Last week, I highlighted Ed Vielmetti’s thoughts about adding covers to the list of overdue books you have checked out, as well as the ability to text the location of an item to your cell phone. Both of these are enhancements that I, as Patron 2.0, would very much appreciate my library providing.

In the comments on that post, Jason from the Iowa City Public Library gave us a working example (working in an Innovative catalog, at least). I tried it out and sure enough, a few seconds after entering my cell phone number, up popped a text message with the location of the item.Very slick, and very useful.

Even better, Ed came back into the comments on that post and pointed at the script that runs this service. It was originally written by Adam from Bryn Mawr more than a year ago, where it’s still in place today. Not only is it freely available online, but there are very clear directions for sending SMS from a III catalog (thanks, Adam!).

If you have a programmer on staff or someone who knows just enough to be dangerous, now you, too, can implement this service at no cost to your library to make your catalog that much more useful.

2ndliferead.jpg

Originally uploaded by ash966

Another great READ mini poster!

more graph humor and song chart memes

Using Wordle in Schools

“The idea of creating Tag clouds is not new or unique but the Wordle application offers those in schools with a uniquely visual way to view and/or analyse some text. It is very simple to use and the results are created quickly. The style can be changed easily, if required, and easily saved….

We used this aspect in the library this week when we made a Wordle using a number of lists of banned books. The authors, the titles and types of books were entered into the text box. Overwhelmingly the word ‘novel’ stood out. A second Wordle on banned authors had William Shakespeare and George Orwell as the standouts. This could form part of a greater discussion about the reason for this and we intend to give the issues of banned books and censorship a wider focus at a later date, perhaps as part of Social Justice Week, run at our school each year.

We are also using Wordles as the basis for one of the competitions for Book Week. We created Wordles of synopses of various well known books (taking out any references too unique to the book) and printed out copies. One of the library staff members had fun playing with the colours and formats. We did one for ‘Bryan Strauchan: my story‘ and made it black and white. (Bryan Strauchan is a fictional character who plays for a football team that happens to have team colours of black and white.) Another book involving animals was done making the Wordle resemble tiger stripes. The Wordles look great laminated and I will also be putting up digital versions on the library website.” [Rhondda’s Reflections - Wandering around the Web]

Win $100 of Games!

“Out of the Box is giving $100 worth of games to whoever posts the best story about using games in education! The deadline is 8/31/2008. What are you waiting for? Go Post!” ]

This offer includes libraries, and I know we have some great stories about using games in educational ways!

Out of the Box publishes a whole slew of boardgames (including Snorta, which I really want to try), but they also distribute one of my all-time favorites, Apples to Apples. Did you know that you can make your own A2A cards using a special pack of blank cards you can buy for $5.99? For the trial run of National Gaming Day @ your library on April 18, we did some staff gaming at ALA, something we’ll probably do again leading up to the official NGD on November 15. I’m thinking of customizing A2A with a few…carefully-chosen cards about ALA. If you play this game at your library, this could be a fun way to tailor the game to your community.

If you’ve never played this great game (good for kids, adults, families, and any combination thereof), you can watch a demo of how it’s played. Much laughter is guaranteed.

As always, Ed Vielmetti is thinking about how to make the library’s data work harder for him, with or without the library’s help. (Of course, Ed’s library is the phenomenal Ann Arbor District Library, which already offers more web-based services than most other libraries, but the simple openness of their systems makes it easy for a superpatron like Ed to extend these services even further on his own.)

So when Ed couldn’t find some overdue library books in the house, he started wondering aloud how the library’s services could help him out. Now we just need to think like Ed, too.

Now Where Did I Put that Book?

“All of the library books I have are tagged with RFID chips, which is used for inventory control. That should mean that I can use something like this 3M RFID locator device as a reader and scanner to locate a lost item.”

Wall of Books Revisited: Just What Do I Have Checked Out?

“No, I still haven’t found my overdue books, but at least now I know what they look like.

The AADL prints a helpful list of the books you have checked out, but doesn’t give you pictures of them (not yet at least). So I’m working on the Greasemonkey script that will insert cover images into that page. This is not that, but a step along the way.”

What I’m really waiting for, though, is Ed’s Greasemonkey script that adds “text me the location of this item” to a library catalog viewed in Firefox. I don’t think I’ll be able to use it for my home library’s catalog, but I’ll hold out hope it can be adapted.

