How old is your brain?

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How old is your brain?
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Hello!!

• Digital Games and Digital Libraries
• Before we start
• I am not a librarian too
• Presentation by John Kirriemuir (no beard!)
• and Lucky the dog

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In this presentation

• Overview of games and gamers.
• Some learning using digital games.
• 12 areas of interest to the wider library
  community.
• Online games World of Warcraft and Second Life.
• The attributes of a gamer.

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Awareness

• Often from own children who play games.
• Gamers do things really quickly
• pick up objects
• aggregate objects
• manipulate objects.
• If you dont play digital games, you are less
  likely to discuss games with your peers.

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Digital games and game players

• What
• Often complex, difficult, involving,
  thought-provoking, interactive (as opposed to
  reactive), graphically intense, instantaneously
  responsive, multi-threaded, multi-interface,
  social multiplayer games.
• Video games have been around for 30 years. Old
  enough to be considered no longer a fad, more a
  mainstream entertainment culture.
• Things have moved on a bit in those 30 years.
  Take tennis, for example

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Digital games and game players

• Who There are many, many surveys. Most focus on
  the US games market. Key trends and facts
• About 35 to 45 of digital game players are
  female.
• Average number of years adult gamers have been
  playing computer or video games 12
• Frequent game players in 2003 83 million
  worldwide
• Game play is displacing other media-centric
  activities, especially watching television.
  Online game play is a key driver in Internet use
  and broadband take-up.

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Average game player age

• 34

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New players all the time
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More who social gaming

• People play against friends, neighbours, work
  colleagues and family. The top four reasons
  parents play video games with their children
• 79 Because theyre asked to
• 75 Its fun for the entire family
• 71 Its a good opportunity to socialise with
  the child
• 62 Its a good opportunity to monitor game
  content
• (ESA 2006 survey)
• In the US, 32 of heads of households report they
  play games on wireless devices such as a cell
  phone or PDA.
• Again in the US, 58 online game players are
  male, 42 of female.

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More who Neilsen entertainment survey

• According to a Nielsen entertainment survey, men
  spend more on computer games than they do on
  music.
• It also found that games are starting to attract
  significant numbers of players beyond the core
  target market of males aged eight to 34. Almost
  a quarter of gamers, 24, are over 40 years, said
  the report. It found that 40 of US homes own a
  PC, game console or handheld gaming device.
• Almost a quarter of these, 23, own all three
  types of gaming gadget and the vast majority of
  gamers, 89, do their playing via a console.
• From http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4423365
  .stm

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Digital games and game players

• Where
• At home.
• Friends / relatives homes.
• School / college / university.
• Travel to school.
• Travel to work.
• At work.
• When roaming.
• (in the library?).

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Digital games and game players

• When
• Whenever a person wants to.
• (Online mobile games) whenever you are in range
  of a wifi hotspot so you can play against other
  people.
• Mobile, persistent and online gaming means a
  player can drop in or out of a game to suit their
  needs.
• Small portable devices with lit screens and
  increasingly long battery lives mean there are
  few situations where gaming is not possible
  (scuba diving?).

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Wario Ware and Nintendogs

• Wario Ware
• 200 mini games in one game
• Each mini game lasts 5 seconds
• Use the stylus on the screen, or blow into the
  mic
• In the 5 seconds, you must
• Figure out what to do
• Do it
• Nintendogs
• You own a dog
• Teach it through voice commands
• Take it for walks, play with it, feed it

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My cousin is off to University

• Heres his electrical items list
• Xbox 360 lt- games
• Television (to play Xbox on)
• Watch lt- games
• Digital Camera
• Ipod
• PSP lt- games
• Laptop computer lt- games
• Hoover / vacuum cleaner
• Mobile phone lt- games
• Blackberry lt- games (soon)
• (btw whatever happened to convergence?)

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Digital games and game players

• How
• Handheld games console e.g. DS, PSP
• Games console operated through TV
• PC
• Video game arcades
• Mobile phones
• PDAs
• Front headseat on a plane
• Keyring device e.g. digital pet keeper
• any other devices with a chip inside e.g.
  Internet-connected fridge

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Sony PSP
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PS2 / Xbox 360 / GameCube
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How many sold?

