Thursday, August 16, 2007

Games, Playing

Many libraries have instituted gaming events where patrons are invited into the library to compete in Wii tournaments, World of Warcraft marathons, and Guitar Hero duels. The American Library Association and the Association for College and Research Libraries are once again behind the times with their glaring lack of arcade performance indicators in their information literacy standards.

Perhaps... "The information literate should be able to deliver a thunder clap to fell a Wailing Banshee."

Ask the readers: Got a gamy suggestion for the ACRL information literacy standards? Share it in the comments section below.

6 comments:

nichole said...

The information literate should be able to get wood for sheep.

Oops, wrong kind of gaming.

DVance said...

it seems like this would be the perfect post for me to comment on, but sadly, i have no clue what you're talking about.

Anonymous said...

The information literate should only be able to play a guitar with five buttons. Yes, buttons; not strings. (See also: musical literacy 1.0 and the "M" section of the library.)

Anonymous said...

The homeless folks that use our computers often seem kind of "gamey" ... or isn't that what you're asking about?

Kurt

Azereal said...

Lets not forget such important information literacy skills as:
* Beating everyone on the Daytona 500 Machine
* Not shooting the civilians in House of the Dead
* Beating the incredibly cheesy boss in Street Fighter/King of Fighters/Tekken

Of course it would really help to develop these library skills if more libraries had arcade cabinets.

Anonymous said...

It's true that many games inspire development in basic information literacy, or at least information interaction. ACRL is working on literature concerning gaming, but as for gaming literacy standards; I would contend that the needed research is still being compiled. There are aspects to gaming that do not necessarily fall within the library realm and more importantly information literacy.

I am not sure which guideline the proper use of pwnage or how best to fend off a Blood Elf attack would fall, but I am sure that if it does apply; someone will write about it.