Cats Eye

NGC 1977, a Reflection Nebula

I had heard a lot of good things about Michael Stevens and his classes. He teaches how to merge technology and library service. It is not only about the new and best technology but the people behind the technology and those who use it.

I work with computers and data bases in my work at an academic library in the back in the technical services department. I have recently been spending more time out front at the reference desk. Learning about Library 2.0 & Social Networking Technologies I believed would help in this new endeavor. I was very happy to find the reference desk using some of the new social networking utilities we were exploring. I gained understanding and competency with these new tools on the job, but first I got to test them out in the classroom with my fellow students.

The people in the class really came together and became a network of fellow future librarians. Working with the social networks and learning about Ning and Twitter showed us how to work together and with future patrons. We really learned to make connections and spread information.

This was my first weekend class and I found it worked very well with my schedule. Starting out it was a little overwhelming but after a little time to reflect I really began to enjoy it. Working full time and taking classes, one can get bogged down. I appreciated the structured of the class, all the hands on participation and personal attention to our questions.

Thanks to everyone in the class for a great experience. Through the new tools we have learned to use, we will always just be a click away.

To start off with the group had to decide what personalization of the library was. We all came up with our own ideas of what it meant to us. Since it is a very open question we made it into a survey so that it could be thought about by many librarians. The question became, Personalization of the Library: how do you evaluate what personalization is and how libraries use this valuable tool.

There are three people in our group so we focused on two main ideas. The daunting task of data collection, analysis, and research into personalization tools being used. In group sessions we came up with questions dealing with user-centered applications, perceptions, and plans. Through numerous emails and informal meetings we each contributed ideas to the list of questions that were narrowed down and finally put into the survey website by Emily. Bill investigated different list servers for distribution and examined personalization tools being used by institutions. While waiting for the data to roll in I started preparation on showcasing the information gathered by designing the presentation.

The data from the survey was collected, analyzed, and will be presented by Emily and Jessica. What libraries are using now will be discussed by Bill. All this information will give an example of what Personalization of the library is and can be.

We talk about new services and technologies available through libraries. Web 2.0 and social networking sites and applications are the big new thing. Just the other day, I saw a news report about twitter being used by jury members. Facebook and Myspace are not only connecting friends but job seekers and employers. The library is now the place to go for information regarding resume building, unemployment, and social networking. But with the economic crisis and hard times, libraries are shortening hours and closing.

I have an RSS feed on this blog with the Library Link of the Day. Today’s story announces: Library Horror Story. It is from the Brooklyn Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/03/18/2009-03-18_library_horror_story.html Huge budget cuts could force the Brooklyn Public Library to drastically cut hours at branches across the borough to the lowest level in decades.”What is sad right now is that we have seen such a surge in usage,” Mack-Harvin said, noting last month’s circulation was up 13%. “Even more people are making use of their libraries.” She said the cuts would shut out the seniors and parents with young children who flock to the library in the morning – and anyone with a full-time job. “For working families, it’s going to be a big challenge for them to find a time to use their libraries,” she said. “This is our worst-case scenario.”

I also found a story about Facebook, using its networking power to try and save a library. Facebook group organizes to stop library’s closing http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=244536&ac=PHnws Kelly Watters of Westbrook saw the same library that helped keep her out of trouble as a child was in trouble itself – slated for closure this spring – she organized the Facebook group “Save the Warren Memorial Library!”

I am a little worried but hopeful about future prospects for librarians. I have been looking and the job market is slow right now. There are job freezes and cutbacks, so many libraries are holding off on expanding and hiring. But I believe technology is keeping us, librarians, relevant and there is always information to be found.

For this assignment, I chose my home town library, Glenside Public Library. I looked for them in twitter but could not find any conversations going on there. So I joined their Facebook page and became a friend and monitored their wall chatter. This has been double duty because there are two pages for the library on Facebook

When searching for my library two entries came up. It seems there is so much information they want to express they put up two pages. The pages are very similar but also very different. The first one has a page title of Glenside Public Library and lists it as Library / Public Building with 40 friends. This page seems more like the library home page. It has tabs along the top for the different departments and boxes of information on the left. In the information box it tells when the library is open and the address. There is also information about the programs going on. The wall is commented on by someone at the library every three to five days. The one big difference is that Glenside PublicLibrary is always logged on when I check the box that shows which of your friends is online.

