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.

Libraries and Peer Services

As we continue to work through this Web 2.0 training, I think it's helpful to observe how other libraries have begun to incorporate some of these technologies. The Ann Arbor District Library has an interesting website (blog) which allows customers to comment on employee posts concerning upcoming events and programs. The Pierce County Library System allows customers to comment on book reviews written by staff. In both cases the community is inivited to provide content and quite often they help to promote the library collection and services. Is it possible that a very powerful form of marketing could arise from giving library users and advocates in our community a similar opportunity to provide comments or reviews?