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  • THURSDAY JUNE 28 2007 9:00 PM

Hey Librarians: Less Book Clubs, More LAN Parties

Submitted by _DictionaryGirl_

Edited by erin_broadley

Tags: librarians, LAN parties, ALA, abject horror



Youth culture is a curious and fleeting thing--one day you're totally hep and the cat's pajamas, and then suddenly before you even know it you're entirely out-of-touch, utterly alone and unable to impress subordinates with your archaic talk of rolling for initiative and the Dewey decimal system. Then you become a librarian.

The chairs of the American Library Association, however, aim to beat the odds. No longer content to go on as living monuments to the art of anachronism, they handed out new marching orders to their troops in the college library fields during their annual conference this past week, and the only command on the page reads: play more video games. STAT.

At a packed session for academic librarians attending the annual meeting of the American Library Association, in Washington, the topic was how to help students who have learned many of their information gathering and analysis skills from video games apply that knowledge in the library. Speakers said that gaming skills are in many ways representative of a broader cultural divide between today’s college students and the librarians who hope to teach them.



The problem facing libraries today, it would seem, is the divergence between what speakers at the conference referred to as "digital natives" and "digital immigrants." Much like an eager and hard-working newcomer at Ellis Island, so too are our poor librarians, trying to explain the ROGER system to a bunch of college freshmen with their crazy moon language, all LOLs and zerg rushes and the like. But would we have the whole of New York City learn Armenian to better communicate with our immigrant friend? Of course not, that's all topsy-turvy! So, too, must the librarians learn the language of the students rather than the other way around.

“The librarian as information priest is as dead as Elvis,” Needham [vice president for member services of the Online Computer Library Center] said. The whole “gestalt” of the academic library has been set up like a church, he said, with various parts of a reading room acting like “the stations of the cross,” all leading up to the “altar of the reference desk,” where “you make supplication and if you are found worthy, you will be helped.”

[...] James Paul Gee, a linguist who is the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the author of Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul, argued that librarians need to adapt their techniques to digital natives. A digital native would never read an instruction manual with a new game before simply trying the game out, Gee said. Similarly, students shouldn’t be expected to read long explanations of tools they may use before they start experimenting with them.

“We should never read before we play,” Gee said.



Of course not. Heaven forfend we should read in order to learn. Especially at a library.

Gee and Needham have a whole lot of really super-fun ideas on how to better the library experience, using lots of fun terminology like "lowered consequences of failure" and "in-demand training." For example, rather than teaching a student how to use library equipment before they start, it has been decided that the best course of action is to let them aimlessly screw around on "explore" the equipment like it was Final Fantasy and they hadn't found any walkthroughs yet. When they finally ask for help, the librarians shouldn't make it explicit that they are formally training the students, but should instead opt to cheekily whisper "let me show you a shortcut," because shortcuts are cool, whereas knowing how to properly use a microfiche machine is totally lame and boring.

Here are some other totally boss ideas they have to improve the vitality of our library system.


  • Avoid implying to students that there is a single, correct way of doing things.
  • Offer online services not just through e-mail, but through instant messaging and text messaging, which many students prefer.
  • Hold LAN parties, after hours, in libraries. (These are parties where many people bring their computers to play computer games, especially those involving teams, together.)
  • Schedule support services on a 24/7/365 basis, not the hours currently in use at many college libraries, which were “set in 1963.”
  • Remember that students are much less sensitive about privacy issues than earlier generations were and are much more likely to share passwords or access to databases.
  • Look for ways to involve digital natives in designing library services and even providing them. “Expertise is more important than credentials,” he said, even credentials such as library science degrees.



What do you think? Way cool, n'est çe pas? Why construct intelligent, thoughtful e-mails when you can shoot the breeze with your librarian text-message style? Why rely on that nice person with the master's degree in library science to give you credible and pertinent information for that report on medieval warfare when your 16-year-old brother (level 62 orc hunter) is apparently just as qualified? Why... okay, you know what, I can't even find anything funny to say about hosting LAN parties at the library. I've got nothing. Just, why.

And then, the piece de resistance. Needham stressed in his lecture that no one is encouraging libraries to rip out the stacks in favor of arcades, but this kind of says it all.

