CIL Day 3

This morning's keynote was presented by Elizabeth Lane Lawley from the Rochester Institute of Technology with the theme of "Libraries as Happiness Engines."  She is an avid gamer (level 70 in World of Warcraft) and talked about what Libraries can learn and adapt from the world of gaming.

My first session was "Learning from Video Games" by Chad Boeninger from Ohio University Libraries.

Both of these talks had a very similar and compelling message.  People who play games will go through a lot of unpleasantness to accomplish something in the game.  People put up with whatever unpleasantness the game throws at them to get some kind of reward (leveling up, obtaining a magic item, etc.) and then think of the overall experience as generally pleasurable or fun.  Libraries already turn some kinds of activities which people may not otherwise do and turn them into games with rewards (think Summer Reading Club), but we can do more in this area.

The first session in particular highlighted how games self-teach (the first 20 minutes of God of War was used as an example, where through game play the gamer is taught how to use the controller for this particular game).  Trying to apply some of this kind of thought to library resources or making the use of library resources part of a challenge can make learning about the resources and how to utilize them more tolerable and rewarding.