For your dancing pleasure…
While at conference, be sure to stop by the ALA TechSource booth (1713) to take part in their Dance Dance Revolution demonstration. Note I’m saying “you” should take part…I’m not committing. I tried it over the holidays with my six-year-old twin nieces. I scored a “D” and lots of supportive “You’ll do better next time, Aunt Laura”. Not ready for prime time, as they say. Still it IS fun and pretty good exercise, and I’m thinking of buying a copy as part of my resolution to get in shape this year.
Gaming is an interest very near and dear to my heart right now. Before I leave for conference on Friday, I’m finishing up my work on a manuscript for an upcoming book on holding gaming tournaments in the library by Ann Arbor District Library’s Eli Neiburger. If you don’t know Eli, you’re missing out. A true fanboy with a Nintendo tattoo to show for it, he has run hugely popular gaming tournaments at AADL that have drawn some 100 teenaged boys to the library on a Saturday afternoon. How’s that for impressive?
In addition to knowing everything there is to know about putting together a tournament (why tournaments are the way to go when bringing gaming into the library, what games make for the tournaments, how to set up equipment, how to market to young gamers [no mean feat]), Eli is really funny (when in college,he was Head Writer for the University of Michigan Comedy Company) and holds nothing back (alas, that means a time or two, I’ve had to pull out my editing pencil for some of the saltier language…I know, I’m a killjoy). Here’s one of the sections cracks me up every time I read it:
For example, one of my favorite patron comment cards, received anonymously, politely, requested that the library should “Please offer Prostitutes and Pie.” Both services would certainly find their adherents, but that doesn’t mean that they would be appropriate for the organization. Nongamers may look at gaming events much the same way. Here’s why they’re wrong.
So, reading this is a nice kick-off to what I hope will be a fun and productive Midwinter. You’ll have your chance to enjoy Eli’s advice in prose spring/summer.
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January 28th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
If I remember one thing for certain about my teen years, it’s my reluctance over doing anything for the first time. Asking me to go into an unfamiliar public space, say, any library other than my four-room local public, would have been a tough sell. But if I had been there before for a group event, heck, I’d have felt like an old hand. Fiction on the back wall, circ desk in the center, ready reference on the left, bathroom on the right…no problem!