Text Me the Location of this Book - Step One of a Greasemonkey Plugin for the AADL

“At the time I noted “how hard could it be to add this to my own library with Greasemonkey” or some similar off the cuff remark (oh how foolish I can be some times). So let’s pick that apart and see how I’d do this at the AADL.”

Just a quick note that the preliminary program for the 2008 ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium is now available online. I’m excited about the program, because I think we’ve got some great tracks and sessions that will be valuable for anyone trying to implement gaming in their library or looking for ways to expand or enhance an existing program. Like last year, we’re going to push the boundaries of the connotations for “gaming” in libraries, in addition to answering your practical, “in the trenches” questions (legal issues, accessibility, cataloging, etc.).

Our keynote speakers continue last year’s tradition of addressing games & learning while also helping to make sense of today’s hot topics.

• Andrew Bub, writer, parent, and GamerDad, will explain how to help parents and players find the right games for them.
• Jon-Paul Dyson, Vice President for Exhibit Research and Development and Associate Curator at the Strong National Museum of Play, will explain the importance of play, not just for learners but for librarians as well.
• Dr. Lawrence Kutner, co-author of the book Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games, will detail his research about violence and videogames.
• Marc Prensky, whose most recent book is titled Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning, will explore Millennial learning styles and gaming.

Fan favorites Chris Harris, Scott Nicholson, and Eli Neiburger will be back, too. Scott will give us a census update on the number of libraries offering gaming, while Eli will explain how to foster Civic Engagement through Gaming and give us a Pokemon Primer so that we can at least talk the talk with the players in our communities.

Brian Mayer will be joining us this year and with Chris and Scott, he’ll help us understand how modern boardgames are different than the ones we grew up with. Chris and Brian will also discuss their alignment of the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner with boardgames and how librarians can use them to meet student learning needs. Plus, Paul Waelchli will present ideas for incorporating videogame strategies into reference and instruction services to interact with students in a more engaging way.

And that’s just the start - three days of sessions, open gaming (both boardgames and videogames), dine-arounds with experts, and all of the fun and learning you can handle. Attendance is limited to 350 people, so register now. I hope to see you there!

Little Library Got Wii

“I had a fabulous time in at the ‘Gaming in Libraries’’ session of the Midwest Library Technology Conference, where they not only talked about games, they let us play. It’s more than a Field of Dreams approach, just tossing games into a room; I have worked with, read about, and heard from those clever librarians who design activities, resources that do what librarians do so well, put information in context for us.

This is not even meant as a post to ponder the implications, more of an observation I had a few weeks ago when I stopped by the Isabelle Hunt Memorial Public Library in Pine, Arizona — the closest town (3 miles) with a gas station (actually 2) and a market (1) to where I live. The population of Pine is likely a bit over 2000, and the library is a real gem….

And darned if on my last visit there, they had re-arranged the checkout racks of DVDs to make room for a single Wii station!

Yep, this little library has got Wii.” [CogDogBlog, Thanks, Liz D.]

Emphasis above is mine, because I love Alan Levine’s description. Although we’re not related, great Levine minds think alike.

What I really love about this, though, is that it shows how even small libraries can implement gaming on some level, as opposed to other initiatives that require huge increases in staffing or budget lines.

Earlier this year I highlighted the School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES’ work mapping boardgames to the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) Standards for the 21st Century Learner. The BOCES guys have kept pushing forward with this work, and I really appreciate how they make it available for everyone.

In preparation for this week’s GenCon (a really big gaming convention for the public), Brian Mayer has adapted the original document mapping the AASL standards into a one-page handout for the public (PDF). Take a look at his handiwork, as it makes a great conversation starter about gaming in public and school libraries.

Brian also has a great post explaining Why Games Belong in Libraries.

“The inclusion of gaming in a library collection is not unexpected if you take some perspective. Libraries hit a turning point when they made the decision to start including popular media in their collections. By doing so, they shifted their collection development practices to be more inclusive of what their patrons want, embracing the desires of the community. They also opened the door to more non-traditional resources. And by continuing to develop a more inclusionary collection development policy, libraries are laying the foundation for building a collection of ideas….

Add to this, the maturation of board games over the last twenty years and you can start to see the value that games hold as community resources. They have grown into another avenue of creative expression that, like a good book or song, can capture and share ideas with those who invest the time.” [Library Gamer]

I’m going to do a whole series of READ mini posters that explore *my* definition of reading.

Make your own here!