• PS2 106 million by November 2005
• Xbox 24 million
• GameCube 21 million
• Xbox 360 5.05 million
• GameBoy 70 million
• GBA 75 million
• PSP 20 million
• DS 22 million
• 718 video games have sold over 1 million copies
  each
• Super Mario Bros (NES) 41 million copies sold

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Digital games and game players

• Why
• A lot of research into this, especially learning
  psychology. Two (related) oft-said questions
• 1. Why does someone voluntarily do the same
  repetitive task in a game over and over?
• 2. How can this enthusiasm / keenness /
  determination / focus be transferred to learning
  situations?

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and heres why (question 1)

• Because games are difficult.
• In addition to completing the game, there is the
  challenge of figuring out what to do and how to
  do it i.e. mastering the game.
• They present a challenge (like crosswords,
  sudoko).
• They appeal to the curiosity of people.
• Often a game presents instant feedback to the
  player on his or her actions.
• The learning curve of a good digital game is
• not too easy (will get bored)
• not too hard (will get frustrated)
• something that opens up new parts of the game
  (and provide other rewards) in return for
  in-game skill development.
• encouraging a sense of just one more go in the
  player.

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Learning

• using digital games

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Interest

• JISC Strategy 2004-2006
• In the home, set-top boxes together with digital
  television and games consoles are increasing the
  proportion of the population with access to
  online interactive services and may offer new
  opportunities for learning to reach more people.

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Resistance to widespread use

• Violence players become psychopaths
• Addiction how much play is too much
• Accuracy of content
• Relevance to the curriculum
• The difficulty in identifying those games which
  are suitable (explicitly fit in with the
  curriculum)

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(More) resistance to widespread use

• If learning is fun then it cannot be learning.
  Learning wasnt fun in my day.
• Effects on the younger generation e.g. (from
  earlier in Ticer event)
• Young people will lose the ability to hold
  paper

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Digital games in learning how?

• Games are widely used as educational tools, not
  just for pilots, soldiers and surgeons, but also
  in schools and businesses. Games require players
  to construct hypotheses, solve problems, develop
  strategies, learn the rules of the in-game world
  through trial and error.
• Gamers must also be able to juggle several
  different tasks, evaluate risks and make quick
  decisions. Playing games is, thus, an ideal form
  of preparation for the workplace of the 21st
  century, as some forward-thinking firms are
  already starting to realise.
• The Economist, August 4, 2005

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The body of research

• Huge amount of research into the use of digital
  games in learning, teaching and education.
• Older research primarily in the psychology and
  sociology fields more recent (1998) in
  education fields.
• Problems
• Unfortunately rather less research is based in
  actual learning situations.
• Violent video games get all the media
  headlines, making implementation much more
  difficult.
• Very complex issues at the learning and skill
  enhancement levels.
• Measuring their effectiveness (i.e. do they
  work?).

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Digital games in learning where

• Major part of the UK sector. Software market for
  schools 130,000,000 pounds per year (core
  market).
• Large numbers of digital games developed with
  curriculum relevance in mind
• Audited against national curriculum
• Tested by teachers and educators
• Mainly in primary schools (age 4 to 12) but
  increasingly in secondary
• Smaller number of schools (less than 500) use
  COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) games such as Zoo
  Tycoon for cross-curricular learning.

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Digital games in education

• Examples of use
• Historical simulations
• Planning and architecture
• Problem solving (instant response)
• Economics and financial management
• Literacy (major success with Myst)
• Physics (gravity, vectors, acceleration)
• Chemistry
• Cultural studies and religion
• Cross-curricula games very popular

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Zoo Tycoon

• Build a zoo and populate it with animals
• Stay on budget
• Pay for feed, staff, animals, vets bills
• Used in schools for
• Maths
• Economics and finance
• Biome
• Ethics (should animals be caged?)
• Planning and design

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Digital games in health

• Examples of use
• Pain relief and distraction
• Rehabilitation
• Surgery skill increase
• Diabetes awareness
• Easing carpal tunnel syndrome
• Mental health and sharpness (Brain Train!)
• Acting out domestic and social situations
• Social and communication development
• www.gamesforhealth.org

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Digital games in getting fit!

• Dance Dance Revolution and similar installed in
  many schools and colleges in the US e.g. every
  school in West Virginia. Results are very clear,
  but only work best in school environment with
  e.g. healthy food.
• In UK, school resistance to games has meant lone
  teachers have done their own thing.
• Martyn Thompson, head of P.E. at Groby Community
  College (14 to 19 year olds), Leicestershire, UK
  (pictures authorised by same). Lunchtime and
  after-school optional classes.

