournament and a “Pizza and Soda for Gamers” was, needless to say, very popular.
“I have been excited to see how many libraries registered for NGD this year, and it was great to follow the wonderful reports of successful programs unfolding on Twitter and elsewhere,” says Liz Danforth, gaming expert and Library Journal blogger. “People of all ages came into libraries around the country to play on the Wii or to play Rock Band, they played board games and chess and roleplaying games. Eli Neuberger's GT System saw over 40 libraries competing head to head in a Brawl tournament, and win or lose, that means libraries coast to coast were doing something awesome with their customers and patrons!
Libraries outside the U.S. also got into the act, with the Yamanakako Public Library in Japan (pictured above) and Les Bibliothèques de Montréal-Nord in Québec hosting their own events.
While the event encourages the integration of games, the concept is, of course, nothing new in many libraries, which have already embraced gaming as a way to engage patrons, especially younger ones. “Gaming is a part of our year round programming,” says Wiseman. “We have a chess coach that comes in twice a week. Our teens have a monthly Wii program and we hold Wii Wednesdays on the third Wednesday of the month for all ages. Last year for National Gaming Day we were given starter kits for Magic: The Gathering. The teens have taken this game and made it their own. We have a group of boys that come in almost everyday after school to play, we host a Magic tournament every Saturday, plus we have an "unofficial" group that meets after hours in our meeting room on Friday nights.”
So, no surprise, Wiseman plans to participate in NGD every year.
Photograph by Takahiro Maruyama
