Blog Update

It has been some time since we have updated the blog. We will be relaunching this in the near future.

Darren

Farewel, Farewell

As indicated by my post on the club's Facebook page I am moving into the new post of Operations Manager here at Bournemouth Library in a fortnight. I have spent the last seven years as Senior Library Assistant, over which time my work has changed drastically. During this time I have seen the move to self service machines, two major staff restructures, new staff have come and old staff gone and most relevantly for this blog we have launched the gaming club.

Gaming in libraries has seen a major renaissance in recent years, especially in terms of tabletop gaming. Of the 12 Bournemouth Libraries only one has no gaming offer* and all libraries in Poole offer gaming for either adults or children (and most offer both). International Games Day @ Your Library has an ever increasing number of participants across the world.

My new post means a whole set of new responsibilities and challenges as I will be working heavily within our specialist Music library. There are a number of exciting projects that I will be getting involved with, but one of the by products of this is that I will not have time to spend on the gaming club. It is nearly two years since the club launched and is now running successfully with only minimal staff input. As a result I will be stepping down as the main GCN contact and as the staff member with responsibility of leading the direction of the club. Lyndsey will be taking sole responsibility for the overseeing Worlds Away, which is a sensible move as she was the driving force behind setting up the club in the first place.

I'm not going to be completely leaving the Library's gaming programme though. I am taking up a position on the International Games Day @ Your Library committee advising on how to increase involvement of UK libraries within the event. I'll also be coming along to play games with you lot whenever possible.

*Using the definition of Kevin Maloney that is utilised in Scott Nicholson's Gaming in Libraries video course

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa brought all the games you were hoping for. I got a copy of the excellent card game Dixit plus expansions for Race for the Galaxy and Settlers of Catan. As usual my Christmas Day and Boxing Day were spent mostly eating too much food and playing games with the family.

During January the large meeting room is in use by external groups on quite a lot of Saturdays. The location of the gaming club during this period is as follows.

3rd January - Large Meeting Room
10th January - Second Meeting Room +  1st Floor Office
17th January - Second Meeting Room + 1st Floor Office
24th January - Second Meeting Room + 1st Floor Office
31st January - Large Meeting Room

I should be attending this coming weekend and will be working the 10th and 24th. I cannot make the 17th as I will be in Crawley trying to help my Ultimate club qualify for Indoor Nationals and will be at the Conception roleplaying convention on the 31st.

See you all in the New Year!

- Darren

Gaming Club Sessions Nov/Dec

This coming Saturday the club has access to the large meeting room so there is plenty of space for games this weekend. In December we also have the large meeting room most weeks, in fact its only the 5th Dec that we are using the second meeting room.

Why come along and try one of the many new games that are being played. (I'll try and update the list of games played soon).

We have had the interim report for the Global Gossip Game from International Games Day and I'll post details here once the final report is published.

IGD Overview

Its all over for another year! Thanks for everyone who came along to play this weekend.

Poole Chess Club had 15 children attend their weekly junior chess tuition. They run sessions every Saturday from 10-11 for beginners and 11-12 for improvers. These are open to children aged 7-11 costing £3 per week.

Worlds Away and the Wii games session had an attendance of 16. Board games played included X-Wing, Dungeons and Dragons Attack Wing, King of Tokyo and on the Wii Super Smash Bros (plus some other games I didn’t recognize). Six of those at the gaming club took also part in the Global Gossip Game, a full debrief of this by the organizers should be available later in the week.

Our Stay and Play for children and parents was very successful with 16 children and 7 parents attending over the hour and half session using games from the various Bournemouth Toy Libraries. We were asked whether this could be a regular event and will be looking into this.

Sadly we were a bit short staffed on the day and I didn't get chance to take any photos of the event.


Those of you who are regulars to the club will have noticed attendance dropping off recently from averaging just over 20 in the Spring to half that in recent weeks. Next weekend we are going to have a meeting with our volunteers to look at ways of getting some new members and increasing the numbers coming on Saturdays.

International Games Day Programme

International Games Day is finally upon us and we can reveal the line up for this Saturdays events.

10am - 12noon Junior Chess Club

Things will kick off with Poole Chess Club's junior chess session from 10-12. This will be on the 1st floor and is open to children aged 7-11, costing £3 per session. There are two sessions each week, 10-11 for beginners and 11-12 for improvers.

10am to 4pm Heritage Zone Quiz

All day we will be giving out quiz forms to find out how much you know about Bournemouth in WW1.

12noon - 4pm Worlds Away - The Bournemouth Library Gaming Club

At 12 noon Worlds Away will be offering the normal range of boardgames, cardgames, roleplaying and wargames. In addition to our normal output we will be running introductory games for wargames and roleplaying. The gaming club will be in the Large Meeting Room and will feature the online cardgame Hearthstone.

1pm - 3pm Wii Sports Tournament

From 1 we have a big screen Wii Sports Tournament for everyone in our second meeting room.

1:30pm to 2pm The Global Gossip Game

Once again we are taking part in the global gossip game. A secret message will be passed across the world via 80 libraries in 16 different countries, starting in Australia and ending in the USA 24 hours later. We will be receiving our message from The University Library Svetozar Markovic in Belgrade, Serbia and will be passing on our message to RAF Croughton Base Library near Brackley in the UK.

2pm to 3:30pm Children's Stay and Play

In the Children's library, using toys and games from the Bournemouth Toy Libraries, we have a stay and play session for our younger visitors and their families.

International Games Day

We are near to finalising our content for this years International Games Day. Earlier today I took a phone call from Phil in Australia, who is organising the Global Gossip Game, and we should have all the details with us in the next couple of days.

If all goes well we will be offering the usual mix of boardgames and wargames for our regulars as well as introductory games for new players, junior chess tuition (via Poole Chess Club), the global gossip game, a stay and play session for children and their parents, a Wii Sports tournament, the online card game Hearthstone and a selection of traditional boardgames and card games.

I'm away at Indiecon this weekend so I won't see you this Saturday, but you'll be in Lyndsey's capable hands. I hope we'll see you all at IGD