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Two models of teaching

• Typical assumption is that every student would
  use an individual copy of the game, working in
  isolation.
• No! Most effective models of teaching require
  great social interaction.
• Both models require
• communication-based participation by all
  participants.
• the teacher and game being the axis on which the
  lesson runs.

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1. Teacher as guide

• The teacher has control of the game, and leads
  the class through appropriate scenarios. The
  class have to tackle the appropriate scenario
  before moving on.
• Game control is passed around, or the teacher
  retains it for the duration of the exercise.
  Usually uses one computer and a projector.

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2. Teacher as referee

• The class is split into different teams. The
  teams collaborate internally, and use the game to
  compete against each other e.g. which team can
  develop the most economically stable city using
  an urban planning simulator.
• The teacher sets the task, answers queries,
  helps the teams to an appropriate extent,
  adjudicates, and leads the class debriefing.

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Impact

• 12 areas where libraries
• and digital games collide

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1. Preservation

• Here at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France we
  deal with legal deposits of video games. Since
  1992, video games are part of patrimonial
  collections. Every video game distributed in
  France must send in two copies to the French
  national library.
• Our missions are based on exhaustively collecting
  these kinds of documents as we do with others,
  cataloguing, and preserving in order to ensure
  long term access for researchers. We work closely
  to the game community to defend the game as a
  document and an object for scientific research.
• Relatively problematic needs a lot of resources.

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2. Keep kids quiet in public libraries

• I don't know if this counts, but at my library
  we're just starting to have video games in our
  After-School Zone.  Kids and teens can go in from
  315 until 500 every day and get a small snack,
  study or play games.  We get a lot of latchkey
  kids, and we figured that if we entertain them,
  they're less likely to get into trouble, and
  they'll be less likely to clump up on the public
  computers.  Originally we'd wanted to buy a set
  of laptops for the After-School Zone, but we
  couldn't work out the computer issues.  The video
  games were a second-best solution.
•     
•    Allison Angell, Head Youth Services Librarian
•    Benicia (California) Public Library 

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3. Get people into the (public) library

• Check out our newest public library branch in
  South Carolina called the Carvers Bay Branch
  Library. We opened the library two weeks ago with
  10 Xbox 360s and 8 gaming PCs, and we plan to use
  them to persuade young people to register for
  library cards and to read the games will serve
  as the hook for more library usage.
• The library is located right in front of a high
  school and middle school campus in the poorest,
  rural area of our county where illiteracy is
  currently 30 and library card registration is
  only 2.
• Dwight McInvaill
• Director, Georgetown County Library

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4. Circulating games

• A small but growing number of public libraries
  loan out games. Issues include
• budget
• age ratings
• formats
• identifying the best games to stock
• John Scalzo, librarian, ran a game loan scheme
  for a year at the end of the first year,
  having games in a library has been a complete
  success. They are popular with adults, children
  and teens and I've only heard the faintest of
  grumblings (mostly from older patrons)
  questioning why a library would carry, scoff,
  games. They are an accepted part of the
  collection now and it's hard to ask for anything
  more than that.

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5. Circulating support materials

• When people play digital games, they use a wide
  variety of materials. This is a little-researched
  area i.e. the effects on literacy through games
  support.
• Materials include
• magazines and newspapers (print, online)
• walk-throughs (print, online)
• cheats e.g. codes you type in (print, online)
• maps (print, online)
• interactive guides (online)
• game forums (online)
• blogs and websites (online)
• tips from friends (online, social)
• team-based playing/support (online, social)

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6. (Ab)using the library network

• Problem in UK universities. Halls of residence
  networks where students have a network point in
  each room becoming choked with Xbox Live traffic.
• Wireless hotspots around campus could be taken up
  by Internet-based mobile or online gaming
  (Laptop, PSP, DS).
• Playing a digital game has a different timeframe
  to searching a library catalogue
• library catalogue search 20 seconds to 2 minutes
• flash, shockwave, Java game typically a few
  minutes
• PSP/DS game 10 minutes to an hour
• PC game e.g. simulation 20 minutes to a few
  hours
• Online RPG game e.g. World of Warcraft 6 hours
  common

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Wireless hotspot in your library

