THE website on gaming

When in doubt, go to ALA. Of course they have a website to help librarians who are getting started, who want to get started, or who are just browsing about games in libraries. Vistit the site: http://www.ala.org/ala/pio/presscentera/piopresskits/nationallibraryweek2008a/gl08.cfm
If you are interested in other library gaming initiatives, I found this and others through Yahoo search and by linking from the Mecklenberg County blog. I told you, they are great!

Benefits of gaming!?

I found the following article with a simple building block search through the PROJECT MUSE database. It provides librarians with the needed data to justify what we already knew... gaming does not automatically produce brain-dead kids, but can enhance skills needed for success in different fields.


The Future of Children
Volume 18, Number 1, Spring 2008[Version Español] -->
pp. 63-85
E-ISSN: 1550-1558 Print ISSN: 1054-8289
DOI: 10.1353/foc.0.0004
Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement
Marie Evans Schmidt and Elizabeth A. Vandewater



From this search, I tried a successive fraction on LibLit (I LOVE this database for LSIS research!) and ended up with this other article, again, worth reading. If you can't see the image, here is pertinent data:

Title:
Gaming Unplugged
Personal Author:
King, Kevin A. R.
Journal Name:
Voice of Youth Advocates
Source:
Voice of Youth Advocates v. 29 no. 6 (February 2007) p. 510-11
Publication Year:
2007
Subject(s):
Young adults' library services/Michigan; Young adults' library services/Activity projects; Games; Kalamazoo Public Library

Not that you can see it very well, but if you do a building block search of ERIC using (gaming OR game* OR gamer*) AND (program* OR event* OR service*) AND (librar* OR (public AND librar*)), you will get about 70 results. I recommend limiting your search by the subject suggestions on the left, or, on the right by full text or date.

The screen to the right shows how simple it is in LexisNexis to search. I used gaming within two words of public libraries, then used the on-screen helps to add the limiters libraries ande computer games. This retrieved 11 articles that are dead-on gaming in libraries. Just to show off that I finally figured out how, I will put another screen shot of some of the results.