And now for something completely different.

Its amazing what a hashtag can do. I tweeted about my last blog post on the games for libraries workshop using #libraryplay and I immediately get 3 times more views than we normally do. I'll have to some more promoting of our blog on Twitter.

As part of our activities for Mythical Maze, the Summer Reading Challenge 2014 I am going to running a couple of family boardgame afternoons with our Children's Librarian. Recently I have been investigating the possible uses for games in libraries including listening to the "Games in Libraries and Schools Podcast", reading Scott Nicholson's Everyone plays at the Library" and the International Games Day Blog.

I'm not going to discuss the benefits of gaming in this post, more look at the reasons we are looking to run something slightly different to Worlds Away, with a different target audience and organisation. One of the particular area that is mentioned within Scott Nicholson's book is the advantage of providing a gaming experience over simply providing games. Bournemouth Libraries already provide examples of both methods of provision. We provide games and play items to lend through our toy libraries at Kinson, West Howe and Winton Libraries and some of our libraries also have jigsaw puzzle swap schemes. We also provide a gaming/play experience via Stay, Play and Takeaway sessions at our Toy Libraries, a jigsaw group at Charminster, a junior Boggle/Scrabble club at Kinson, a Scrabble club at West Howe and our club at Bournemouth Library. When providing games rather than gaming experiences customers will often, quite understandably, be conservative in their approach. They will pick games that they are familiar with and avoid games that look complicated. By providing a gaming experience we can direct customers to games that we think are suitable, exciting or educational.

The gaming club is a gaming experience but the games are not not chosen by library staff, the primary goals of the club (as far as the library service is concerned) are to provide a welcoming social space that attracts people who would not necessarily utilise the library. Essentially to provide a club that has a social value with increased footfall, borrowing and any educational benefits as an added bonus. During these family games afternoon staff (primarily me) will be selecting the games available such that they fit in with the themes of the Summer Reading Challenge and with specific learning goals e.g. Once Upon a Time for storytelling skills, The aMAZEing Labyrinth for spatial manipulation/non-verbal reasoning. The aim with these activities is to be fun and educational. To highlight the library as the prime place for informal education, a place to learn things and a place to have fun, which is not what always come to mind for many people.

We are also aiming for a distinctly different age group. The gaming club is aimed at adults and older teenagers, whereas these board game afternoons are aimed at children from age 5 and their parents. We shall see how successful these are and then look at the potential for widening our provision of gaming experiences.

Games for Libraries Workshop

Just over a fortnight ago I attended a workshop in London about designing games for teaching information literacy. Information literacy is defined by CILIP (The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) as "knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner".


A quote from Neil Gaiman on the carpet of

Gungahlin Library in Canberra

© Australian Capital Territory

Information literacy is one of the key skills for those of us who work in libraries; we don't need to know everything but we need to know how to find it. There is a great quote from Neil Gaiman "Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a Librarian can bring you back the right one", which certainly contains more than a grain of truth.

Games and play are used extensively in education for a number of reasons. In early years education, play is central to much of the learning process; with open ended play being particularly important in procducing creative and imaginative learning for the under 5s^(1,2,3). More structured games are also used to teach a wide range of topics either through specfic educational games or indirectly via more mass market products^(4,5,6).

The aim of the workshop I attended was to design and prototype a game with the purpose of teaching a specific area of information literacy. The workshop started with each table playing short games (e.g. Bananagrams, Pass the Pigs, Zombie Dice, Flowerfall). These were used as ice breakers but we then went back to these games to analyses the game mechanics that were involved in the games at a later point in the session.

After a short presentation on some educational game design theory each table was given the task of coming up with a educational goal and some practical constraints for the design of their game. Our group decided to base our game on the CRAP checklist for resource evaluation (CRAP stands for currency, reliability, authority and purpose). We settled on writing a game based on evaluating resources displayed on cards against categories on the checklist decided by a dice or spinner. The winner of the game would be the first individual or team to collect the word CRAP with their cards.

There is a video explaining the CRAP game at the Games for Libraries blog along members of the teams explaining their prototypes. I am planning on making a version of the Dewey or Die! game for use in family boardgame afternoons we are planning for this summer's Summer Reading Challenge. I also have some improvements to our CRAP game (which I am renaming Cut the Crap).

1. Understanding young children's learning through play: building playful pedagogies by Pat Broadhead and Andy Burt
2. A child's work: the importance of fantasy play by Vivian Paley
3. Child care and development by Pamela Minett
4. Games in schools and libraries podcast by Giles Pritchard and Donald Dennis
5. Everyone plays at the library by Scott Nicholson
6. Using games to enhance learning and teaching: A beginners guide edited by Nicola Whitton and Alex Moseley

Stak Bots: Review

Our latest guest blogger is Taz, who has written us a review of the card game Stak Bots

Darren

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Stak Bots:

If you're stuck in Sheffield near Castlegate, I'd recommend popping into Patriot Games, a nice gaming shop that's often open in the evenings. I recently did just that, and couldn't resist buying something. I'll admit there weren't any specifics with that intention. I stumbled upon Stak Bots, a little deck of battling robots. The week before last the deck saw its first glimpse of conflict at Worlds Away.

Initial perusal left me distinctly unimpressed with how skill or fun could enter into the game, but I was pleasantly surprised when the bots were wielded. Stak Bots consists of 60 Bot cards, some that are dealt out so all the players have a "stak" face down, a small hand and the rest in a draw deck. The top card on the stak always has to be turned face up and shows a cute little robot, a strength, and any special conditions or entry effects. There are a selection of robots, with different strengths, abilities and graphics.

The first key point is the simplicity. One bot fights another bot, the one with the highest number wins, the other is consigned to the scrap heap. If the discarded robot leaves a face down card on the top of the stack, then it's flipped over, and any entry effects takes place. This is where it can get complex, although not difficult. One entry effect may effect another stak, causing another entry effect, which may cause another, and another, each having to be resolved before play continues with whoever started the chain of events for the rest of their turn.

A turn is very flexible, and can include scrapping your own bots, laying bots from your hand, or attacking. The only limitation is that only one specific bot can attack each round, although it can attack multiple times. Damage does accumulate, but only during that persons turn, meaning combos are useful, but keeping track of health isn't an issue.

The game is built for flexibility which is great for a club like Worlds Away where people can pick it up and adapt it to the crowd. We had a group of 6 and managed to get several interesting games with all sorts of combos and effects happening, with winners and losers changing place too often to keep track. It's also great for quick games, so with an hour left, there's still plenty of gameplay to be had and minimal setup unlike many of the standard games.

All in all it's a great quick, flexible game that anyone can join in with, and as it's just a pack of cards can easily be brought along without prior planning. It has one of the best fun to size ratios!

Hopefully this will make many more appearances in the coming weeks.

Taz