2 Little surprises - Sun 3 Apr 2011

As a Librarian, one of my main (and most favourite) tasks is cataloguing. For those not familiar with Librarianship - this basically means I grab the new books/CDs/DVDs/puzzles and decide where they'll be shelved in the Library.


Of course, there is a bit more to it than that, and given that in our modern age, a computer catalogue is used to locate books, it is my job to make sure the search fields all have the correct information and so on. I like to imagine I am a kind of book-locating super-programmer (though any I.T. boffins reading this would probably scoff) :P


One of the greatest parts about being a cataloguer, is that I get first look at a lot of library stuff - when it is still crisp and shiny, rather than grimed with the "booksnot" of many borrowers. In addition, I get to see things that many people may never come across, i.e. books on unusual topics or interesting pictures. Which leads me to sharing with you one of my recent fantastic finds.

I was cataloguing a jigsaw puzzle depicting what seemed (at the time) to be a fairly bland picture of a hay-filled cart pulled by a pair of grand old horses. At first glance it was nothing special and many a catalogued jigsaw has had such a similar country scene, however, on closer inspection, I noticed the people in the picture appeared to be Amish.


Interested in learning more, I scoured the box for information about the photograph, and discovered to my grand delight, Bill Coleman's website, which I must now share with you.


Bill Coleman is a photographer, who, for FORTY YEARS has been visiting this remote Amish community in Pennsylvania and photographing their daily way of life. The photographs are just beautiful and truly depict a fun-loving, hard-working and joyful group of people - not to mention a plethora of gorgeous country scenes. I implore you to view his photos here.


And if you're too lazy to click on the link, here's one of my favourites. Enjoy!:

0 Time to Start Tweeting - Sat 1 Jan 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let's hope 2011 is a fabulous and exciting year for everyone!


Nothing is better at the beginning of a new year than setting yourself a few goals and challenges, and one "challenge" I have decided to get involved in is Read It 2011.


I discovered this through Swan Libraries on Twitter and think it's a great idea! Each month, a theme for reading is set, and everyone is encouraged to read a book in that vein and tweet about it on Twitter. Easy!


So why don't you join us and get reading and tweeting too!


The theme for January is "Scare up a good book". You can read more about it here. I'm not sure what book I'm going to read yet, but once I've decided, I'll be sure to mention it on Twitter.


You can follow me on Twitter by clicking the link on the top right hand side of my blog, or click this one here:

Happy reading!

5 Collectables

What are video games? Are they just a frivolous waste of time? Computer programs that allow us to spend our leisure time playing instead of doing chores? Something to entertain the kids so we can have a moment's peace?


Are they art? Digital animation that is real and interactive? Do the Da Vincis and Michelangelos of today paint using codes instead of brushes?


Are they a new and important cultural development? The reflection of a modern need to escape the realities of our declining economies and deteriorating environment?


I say YES. With well over 3.6 million Australian households in possession of a game console, I'd say video games are all of the above and more. They are becoming an important part of our cultural identity - marking a certain stage in our technological evolution - and in my opinion, are worthy of historical conservation.

The University of Michigan agrees, devoting a section of their Art, Architecture and Engineering Library  to a Computer and Video Game Archive, which "houses over 2000 games and 30 different video game systems". The archive is not only a way of preserving video games and the video game experience, but it allows students to have a "hands on" approach - they can use the collection to explore topics such as censorship and (one of my personal faves) gender identity in games. You can read more about the archive (and the coolest job in the world - Video Game Librarian) here.

The University of Michigan is not the only institution taking video game culture seriously, back in 2007 the Library of Congress began an initiative to catalogue over 2000 video games that they had collected simply through the submission of developers as a part of the copyright process. (As an aside, it might also interest some readers to know the Library of Congress has "the US's largest comic book collection, over 100,000 comic book issues that have come in through copyright"). You can read more about it here, although in my research (albeit, uber brief) I haven't been able to find a more recent report on this initiative.


I'm interested to hear your thoughts on preserving video games as a historical collection - particularly any heritage buffs out there (makes eyes at Alethea) - and of course Librarians who love to game!

7 Lazy

I have been lazy this week and have yet to do any Web 2.0 study, and given I didn't get out of bed today until around midday, I think you can see how this weekend is going to go.

However.

In the spirit of keeping my blog somewhat up-to-date and for your viewing pleasure, I have three things to share.

1. My Christmas tree:

The tree is about 180cm tall. Note the red and gold theme, and lack of tinsel. Choosing a colour theme and omitting tinsel are techniques a seasoned tree decorator recently shared with me, to try and make your tree look more like a Myer tree. However, I have recently seen both Alethea and GozzieHoon's trees which have well-placed tinsel, and they look pretty fab. So, my advice is if you are going to use tinsel, I would suggest you use it sparingly.

