Library Journal – Meet the Gamers

Why pay attention to games? For starters, games are the “medium of choice” for many Millennials, with broad participation among the 30 and under population. Although part of a web of new media, technology, and social shifts, games are the quintessential site for examining these changes. Game cultures feature participation in a collective intelligence, blur the distinction between the production and consumption of information, emphasize expertise rather than status, and promote international and cross-cultural media and communities. Most of these characteristics are foreign, or run counter to print-era institutions such as libraries. At the same time, game cultures promote various types of information literacy, develop information seeking habits and production practices (like writing), and require good, old-fashioned research skills, albeit using a wide spectrum of content. In short, librarians can’t afford to ignore gamers.

It’s interesting that the one method of relating to gamers not mentioned is actually playing. It doesn’t require that you devote your life to gaming, just a few hours of going through the motions and observing the interaction of the other players can teach you a lot about the group. And of course a librarian who can speak knowledgably about their favorite subject is someone gamers can more easily relate to and trust.

A few years ago I set up a webpage on the library site for the nursing department. I contacted them for ideas of things they might want to see on it and was overwhelmed by the response I got. The overall reaction seemed to be “Somebody cares!” They were very interested in what I could do for them and were thrilled to tell me in detail what they needed.

If libraries get invilved with gamers and ask what they need, we might get more ideas than we can handle.