College librarians urged to think like gamers, play more games

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jun 25th 2007 at 9:53PM }

During the annual meeting of the American Library Association, a packed room of crusty academic librarians received some new-fashioned advice: Play more video games. Speakers urged fellow bookworms to bridge the divide between today's students ('digital natives') and themselves ('digital immigrants') by playing games, developing organizational systems that don't require training to use ("We should never read before we play"), and hosting after-hours LAN parties. Solutions remained conceptual, and attendees were encouraged to return to the murky depths of their university stacks and start experimenting.

This just in... three undergraduate students are thought to be missing after entering a mysterious green pipe; installed in the east wing of Yale University Library early Monday morning. A handwritten note taped to the pipe reads: To Level 8-1. Elsewhere, a University of Texas sophomore claims to have encountered a spike-shelled, fire-spewing creature guarding the school's Rare Book archive, though she later admitted to ingesting a large mushroom found stashed behind some Mycology texts. When asked why she ate the mushroom, the young woman said she was told it would help her reach the books on the top shelf. A campus official noted that librarians had recently removed all stepladders from the premises.

[Via /.]

Tags: college, education, librarian, library

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Smoke_Dawg_187 @ Jun 25th 2007 10:24PM

That old woman looks so sweet. That is a great picture. 100% pure Americana. = )

Rare Hare @ Jun 25th 2007 10:41PM

i have this urge to just grab a big handful of her side roll.

Matt B @ Jun 25th 2007 11:27PM

So they went out and bought a bunch of DSs' and Brain age and found out that they were old. They could have saved a couple hundred and asked a student.
The widening gap is the fact that librarians get older while the students stay the same age.
Maybe they'll get a wii. The brag to a student that they were up all night playing with their wii and was sore that day. the teach will be fired on account of miscommunication and has to go on welfare.

Rare Hare @ Jun 26th 2007 12:43AM

"Maybe they'll get a wii. The brag to a student that they were up all night playing with their wii and was sore that day. the teach will be fired on account of miscommunication and has to go on welfare."

Are we seriously still making those jokes? :/

Kim @ Jun 26th 2007 6:46AM

I'm a librarian and I currently play three consoles, own a bunch more, and am 22, not a scary blue haired old lady.

.. But I also realise that the other 10 people I work with at my library wouldn't know what to do with a controller if they were given one.