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Play Again? How to Launch, Market, and Support a Gaming Room in an Academic Library
Presenters: Kelli Herm hermk@lcc.edu Chuck Page pageiic@lcc.edu, Scott Skowronek skow1@lcc.edu
photo taken from our Leap Day Lunacy Event, 2-29-12

Lansing Community College is the third largest community college in the state, with a student population at just over 20,000. Because our students are all commuters they value the library space as a location to study, eat a snack, or just to rest and relax during a long day. Our librarys gaming room opened 2 years ago in Dec 2010 to provide students with an outlet to technology, active learning, and relaxation during their study breaks and between classes. We have also hosted 3 gaming events, in order to boost library communication, and to create a sense of community among students, staff, and faculty at LCC. Our gaming room and gaming events serve our librarys mission to engage students in learning, link people to resources, and give exceptional service to all. Total set up cost for the gaming room was less than $1500. Our 66x 12 room contains a Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3, and Sony Bravia tv. Students check out games and controllers at our Multimedia desk and are allowed 1 hour of room use for up to 4 players. They receive 1 noise warning, but noise is not usually an issue. We market our gaming room and events via The Lookout campus newspaper, physical display case, posters and signs, LCC radio, library instruction/tours, our library website, blog, and Facebook page, and most importantly- word of mouth. Though we spent more $ overall during our summer gaming event, we have averaged $85 for prizes for our other two gaming events, and little to no cost for refreshments. We hope to continue increasing support for our gaming room by purchasing the latest consoles, new games, and offering future gaming events. We also would like to encourage you to consider a gaming room in your own academic library! For more information, please see our presentation slides: http://lcc.edu/library/services/mla.aspx And please see reverse side for bibliography/further reading.

Thank you! Further Reading

Harris, Amy, and Scott E. Rice, eds. Gaming in Academic Libraries : Collections, Marketing, and Information Lliteracy. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2008. Print. Laskowski, Mary, and David Ward. "Building Next Generation Video Game Collections in Academic Libraries." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 35.3 May (2009): 267-73. ScienceDirect. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. Maliszewski, Diana. "Wii Have Fun and Learn: Video Game Play Can Support the Curriculum in Many Exciting Ways." School Library Journal July 2011: 16+. Academic OneFile. Web. 19 July 2012. Martin, Vance S. "Andragogy, Organization, And Implementation Concerns For Gaming As An Instructional Tool In The Community College." New Directions For Community Colleges 154 (2011): 63-71. ERIC. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. Newman, Heather. "Books Aren't the Hook." Detroit Free Press: F.3. Apr 15 2007. Detroit Free Press. Web. 5 Nov. 2012 . Nicholson, Scott. "Go Back to Start: Gathering Baseline Data about Gaming in Libraries." Library Review 58.3 (2009): 203-14. ProQuest Central. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. Pierce, Jennifer Burek. "It's Not All Fun and Games: Academic Libraries Apply Scholarship to Virtual Play." American Libraries Apr. 2009: 61. Academic OneFile. Web. 19 July 2012. Robson, Diane, and Patrick Durkee. New Directions for Academic Video Game Collections: Strategies for Acquiring, Supporting, and Managing Online Materials. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 38.2 (2012): 79-84. Science Direct. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. Schmidt, Aaron. "Are You Game? (Cover Story)." School Library Journal 52.6 (2006): 52-54. Teacher Reference Center. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. Wieder, Ben. Video-Game Rooms Become the Newest Library Space Invaders. The Chronicle of Higher Education. N.p., 24 April 2011. Web. 8 Oct. 2012.