  • Play more video games.



Onward, soldiers, toward a brighter and more intelligent future for tomorrow's youth. Let's not everybody rush all at once.


Thanks for the tip, Erin!

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Comments
unfiltrator

unfiltrator

San Francisco, CA
April 2004

JUN 29, 2007 10:12 AM

Educational software LAN parties!!!!! I am so there.

I'm in ur base duing logs of ur nummerz.

BlastProcessing

BlastProcessing

USA
OLD SKOOL

JUN 29, 2007 10:16 AM

I dunno about all this. The last time I played a game that had a library in it was Eternal Darkness, and those books tried to eat my brain.

Drock1205

Drock1205

Merrick, NY
June 2007

JUN 29, 2007 10:52 AM

Have any of ya guys been in a local library in the day time. Very scary the type of people who re in there... There was a guy who scream at the librarian for not knowing the words to "Hail Britannia" (It's actually called Rule Britannia), an old couple who comes in and screams at each other about bowel movements, and the ever popular "Farting machine." I don't blame the kids for staying away!

PointBlank

PointBlank

New York, NY
November 2004

JUN 29, 2007 10:57 AM

Short said:

Video games get otherwise un-interested kids to read enormous amounts of text. .



What game are you playing? Grand Theft Encyclopedia?

Drock1205

Drock1205

Merrick, NY
June 2007

JUN 29, 2007 11:00 AM

PointBlank said:

Short said:

Video games get otherwise un-interested kids to read enormous amounts of text. .



What game are you playing? Grand Theft Encyclopedia?



Classic. I can hear Jack Thompson already bitching about that edition.

d20

d20

San Francisco, CA
September 2003

JUN 29, 2007 11:08 AM

BlastProcessing said:
I dunno about all this. The last time I played a game that had a library in it was Eternal Darkness, and those books tried to eat my brain.



well then, i hope you learned your lesson.

with regards to the OP, i don't see what the big deal is. layered under _DG_'s impeccable writing style is a whole lot of "wahhh, change is bad. THIS IS DIFFERENT AND I DO NOT LIKE IT."

every time someone complains about im / txts / videogames / those-damn-kids-these-days degrading language and culture, i ask them politely to read the Power of Babel then get back to me if they still feel the same -- i'm sure native latin speakers would be horrified to see how we butchered their language too. and just think of girls these days baring their ankles. unheard of!

Quirky

Quirky

Birmingham, AL
October 2005

JUN 29, 2007 11:09 AM

LURK MOAR.

PatrickY

PatrickY

Vancouver, WA
December 2003

JUN 29, 2007 11:09 AM

PointBlank said:

Short said:

Video games get otherwise un-interested kids to read enormous amounts of text. .



What game are you playing? Grand Theft Encyclopedia?



Zork I.


Look at mialbox
MIALBOX DOES NOT EXIST

Look at mailbox
?AT

Look inside mail box
MAIL BOX DOES NOT EXIST

Loot inside mailbox
?LOOT

LOok inside mailbox
THE MAILBOX IS EMPTY

Fuck yourself
CANNOT DO THAT HERE




Skywisdom

Skywisdom

Portland, OR
December 2005

JUN 29, 2007 12:18 PM

Uncognitive said:

_DictionaryGirl_ said:
When they finally ask for help, the librarians shouldn't make it explicit that they are formally training the students, but should instead opt to cheekily whisper "let me show you a shortcut"



Am I wrong in thinking that could be kinda hot?



Maybe if it was DictionaryGirl herself.

Pete

Pete

United Kingdom
July 2004

JUN 29, 2007 12:47 PM

PatrickY said:

Look at mialbox
MIALBOX DOES NOT EXIST
...



Bwahaha smile

bedukay

bedukay

Endicott, NY
March 2003

JUN 29, 2007 12:52 PM

I have a dyslexic younger brother who never finished high school and never developed his reading and writing skills much at all until I set him up with the Star Wars Galaxies beta. Then because the social aspect of the game necessitated communication to get ahead his skills in those areas dramatically improved.

Dismissing "video games" are child's play is a huge mistake that is going to get worse with time when VR is more developed and "video games" become interactive multimedia art (like the one David Lynch tried to develop years ago: Woodcutters From Fiery Ships. Video games are among the most advanced applications on the home PC market what with their AIs, physics' modeling engines, anisotropic filtering, etc.

