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New Book: Getting Serious About Games In Libraries


Bringing The Total Gaming Experience To Your Library, written by Kelly Nicole Czarnecki and published by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. (2011), addresses a context for learning that is pretty close to my heart.

The topic “Gaming & Libraries Broadening The Intersections” was object of my prior posts Getting Serious About Games In Libraries @ Future Making Serious Games Blog.

Kelly Czarnecki, who also authored the Tech Set book Gaming in Libraries, is a Technology Education Librarian at ImaginOn (NC), the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, USA.

ImaginOn (NC)

Czarnecki graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana with her MLIS and Ed.M in Educational Policy. She is a writer and speaker mostly about teens and youth using technology in the library.

Whether gaming is already a crucial part of your library's core services or it's only just been introduced, author Kelly Nicole Czarnecki, shows how to host gaming events for all different types of users. Bringing the Total Gaming Experience to Your Library is useful for librarians of any skill or experience level with gaming.

Collaboration and critical thinking skills that are inherent to gameplay are included in the book, such as creating ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) at the library, using social networking elements as game pieces, and exploring the concepts of game design via character, plot and narrative development.

Here’s a brief table of contents:

1. Ecology of Gaming
2. Gaming Spaces in Libraries
3. Offering a Machinima Workshop
4. Organizing an Alternate Reality Game
5. Offering a Game Design Workshop
6. Organizing a Gaming Session at Your Local Library Conference
7. Virtual, Mobile, and Augmented Reality Gaming
8. Gaming Off the Grid