• Visitors to the British Library will be able to
  get wireless internet access alongside the
  extensive information available in its famous
  reading rooms.
• A study revealed that 86 of visitors to the
  Library carried laptops.
• The technology has been on trial since May (2004)
  and usage levels make the Library London's most
  active public hotspot.
• BBC News website, November 18th 2004

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7a. Input/output devices

• Old style of data entry keyboard and mouse
• then joystick
• then eyetoy
• then
• floor pads (dancing games)
• feedback devices embedded in controllers
• fishing rods (containing motion sensors)
• touch-sensitive screens (DS portable console)
• voice / speech recognition
• (Coming soon) the Wii Nunchuck
• Moving rapidly towards a no wire gaming
  environment.

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Brain Train (Nintendo DS)
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7b. Keyboard/mouse vs motion

• Unlikely that the keyboard will be overthrown as
  the main method for data entry.
• Speech recognition input, to date, has been a
  disappointing development.
• Information systems still organised around
  database structure, though offering a much richer
  way of finding connections between items.
• Simple voice recognition and touch screen
  technology could enable more effective searching
  through these richer environments, especially
  through mobile devices.

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8. Mobile library catalogue access?

• The positive side of using the library LAN..
• Relieves use of library computers.
• Cuts down time in trying to locate book / journal
  / periodical.
• GPS features guide you to the shelf and item
  (would this save much time?).
• Both PSP and DS are development platforms.
• PSP is easy to (unofficially) develop on
• RSS feeds done!
• Telnet done!
• IRC (Internet Relay Chat) done!
• PSIX (alternative OS) done!
• PSP-HTTPD (web server on a PSP) done!!

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9. Library researcher the game

• Several variations on the following been done as
  small, in-house projects
• navigational, adventure/discovery game
• knowledge quest find and assemble knowledge from
  library resources
• acquire practice and skill of library researcher
• resident librarians as game masters/mentors
• open source game engine, content development,
  and community participation
• No large-scale version of this yet.
• (as described by Walt Scacchi, UCgamelab)

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10. Digital Library support for learning game

• CERLIM providing the digital library
• infrastructure for the game data.

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Online Gaming

• Where things get very interesting

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Whos playing what?
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World of Warcraft

• World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer
  online role-playing game (MMORPG). You explore,
  and team up with people to complete quests,
  elavating your status.
• June 2006
• 6.6 million subscribers worldwide (Netherlands
  16.3 million residents, the Randstad 7 million
  residents)
• 2 million in the USA, 1 million in Europe
• Most of the rest in China
• At any given time over 500,000 subscribers are
  online. (Rotterdam 588,000 residents)

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Levels 1 to 60 getting social

• While some early parts of World of Warcraft can
  be experienced alone without the help of other
  players, it is fundamentally a group-centric
  game.
• Some of the game's low-level, less rewarding
  dungeons can be completed with small groups of up
  to five members, called "parties."
• The most challenging (and rewarding) encounters,
  however, require the cooperation of many players,
  with the maximum totalling 40 players, which are
  referred to as "raids".

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Beyond Level 60 getting very social

• The game fundamentally changes upon reaching
  level 60, its raid-dependent (and time-consuming)
  nature a vast departure from the relatively
  casual experience of advancing one's character
  from levels 1 to 60.
• The majority of World of Warcraft's endgame
  content (for level 60 players) requires raiding,
  with 40-player raids making up the bulk of the
  game's development since release.
• The game's most complex dungeons and encounters
  are designed to take raiding guilds months of
  playtime and many attempts before they succeed.

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11. Comparethree interfaces
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What the heck is going on?

• A 2D or 3D visual representation of the game
  environment, buildings, your avatar, the other
  players' avatars, items such as weapons and
  computer-controlled characters.
• A text-based or other chat system through which
  you can communicate with players whose avatars
  are near yours.
• An inventory of items you are carrying.
• A map showing key geographic features, other
  avatars and other characters near your own.
• Avatar/character status information, such as
  strengths, injuries, spells and weapons.
• Much of this is changing in real-time. Need to
  constantly monitor it all while figuring out the
  game and while playing the game.

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12. Chat / communication systems

• Language issue e.g. English, Dutch, French.
• Txt spk, other shortened forms.
• Symbols (proprietary versions of emoticons) often
  used.
• People entering, leaving a conversation (raids
  of up to 40 people).
• Player monitors dialogue area while
• monitoring other players
• entering own chat
• moving around the area
• manipulating other objects

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WoW encourages curiosity

• World of Warcraft game player "I wonder what's
  over that horizon / in that building over there?"
  
