I'm a Believer!

There has been a lot of hype concerning libraries and gaming, with professional publications touting incredible benefits. THPL started down the road to gaming over a year ago as one of many options for Out of School (OST) programming, proving to be enjoyable for our customers and beneficial to our staff.

I became a TRUE believer of gaming in libraries as a result of my interactions with customers during the Teen Tech Week gaming tournament and qualifying events. It was a marketing event made to order! I mingled in the crowds and took advantage of every opportunity to converse with teens and parents, promoting library services and learning more about their perceptions of the library, the services of interest to them, and amazingly, their preferences on how they wish to learn about upcoming events.

There are many documented benefits to gaming, but I believe one of the strongest arguments is that it can help libraries become involved in teen social networking and provide opportunities to promote other relevant library services to this demographic.

Podcasting in Libraries

Podcasting has been around for years but we noted in the eMarketer report posted earlier this week that the podcast-user base is growing at an incredible rate. How have libraries responded to the growing availability of this resource as a means of distributing audio and/or video content? The Boulder Public Library has podcasts created by teens linked from their Teen page. Visitors to the site can listen to the teens provide news from the library Teen Advisory Board, interview artists displaying art in the Teen Gallery, or listen to reviews on books, movies or music. The Denver Public Library provides podcasts of storytime favorites.

Many libraries are creating podcasts but I have found that the Pierce County Library in Tacoma, WA has found some very interesting and diverse uses which help to promote library services. They’re using podcasts to instruct parents on Early Literacy Skills, to inform the public on What’s New at the Library, How to Apply for a Job at the Library, How to Volunteer at your Library, Booktalks for Adults, Virtual “sightseeing" Tours of the Library for Children, Teens and Young Adults, Librarian Book Reviews, and an interview with the Library Director on her background and where she sees the library going in the new millennium.

Our library system has a wonderful collection, outstanding electronic resources, numerous special services, programming for every age group, and a very talented staff. How can we use podcasting to inform the public and expand our service base?

Teens @ the Library

Our discussions of blogs would be incomplete without pointing to our very own HCPLC teen blog. It was created a year ago and published in time to celebrate the first Teen Tech Week. Updated faithfully by a dedicated team of librarians and LTAs, it provides comments on just about everything that might interest teens in our community including the results of the Gaming Tournament Qualifier Events.

Web 2.0, Libraries & Generation Y...Oh My!

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new study on December 30th about the research capabilities of Americans and their use of public libraries. The study - Information Searches That Solve Problems: How People Use the Internet, Libraries, & Government Agencies When They Need Help - show some surprising findings:

• More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books.


• Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y.


• The survey showed 62 percent of Generation Y respondents said they visited a public library in the past year...


• Most people use multiple avenues to find information: 64 percent of those who went to the public library were very successful; 63 percent of those who used the Internet were very successful.

The report's findings were against popular stereotypes, especially in relation to Teens & Twenty-somethings. "We were surprised by these findings, particularly in relation to Generation Y," said Lee Rainie, co-author of the study and director of the Pew project.

Take a look at the recent Web 2.0 column in the online tech magazine, TechNewsWorld - "Survey: Techie Gen Y Is Also Library-Savvy." It has some pretty flattering stuff to say about libraries and their adoption of tech solutions.

The report was also covered in Yahoo! News and Assosiated Press.

Teens Love Libraries!

Do you have creative teens at your library too? Tell them about The Director's Chair, TBLC's contest for middle and high school students to make YouTube videos promoting Ask A Librarian. They can win fame and great prizes. And you can let them know about the print and electronic resources available at the library to help them become great videographers.

What Manga is all about

Heidi and Jennifer headed over

to USF yesterday

to share Manga, Anime,

and library info

with a group of teens.
And Japanese food

goes great with Manga!

49% - Young Adults Love Video Games

Are you surprised?

"Today's youth play a lot of video games. Nearly half (49%) say they play games that can be hooked up to a television such as PlayStation, Xbox or GameCube. Roughly one-third of Gen Xers (35%) play these types of games. Very few Boomers and Seniors spend time playing video games (12% and 3%, respectively). Just over one-third of Nexters (36%) say they played video games in the past seven days. The gender gap on this measure is substantial. Fully half of young men (51%) played video games in the past week compared with 21% of women." Read more

From Pew Research Center