It's also my opinion that reaching people using the avenues developed most powerful general tool in the history of mankind that is has been and currently revolutionizing almost every economic sector is probably wise as well.

headtraumajr

headtraumajr

Mukilteo, WA
February 2004

JUN 29, 2007 01:12 PM

PatrickY said:

PointBlank said:

Short said:

Video games get otherwise un-interested kids to read enormous amounts of text. .



What game are you playing? Grand Theft Encyclopedia?



Zork I.


Look at mialbox
MIALBOX DOES NOT EXIST

Look at mailbox
?AT

Look inside mail box
MAIL BOX DOES NOT EXIST

Loot inside mailbox
?LOOT

LOok inside mailbox
THE MAILBOX IS EMPTY

Fuck yourself
CANNOT DO THAT HERE






classic

LadyMaze

LadyMaze

USA
July 2004

JUN 29, 2007 01:41 PM



Youth culture is a curious and fleeting thing--one day you're totally hep and the cat's pajamas, and then suddenly before you even know it you're entirely out-of-touch, utterly alone and unable to impress subordinates with your archaic talk of rolling for initiative and the Dewey decimal system. Then you become a librarian.



Ooookay, then. I'm young. I'm pretty in-touch with youth culture. And guess what? I'm a librarian!

And you know who else are librarians? Comic book geeks, zinesters, bleeding-heart liberals, tattooed weirdos (like me!), bloggers, gamers, and all sorts of other free-thinking, creative, (r)evolutionary people.


And you know what we've discovered?? A vast new truth: Libraries are not about books!

Amazing, but true! Libraries are about education AND entertainment. Libraries are about intellectual freedom and skill enhancement. Libraries are about life-long learning.

Does that mean books? Sure, of course it does! But it ALSO means *GASP* video games, and audiobooks, and DDR competitions where kids can dance off against librarians, and DVDS, and CDs, and MP3s, and magazines, and graphic novels, and even zines!

But you know what? Most of the digital natives out there, and apparently, the author of this article as well, seem to think that libraries are about books alone, and that librarians are all ancient, forbidding crones who can't tell HTML from HP Lovecraft.


Next time you want to write an article like this, Dictionary Girl, try doing a little bit of old-fashioned research and looking into all the new initiatives going on in the library world. You might be surprised by just how "hep" and "the cat's pajamas" many librarians really are.

Skywisdom

Skywisdom

Portland, OR
December 2005

JUN 29, 2007 03:29 PM

LadyStardust said:


But you know what? Most of the digital natives out there, and apparently, the author of this article as well, seem to think that libraries are about books alone, and that librarians are all ancient, forbidding crones who can't tell HTML from HP Lovecraft.




<MADNESS> Cthulu walks the earth. Unspeakable horror! </MADNESS>

joker_

joker_

Minneapolis, MN
October 2005

JUN 29, 2007 03:56 PM

Short said:

joker_c said:

iKitten said:
I cut my digital teeth on library computers way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth in the early ninties. I grew up gaming. I still play games, and recently I've even gotten into the "old fashioned" tabletop genre. I find this entire line of reasoning to be laughable at best.

This notion of "gaming skills" is disconcerting, as if they were a subset of abilities hitherto unknown to man, rather than merely applied techniques of problem solving, reflexes, and coordination. They're not foreign concepts to non-gamers, merely foreign applications.

You don't have to make things more accessible by "speaking the lingo." If anything, the effect is counterproductive, as you're now producing a mindset that the world will cater to ones needs when in fact it won't. It's equivalent to spoiling children.

The world is harsh and unforgiving of errors. To pretend and to teach otherwise is a mistake, and the youths taught in this manner will be unprepared in the face of someone willing to walk all over them.



After reading this, I've decided that I think this is an excellent idea. In the future when I'm hiring younger less experienced people, I would like to pay them less.



in case you've never been into the "real world", this is actually how it works out here. less experience = less pay. in case you were being sarcastic, my bad.



"real world" what the hell are you talking about?
I've been living in a quasi virtual Final Fantasy realm for years.

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