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Nov. 15 is 'National Gaming Day' at your library

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Nov 11th 2008 3:25PM

The American Library Association, in a rather surprising diversion from its usual finger-on-lip hushing, has excitedly dubbed this Saturday, November 15th, as "National Gaming Day." At your library. Participating book bastions will open their doors to gamers of all types, promoting and celebrating "the educational and social value of video and board games." None of which are likely to contain poor approximations of Gandalf, Uhura and C-3PO, we're sorry to say.

And hey, while you're there, you might just pick up a perfectly entertaining book (hint: be sure to pick one with a good cover). For more information, check out the official ALA site. Just make sure none of your macho friends see you typing in that particular URL.

Source

Tags: Books, Letters, Libraries, Novels, Paragraphs, Reading, SHHHH, Words

Reader Comments (39)

im gonna play some pokeman and get a book with a spaceship on the cover!!1

Is that a hairdryer that the girl in the green bodysuit is holding?

It seems to be one of those dryer/scythe combos that are all the rage in the future.

So you can trim your hair while you dry it!

Kind of reminds me of:

http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/photos/mega-man-boxarts/1043042/full/

But seriously, this is a pretty cool effort on the American Library Association's part.

Asian/Mexican/Aboriginal, Douche, Black, Female, Geezer and Android.

Who we missing?

A white kid?

Um...that's the douche.

You hurt mah FEELINS!

Apparently, the big thing now is all the libraries have Wii's set up in the children's areas for people to come in and play.

I haven't seen this for myself, but the way it's been described to me is: you go in and the kids that are trying to read books can't really concentrate because the other kids are jumping around and playing videogames in a public library.

What are they trying to accomplish here? The only rationale I've heard for this is, "It gets more kids into the library."

Fine. If they started offering free jello shots at the library, you'd get a much larger 18+ crowd there, but what is the public purpose being served?

I think the idea is that the ALA wants to shift the perception that the library is just a place to get books, they want it to be seen as a community space as well. Bringing people who might not otherwise visit the library gives those people a chance to see the resources available to them that they might not otherwise know about.

What do you think the kids will be doing while waiting for their 15 minutes of play time? Oh, I don't know, maybe read one of the thousands of books they are surrounded by?

"Oh, I don't know, maybe read one of the thousands of books they are surrounded by?"

That's the theory. From eyewitness reports at my urban library, that's not exactly how it worked out in practice.

I'm fine with the library being a community space, so long as the community is using that space to sit quietly and read.

It's a library, for God's sake. If you want your kids to be entertained, and they aren't entertained by books, then get the hell out of my library.

From left to right:

Justin, Ludwig and Chris...

am I right? I'm right aren't I... I knew it!

oh, and apparently Ludwig enjoys playing with the controller backwards

Look again.

Objection: THATS NOT C3PO YOU MEATBAG!

Oh, it's Bender! And that must be Fry and Leela next to him.

i was thinkin more of HK-47

Finally! If you read the official site, some of the answers to questions are actually good defenses for gaming. Are we finally getting some respect, or at the very least, recognition? Let's hope this is the beginning of a change in people's perceptions about the gaming populous.

It's great to know that every Asian male really wants to be a Black woman in the inside.

The girl in the background looks like she is holding an 360 controller backwards :-/

That was supposed to be: an xbox 360, or simply A 360, lol

I'm guessing it looks backwards because the bumpers and triggers are missing.

The A, B, X, and Y buttons are on the correct side.

Hmmmmm.... I started using a new email, and I guess it made a new account for me. Crap. I thought it was IP based. Now I gotta start my comments from scratch.

if it was IP based, we'd never be able to post as the same person for more than a few days, most people don't have static IPs

What's Obama doing on the poster?

Stole my comment!

You should really check out your local library more often. They have video game tournaments all the time. They are usually for the younger kids (up to 18) but you'd be surprised at the things going on at libraries now days. Games, music, videos, internet... way more than just books.

Maybe in your city. >_>

I'm at the library all the time for books, never once seen anything like that.

Libraries have always had a lot more than just books.

In my city, the problems began when they put in a "TEEN ZONE" with a snack machine and some stuff to attract young adults who would otherwise never go into a library. Two years later, the library had to take it out and now has guards on patrol because the "TEEN ZONE" became THE place to go in town to buy all the drugs you needed or wanted. And most people usually did the drugs right there too. There were nice couches, after all.

So....my basic position is that libraries should be more about people sitting quietly and going about their business - whatever it may be - than it should be entertaining children or being "cool" or "hip".

I live in a city of 70,000 and I guarantee our garbage library does none of the sort.

Public funds should not go toward installing TVs and consoles in libraries. They should go toward more books....and fighting lawsuits from people who don't want "certain books" in the library.

I would love to see more pen and paper RPGs happening in the library, though. If public libraries would stock D&D books, it would really help out the people who don't want to spend 150$ getting into D&D....

look in the bottom right corner of the poster

WotC does do more than just D&D, majority of it being card games like MTG.

I do agree that libraries should bring in D&D books and set aside a room with some tables in it for playing, I don't know about anyone else but the group I play with gets fairly loud at times. However, the books should definitely not be allowed out of the library.

So, why is the chick holding her game controller upside down?

This picture alone tells us everything we need to know about this event. Namely, to avoid it at all costs.

I'm just in utter awe of that poster. It gives me flashbacks of the motivational posters in my elementary school in the 80s.

Breaking News

Nov. 15 is 'National Gaming Day' at your library

Reader Comments (39)

Posted: Nov 11th 2008 3:32PM ArtificeDrake formerly known as said

Posted: Nov 11th 2008 3:33PM mandarin said

Posted: Nov 11th 2008 3:41PM Ludwig Kietzmann said

Posted: Nov 11th 2008 3:42PM Zertoss said

Posted: Nov 11th 2008 5:32PM JoshMilewski said

Posted: Nov 11th 2008 3:37PM kspraydad said

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Posted: Nov 11th 2008 4:21PM Supermanisdead said

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