Game Lab Announcement

We just announced Tuesday at our Technology Summit that we will be developing a “Game Lab” here at PLCMC. The “Game Lab” will open in Virtual Village at Main Library this summer. We will be making a more formal announcement and splash this summer. The lab will be a first for public libraries. Initially, it will work with the University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Youth Digital Arts CyberSchool (www.ydacs.com); and Capcom Entertainment, Inc (www.capcom.com). We will also be partners in Syracuse University’s Library Game Lab (http://gamelab.syr.edu) with the American Library Association, along with individuals at the University of Illinois and OCLC.

The Game Lab will work with library customers, the community in general, universities, organizations and corporations to develop programs and services that increase digital literacy through games and interactive media. The lab will educate the public about the benefits of gaming and interactive media usage and creation.

For more information contact Matt Gullett, Emerging Technology Manager: mgullett@plcmc.org.

Also, if you plan on attending ALA Annual in DC plan to go to the PLA Technology session on Wiking the Blog, Walking the Dog: Social Software and Authority Everywhere, and I intend to discuss and tease out more about the lab then.

 

 

 

Computers in Libraries 2007

Howdy,

I’m back, and tomorrow I’m off to do a couple talks at the Computers in Libraries Conference.

Building Libraries in Virtual Worlds
Lori Bell, Director, Innovation, Alliance Library System
Matt Gullett, Emerging Technology Manager, &
Kelly Czarnecki, Teen Librarian, Imaginon, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Library
Tom Peters, CEO, TAP Information Services
Virtual worlds such as Second Life, Active Worlds, and World of Warcraft are growing at amazing and increasing rates. These presenters will talk about their experiences, challenges, and successes in creating a library presence in Second Life for adults and teens. Involvement for all types of libraries will be discussed as well as how your library can get involved in these projects or start your own. A growing number of users are on the Internet in the virtual worlds. Libraries need to be there, too.

Tech Freebies & Program Ideas
Janie Hermann, Technology Training Librarian &
Robert Keith, Tech Aide, Princeton Public Library (PPL)
Matt Gullett, Emerging Technology Manager &
Robin Bryan, Technology Education Manager, ImaginOn, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County
Discover how you can take one innovative program and turn it in to the cornerstone for a broader range of technology training for both the public and your library staff. Hermann and Keith, PPL’s technology teaching team, talk about the Fantastic Freebies program they used to jumpstart their 2.0 Technologies Training initiative. This program, in which staff and patrons are trained together, is expanding monthly with great success. They illustrate with a quick tour some of the hottest freebies and examine a few of the newest and most useful tools to keep you on the cutting edge of technology. Gullett and Bryan discuss new ideas and perspectives for any sized library and budget to place in your teens’ and tweens’ programming portfolio. They provide lots of resources, including ideas, sites, program plans, software, and hardware recommendations on technology oriented programs to offer in your own environment.

We will also be demonstrating the new portable animation station that John Lemmon built for ImaginOn and PLCMC. Here is the Handout for the program.

Teen Second Life: Meet the New You …

The Eye4You Alliance in Teen Second Life published an article in January, Meet the New You: In Teen Second Life, librarians can leap tall buildings in a single bound and save kids from boring assignments—all before lunch, in School Library Journal on Second Life and their project to build cultural and library services in a virtual world.

The Eye4You Alliance is a partnership between the Alliance Library System & the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County with many other partnering organizations coming on board.

YouthLearn’s 100 Big Things …

YouthLearn’s 100 Big Things in Youth, Technology & Education

If you are working with youth in any capacity that touches upon either technology & education you need to read through this list (http://www.youthlearn.org/resources/newsletter/issue100.html),
print it out and use it in planning your activities for the next year or so. Following are a few things that I pulled out of the list that looked interesting.

4. Text Messaging & IM
20. Wikipedia
21. YouTube
23. MySpace.com
32. Gaming & Education
33. Global Kids Online Game Project
34. Girls Creating Games
35. Second Life
39. Youth Civic Engagement & Technology
56. MediaRights.org
78. NAMAC’s Youth Resources
94. Youth & Media

Check out the newsletter list for descriptions and links to further resources.
http://www.youthlearn.org/resources/newsletter/issue100.html

Sally Ride Science and TOYchallenge

I ran across this the other day and wanted to pass it along. Founded in 2001 Sally Ride Science’s mission is to empower girls to explore the world of science. They have recently announced the TOYchallenge. It is a toy design challenge for imaginative boys and girsl that are 5-8th graders to create a new toy or game. They go on to state that “(t)Toys are a great way to learn about science, engineering, and the design process! As girls and boys create a toy or game, they experience engineering as a fun, creative, collaborative process, relevant to everyday life.”

For more information: http://www.toychallenge.com/abouttc.shtml

Teen Second Life

The Alliance Library System (ALS) and the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) have announce a partnership to offer a culutural and informational service on an island in Teen Second Life. The Eye4You Alliance Island’s leadership comes from, Lori Bell (Director of Innovation at ALS), Kelly Czarnecki (Teen Librarian at ImaginOn of PLCMC) and Matt Gullett (Technology Education Librarian at ImaginOn of PLCMC). They are just at the beggining stages of developing this innovative service and welcome interested partners to submit a statement of interest to either Kelly Czarnecki (kczarnecki@plcmc.org) or Matt Gullett (mgullett@plcmc.org).

See a full press release here: Eye4UAlliance.

Pew Study and Virtual Worlds

Check out the recent post by Kelly Czarnecki on YALSA’s blog about the recently released Pew Internet Study. She brings up some good questions and possible issues about virtual worlds and video/computer games. Are/can virtual worlds and video/computer games addictive? What role within libraries can we maintain within such a conversation and concern?

Podcast on DOPA and Second Life

Recently, I participated in a podcast with the Library 2.0 Gang on Talking with Talis (http://talk.talis.com/) about DOPA and the Second Life Library project (http://www.infoisland.org/). It is an interesting mix of topics because both are about social computing/networking where one represents, dare I say it, the future and the other represents the reactionary side effects of moving into that future.

 

DOPA for those who aren’t intimately acquianted with U.S. politics is the Deleting Online Predators Act. If you want to know more about DOPA go to the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), for they have done a wonderful job in collecting information, explaining the act and laying out the possible effects on library service here at: http://teentechweek.wikispaces.com/DOPA. Hopefully, the discussion will further assist in informing those who don’t understand or know about the possibilities of DOPA upon public library service to teens in this country.

 

The whole Second Life Library project has such enourmous potential to do some interesting work with virtual worlds, services and programs. Lori Bell, the Director of Innovation, at the Alliance Library System (http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/) and her team of energetic and visionary volunteers have done some exciting things on Info Island. If you haven’t checked it out, you need to set up your Second Life account now (http://www.secondlife.com/). Your first account setup is free, so what are you waiting for.

 

Anyway, the podcast conversation was a good bit of fun with plenty of lively and informative comments and bantering. Again, check it out at: Talking with Talis.