I made the gold bows myself out of 5 metres of wired gold ribbon. If you want to do this yourself, I suggest using at least 10 metres of ribbon (or more) for a tree this size, as 5 metres proved to not be enough :P

2. Cool (and useful) little website:

The Literature Map   <-----  click here

The literature map basically shows "who writes like" author names, but in a cute and animated way. It's not as detailed as NoveList, for example, but you don't need a database subscription or library card to use it. Check it out!

3. Study like a scholar, scholar

You may have seen this before, as I "borrowed" the link from another Library's blog, but I love it so much I just have to share it here for anyone that hasn't already seen it. It's a play on the famous "I'm on a horse" Old Spice ad. Enjoy :)

5 Work and Play

It's not far-stretched to connect literacy and learning with games. When we're young, we're often taught games that are great fun, but that are also teaching us important skills that will carry us through the rest of our lives. 

As infants, we generally learn games that involve picking things up, moving things around and building things (all working on hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills). As young children, we start playing interactive games with others, perhaps pretending to be doctors, pilots or superheroes (all games teaching us social skills). Once old enough, we can start to learn games involving one of my favourite things - reading (think board games and of course, video games). Yay!

If you’re not sure about the connection between games and learning, why not take a look at this post by the Shifted Librarian.

How does this all relate to video games? I hear you ask. Excellent question.

Depending on the game, there are any number of skills the gamer is putting into practice at any one time. If you’re playing a racing game like Gran Turismo, you’re using hand-eye coordination, being involved in healthy competition and learning to deal with both success and failure, winning and losing (as opposed to the popular, but flawed, idea that everyone's a winner). 

Playing my favourite game, Fallout (3 or New Vegas, let’s not be picky here!) involves prioritising (deciding which quests to do and when), making choices (how you'll communicate with characters, whether you want to be good or evil) and living with the consequences (i.e. the game has different outcomes depending on what you choose to do).

A game like Singstar promotes collaboration, socialising and perhaps even stepping out of your comfort zone by singing in front of a crowd.

I could go on forever - but don’t worry, I’ll stop now.

The point I am making is this - I think games in libraries are a good thing, whether it be board games or video games. It's another way of getting kids and young adults into the library, and who knows? Maybe they’ll borrow a book on their way out! (Read, kids, read!)

The Amherst Village Library (part of the City of Gosnells’ Library Service) has Wii consoles that have proved to be very popular. After a little web trawling, I discovered the Brimbank Library Service in Melbourne also has Wii and Playstation 3 consoles. 

Does your library have video games? Let me know by commenting - I’d love to hear your opinion on how useful/fun/annoying/difficult you find them in libraries.

5 Noob

I'm a bit of a Noob. 

Really, it’s true. I have no idea what I’m doing half the time and I often feel like I am the last one to learn something new.  

“What’s a Noob?” you may well ask. Excellent question :) 

Wikipedia (quite possibly the best informational resource for any true Noob - though don’t  go referencing it in your academic work) describes Noob as “a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity”. If you’re really interested, you can read more about Noobs and the origin of the term here.  

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a computer Noob (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). I can write a blog (well, here’s hoping anyway). Heck, I even have my very own Facebook page. But, while I am reasonably computer-literate, my true Noobility (yep, I just coined that one) lies in the world of Video Gaming.  

Yes, I’m a Noob Gamer and I’m a girl. 

The story is simple - girl meets boy, boy plays video game, girl tries to stand between boy and game, boy doesn’t even notice, girl wonders what’s so good about stupid game, girl secretly plays while boy isn’t home, girl likes it and becomes noob gamer. 

Actually, it’s more common than you’d think. According to this article written in May last year, two-thirds of Australians play video games, with more than 46% of gamers being women. Long gone are the days of gamers being pimply teenaged boys with a moon tan and bad grammar. According to Kotaku (the online “Gamer’s Guide”), 2 out of 5 gamers are female and the age of the average gamer is 32. 

Sounds like me to a tee. 

So, with that in mind, and the incredible luck of being a Librarian involved in the Western Australia Public Libraries’ Web 2.0 training, I am going to try and write this blog for Gamer Librarians everywhere. I think you’ll be surprised by the relationship between the two! 

If you’re not a gamer, don’t be put off - I also love reading (did I really need to add that?), watch a lot of movies and have been told by many that I think too much (is that even possible?). So I can guarantee my blog won’t be filled with relentless gamish techno-jargon (yep, just coined that one too!). Stay tuned for news, reviews and general ramblings - and happy gaming to all!