Started off this morning with a pair of papers on gaming in libraries. They worked really well together - the first paper focusing more on the theoretical aspects of gaming in libraries, the second on a practical use of gaming for information literacy.

The first paper started off with Nicholas Schiller, who, impressively, managed to draw on Husserl as a theoretical framework for approaching the topic of gaming (the basic point seemed to be here that we should leave the content of games aside for the moment and consider what games do, as well as their potential pedagogical value to librarians).  Serin Anderson and Carole Svensson, both from the University of Washington Tacoma then discussed how viewing our teaching practice from the perspective of a video game player might allow us to better understand how students approach research. Collaboration between ‘players’ is key here - students can learn  a game together, so why do we often expect them to work alone when searching for information? How can students provide each other with answers to their research questions in the same way they’re able to help each other in a video game? The other key point was about scaffolding: in games, players are only given enough information to get to the next level, and players get to control much of the interface of the game themselves. Having students document their research process (in a 20-30 page assignment!) can help to build this scaffolding and will also allow them to return to that body of knowledge during later research.

The second paper focused on the collaborative efforts between Game Design students and librarians at Champlain College Library. The Champlain students and librarians worked together to design a series of games that can be used in information literacy teaching.  I think a question Sarah Faye Cohen (from Champlain) asked really helped to frame the issue for me: “What are they [users] doing in a game that we’re asking them to do when they search for information?”

I know there may be some scepticism about how pedagogically valuable games can actually be in information literacy instruction, but projects like this convince me that it is worthwhile, and it will definitely be something I’ll be thinking about further when I get back to work!

The poster sessions were fantastic, not least because there was enough space to move around and see all the posters without being crushed!

The panel session on LibGuides at Grand Valley State University and Boston College was great. It neatly distilled all the big questions we have about research guides into a few key issues around scope, guidance, design/terminology, standardization and workload. Even if you don’t use LibGuides, there were some good principles to take away from this session about the importance of promoting the guides, placing links to guides on course management sites like Blackboard, and providing some ‘how to’ guidance on research rather than just providing a long page of links to resources. Given the huge audience for this session (standing room only), Springshare must be pleased.

Off to have lunch with my husband, and then back to the sessions this afternoon!