The second has a page title of Glenside PublicLibrary and lists it in the Chicago network. This page seems more general and personal. It has a note block that feature rss feeds that showcase the programs going on at the library, photos block, and weRead block. The wall space is populated by updates and friend announcements. It will have messages of updates to programs but will also say things like Glenside PublicLibrary welcomes the new week. There is not much wall chatter but the presence alone makes one feel like they are there for you at least that is how I felt.

My paper and book topic are on Education and Gaming.  The resources I have been gathering are all about the reputation of games and how it has been changing. Gaming became a trend to get kids into libraries. Programs became fun but also had hidden lessons. New studies and a better understanding of those who make the games and those who play the games got educators interested in this new fad as a tool for educating.

On the flip side, the educators are also getting educated. I work with the reference librarian at my library and help run gaming nights. We work with a student group to put together a program to bring in different segments of the student population. The student group is learning to act in a professional manner and deal with bureaucracy. They have to write proposals to get the money for the snacks provided and deal with advertising, equipment and prizes. It seems as though the student group does all the work but behind the scenes the librarians had to get the groups together, coordinate the student group with the space available, and learn about gaming and the games.

As a gamer I was consulted to help explain some of the games and behaviors of the gamers. We recently had our first gaming night of 2009 here at Elmhurst College. We have learned something new from each gaming night we have had. We learned when gamers get together, tempers flare, people become competitive, and verbiage can become inappropriate. We have been trying to get in more than just the members from the student group but these behaviors can make nongamers or casual players uncomfortable. The casual gaming has to be advertised more to get in a greater amount of the student population. Magic the Gathering, a collectable card game, was the newest tournament added to the gaming night. There was a good amount of people participating, but it seemed like another confined group. We have to find a way to get more girls and more of the general student population to participate. These are just some of the lessons the educators are learning from creating this program.

These are just a few of the books, blogs, and websites that lend their knowledge to my paper on Gaming and Education in the Library.

ALA Presents an Online Toolkit for Building Gaming @ Your Library | ALA TechSource. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2009, from http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2009/03/ala-presents-an-online-toolkit-for-building-gaming-your-library.html

Castronova, E. (2008). Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gaming and Libraries | ALA TechSource. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2009, from http://www.alatechsource.org/gaming-and-libraries

Gee, J. P. (2007). What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy: Revised and Updated Edition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Info Career Trends » Seriously, Play!. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2009, from http://www.lisjobs.com/career_trends/?p=533

Levine, J. (n.d.). ALA TechSource | Gaming and Libraries Update. Retrieved March 5, 2009, from http://www.techsource.ala.org/ltr/gaming-and-libraries-update.html

Johnson, S. (2006). Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter [EVERYTHING BAD IS GOOD FOR YOU]. New York: Riverhead Books.

Luehrs, S. (n.d.). Videogames seen good for children | Technology | Reuters. Retrieved March 5, 2009, from http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE51A60H20090211

Newsvine – Microsoft explores educational link to video games. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2009, from http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/02/20/2457711-microsoft-explores-educational-link-to-video-games

Palfrey, J. (2008). Born Digital: Understandsing the First Generation of Digital Natives. New York: Basic Books.

Rosser, J. (2008). Playin’ to Win: A Surgeon, Scientist and Parent Examines the Upside of Video Games. .New York: Morgan James Publishing.

Taylor, T. L. (2009). Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture. London: The Mit Press.(2008). Games: Purpose and Potential in Education. New York: Springer.

The Librarian’s Guide to Gaming :: An Online Toolkit :: Literacy 101. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2009, from http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/literacy.html

The book I have been reading is Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson. As I stated in an earlier blog, I picked this book because I was curious about the title and hopeful that it would be about a favorite subject of mine, gaming.

