I came out to CA two days early, to teach a full day gaming workshop for the Black Gold Library System at the Santa Barbara Public Library. I’ve just landed in Anaheim, but can’t check into my hotel yet, so I’m taking advantage of the free WiFi and A/C at the Euclid branch of the Anaheim Public Library.

Here’s some of the stuff I’m looking forward to this year. I’m really excited that there are a number of gaming events - almost enough for a whole track! There are a couple vendor-sponsored events that I’m throwing in for informational purposes only, and shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement of product.
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Games, Learning, & Libraries Symposium
Registration is still open for the Gaming, Learning & Libraries Symposium (GLLS08) in Oak Brook, IL from November 2-4, 2008. This Monday, June 15th, marks the deadline for proposals for GLLS08. Topics of particular interest include game design, the gaming industry, accessibility, and assessment and evaluation of gaming programs. The Call for Presenters on the ALA TechSource wiki has details, or you can complete a form on Zoho Creator. Presenters will be notified by August 1, 2008. Details are online at: http://gaming.techsource.ala.org/index.php.

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Many libraries have offered game tournaments for years. In the “June 2008 School Library Journal, a media specialist asks: “Since these games are intended for home use, isn’t that similar to purchasing a movie and showing it to a large audience?”

Carrie Russell, the ALA copyright specialist, suggests:

Librarians can: (1) continue to offer video-game competitions and let the chips fall where they may; (2) contact the rights holders and ask if their licenses can be modified to accommodate your programs; or (3) email the rights holders and tell them you’re opting out of the portion of the contract that allows only home use—and unless they tell you not to, you’re planning to offer gaming tournaments. Although the last option sounds incredibly brazen, copyright experts say it happens all the time in the business world. Of course, there’s always the possibility that your library may be held liable for misusing a video game (sorry), so each of us needs to determine how much risk we’re willing to take.

Which option does/will your library take? Do other options occur to you?

A recent news article demonstrated how video games are fast becoming an international platform for musicians to showcase their work. If your library is using free software like Game Maker or the RPG Toolkit to develop games with teens, consider partnering them up with teen artists to develop the soundtrack.

Teens have access to a number of resources to help them understand where video game music comes from and what makes it successful. (more…)

Many librarians are probably familiar with designing programs that build developmental assets. We help build youth assets like leadership, helping others, and succeeding in school so that there is less of a chance that teens will make destructive choices such as vandalism and drugs.

You may even have heard of asset building in Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMORPGs) and Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) such as World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Teen Second Life and more. This article in the May Harvard Business Review, Leadership’s Online Labs, talks about how real world transference can occur as a result of game play - from being leaders in online games to being leaders in the work world. (more…)

My colleague and I were definitely excited to receive a copy of Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games *And What Parents Can Do by Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson when it arrived on the hold shelf. It’s probably not just a coincidence either that the book was released in the same month that Grand Theft Auto IV, the game was.

Ars Technica has a short review of the book here. The book has got some great information applicable to libraries, especially dialogues that can be encouraged to take place with parents and their kids as well as librarians and their patrons (the section on online games that kids might run across and how to initiate conversation about them).

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Forwarded from Jenny Levine:

Want to present at the second annual ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium taking place on November 2-4 in the Chicago area? Find out more about submitting a proposal at http://gaming.techsource.ala.org/index.php/Call_for_Presenters. The deadline is June 15, 2008.

Help us make GLLS2008 even better than last year’s event! Questions? Email Jenny Levine at jlevine@ala.org.

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This past month has witnessed a lot of news and developments in the world of digital music, whether major acquisitions, new studies on teen habits, and cool new technologies. Here’s an extensive rundown… (more…)

Well, Its been a while since myself or Kelly Czarnecki blogged for YALSA about Eye4You Alliance. Over the last few weeks, Teen Second Life Resident Bubby Boucher has been hosting short interviews with Zombie Pye the FurNation Teen Grid (TG) founder and other TG Residents. Eye4You Alliance provides the land to The Epic Report and helps with the publishing. The shows where filmed and edited by the Teen Second Life Approved Adult and Eye4You Alliance educator Majenna Jewel. We have three episodes online and are waiting to do more. The shows are around 3-5 minutes long and are available on Blip.tv and iTunes.

Show Links:

• Blip.tv - http://eye4youalliance.blip.tv
• iTunes - itpc://eye4youalliance.blip.tv/rss/itunes/

Please leave feedback and check our blog for more all the up to date news on Eye4You Alliance Island - http://eye4youalliance.info/

Posted By Storm Basiat

For many months I’ve been looking forward to the launch of YALSA’s new blogging platform and interface. Now that I can’t look forward to that anymore, I’m thinking about what’s next on my looking forward to list. Some items are:
ALA Annual Conference 2008
In Anaheim those interested in teen services can look forward to pre-conferences on serving younger teens and tweens, programs on topics like reaching teens outside the library and youth advocacy, technology poster sessions, and the President’s Program on Third Space. You can find more about what’s coming in Anaheim on the YALSA wiki.
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