• WorldCat user "I wonder in which other libraries
  this particular book is held?"
• Amazon customer "I wonder what other books are
  read by people who own my favourite book?"

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Whats happening cognitively?

• Socially materially distributed cognition.
• Collaborative problem solving, multiple problem
  spaces.
• Coordination of people, (virtual) tools,
  artifacts, text.
• Constellation of literacy practices across
  multimedia, multimodal attentional spaces
  (Lemke).
• Empirical model building (exploits, mods).
• Negotiation of meaning values within community.
• Authoring of identities within beyond the
  community.
• The Gaming Generation Libraries
  Intersections by Constance A. Steinkuehler.

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Information searching within the game

• Textual clues rare inside the game
• Clues are often abstract or symbolic
• Often a time-critical element for finding
  information (must work out how to do X before Y
  happens)
• Clues are often recursive Do A to find B to give
  to C who will give you D etc
• Gamer can thus mentally keep track of
• several things that need to be done
• status of current objectives
• people
• places
• information
• items

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Second Life the librarians online game of choice

• Own currency system (Lindendollar) pegged to real
  world currencies
• Libraries being built by
• groups of people
• IBM and others buying islands
• and running training courses
• for their staff
• 400,000 users, and 3,100 businesses set up within
  real estate
• The BBC hold concerts within Second Life

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Under construction

• Several libraries built / under construction
• There is also Info Island, home to the Second
  Life Library 2.0, a collaboration between the
  Alliance Library System and Online Programming
  for All Libraries (OPAL).
• "More and more educators see Second Life as a
  way to engage students," says ALS director of
  innovation Lori Bell. "We wanted to see what role
  a library could play."

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More

• A group of about 35 librarians have volunteered
  their time to build structures and stock the
  collection, which includes searchable indexes,
  audio and video clips, and books, many of which
  are public domain and available to own.
• The library also offers live help at certain
  hours of the day, for the typical real-life
  reference questions that inevitably come up, and
  it will hold live events like authors' chats and
  tours.

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More

• The library is also exploring ways to offer
  learning experiences that simply would not be
  possible in real life. It is working with the
  Library of Congress to build a Declaration of
  Independence room, where a larger-than-life-size
  copy of the document will be on display along
  with additional readings, audio ?les, and period
  furniture.
• There's also a library in the works on Caledon,
  the exclusively 19th-century island where avatars
  wear period dress.

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• Librarians congregate in OPAL and in SL to listen
  to Michael Stephen's presentation on blogging for
  the Alliance Library System, thursday June 15
  2006. 

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10 attributes of a gameplayer

• Expects instant, relevant results.
• Able to multi-task (e-juggling).
• Interrogates a wide array of information source
  and media (see circulating support
  material)
• consequently, is beyond Google in terms of
  information retrieval tools.
• Is usually a net-user many game players often
  blog.

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10 attributes of a gameplayer

• Can find information/knowledge that is not in
  obvious places.
• Comfortable with complex online systems does
  not differentiate between online and offline.
• Comfortable with peripherals and unconventional
  data entry hardware.
• Comfortable with online talk/chat systems.
• No problem with spending colossal amounts of
  time online so long as it is rewarding.

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Interface points to ponder

• Not everyone is a game player. A senior citizen
  may just want to Google and go.
• Google Does what it says on the tin. 1 search
  box thats all that is required.
• Large amounts of research, development and
  funding have been put into making digital game
  interfaces as rewarding as possible.
• Interfaces differ tremendously between digital
  games compare World of Warcraft to Minesweeper.

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One piece of advice for all librarians

• Play more games

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Summary and pointers

• Digital games used occasionally, but not much, in
  learning
• Many people play them
• Across many demographics
• Mainstream form of entertainment
• Instant response to trial and error (implications
  for teaching and learning)
• Cognitive and neural changes and development
• Encourages online exploration
• Did I say Play more games?

• Preservation
• Keep kids quiet in the library
• Get people into the library
• Circulating games
• Circulating support materials
• (Ab)using the library network
• Input/output devices
• Mobile library catalogue access
• Library researcher the game
• Interface design
• Accelerated online multi- tasking
• Huge real-time social networking