The book turned out, for me, a great read. Johnson starts out by talking about games. He starts out by setting up a scenario in which video games were invented and popularized before books. Then books come along and are all the rage. There would be a public outrage against the new format of information due to their isolation properties. It is just an example of worst-case scenarios that games, and before this media, graphic novels, movies, and romance novels have gone through.

Johnson then goes into why games are popular and addictive. He states that there has been very little direct research into the question of how games manage to get kids to learn without realizing that they’re learning. He goes on to explain that a strong case can be made that the power of games to captivate involves their ability to tap into the brain’s natural reward circuitry. This intrigued me and seems logical from a gamers point of view. In short he explains that people set goals in order to obtain rewards. These can be short and simple or long and complicated. An example of a short goal and reward is to read a book to find out the characters fall in love. An example of a long goal and reward is working hard to achieve a higher status. Since it seems the higher the goal the longer it takes to obtain the reward short goals and rewards are sought more often. Video games allow for many short goals to be achieved and rewards gained. No to mention praise one gains from peers working cooperatively to accomplish these goals. It is a simple idea but direct and to the point.

My first experience with a social network was through a people network described in the first part of the YouTube video, Social Networking in Plain English. I met my husband on a blind date through my roommate in college. It has worked out great so there must be something to these social networks. My first experience with a social networking site was Facebook, about a year ago. It too has enriched my life by letting me make connections and have a voice.

I have always used email, and earlier snail mail, to keep in touch with family and friends. But people have moved away and just become busy, including myself. I have recently gone back to school for my Masters in Library and Information Science degree. I continue to game but find I do not have as much time as I use to. I have made friends in faraway places through gaming and social networking sites such as Facebook help me stay in touch. Chatting keeps the day interesting and helps keep me in the loop. I do not get out enough to be considered a very social person. So Facebook helps me hang out with friends and family in my spare time or on breaks. My family has moved to a different state but I get to talk to them when ever about things going on at this moment in time. The best is my sister-in-law is also a librarian and we exchange more than just recipes. The other is a friend I met gaming who does a podcast on the girl gamer perspective. So I am never out of the loop on what is happening in the DDO (Dungeon’s & Dragons) world. She has recently gotten married so I also get to give and receive her advice on that. So what comes around goes around. (Having met my husband through a social network)

There are many people talking about gaming and education.

I was also intrigued by the title; Everything Bad is Good for You. I hoped it would talk about one of my favorite topics, games. Video gaming has gotten such a bad reputation yet become more and more popular, especially in libraries. I was pleasantly surprised it not only talks about video games but examines a topic I had been thinking about, gaming and education.

As I have stated before, I am a gamer, and it is very fortunate I have found a mentor here at work. I offer advice on games and help organize the gaming nights here at Elmhurst College. The library has a good base of students to draw from but wanted to expand and be more of a place to gather. Gaming was introduced about a year ago to bring in more students and showcase the library. The college has also jumped on the gaming band wagon by offering classes in computer animation and game design. The Head of Reference, my mentor, recently taught a J-term session on Gaming and Education and plans to do more. So the theories in this book are very interesting and just one step to an understanding as to how learning has changed and how teaching must also.

Steve Johnson starts out telling a story about how he spent his fifth grade days building elaborate baseball simulations in his room. He then goes on to compare these to similar experiences by others of his generation, those playing Dungeons & Dragons or games like Diplomacy. He explains how the kind of thinking he was doing on his bedroom floor became an everyday component of mass entertainment. “System analysis, probability theory, pattern recognition, and old fashioned patience have become indispensable tools for anyone trying to make sense of modern pop culture”. (9) He goes on to say that his solitary obsession with modeling complex simulations is now ordinary behavior for most consumers of digital age entertainment. He believes this kind of education is not happening in classrooms but in living rooms and basements on PC’s and televisions screens. He has tagged this The Sleeper Curve.

I agree with Sarah in that culture is not declining but rather changing and more. The way we are learning is changing and so must education.  Libraries are the new third place for communities and a place to learn.  The games they are introducing and the lessons they are teaching impact the population.  I am intrigued by what the kids, adults, and librarians are learning from these games.

Johnson, S. (2005). Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books.