Are you planning to attend this year’s ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans? If so, the Games and Gaming Round Table is looking for volunteers to assist with their events:
The Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT) needs volunteers at ALA Annual in New Orleans. Showcase your gaming skills this year at ALA Play, in the GameRT Lounge, and in the GameRT booth.
Volunteer signup forms are available at the Games In Libraries blog.
Stephanie Frey recently shared some of her thoughts about attending the 2018 ALA Midwinter conference as part of the Libraries Ready to Code initiative at the Games in Schools and Libraries blog at Inverse Genius:
ALA Midwinter was overwhelming. I’d never been out to the midwest or a library convention and was unsure of what to expect besides massive amounts of people. After much consideration, I found that each of these elements led to me having a fantastic time at ALA Midwinter, helped me deal with how huge and overwhelming an experience it can be, and enabled me to get the most out of the experience.
[…]
ALA Midwinter is an amazing event. Seeing what people are doing in their own libraries and sharing ideas with others was such an empowering experience. I came back to my own library eager to share everything I learned with my fellow staff and ready to leap into action.
The Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT) is looking for librarians who use “games, design, and play” to share their stories at the upcoming American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans on Sunday, June 24.
Ten slots are available as part of the “Sharing Sessions” panel, and librarians are encouraged to make their pitch to be included at the Games In Libraries blog:
The GameRT Sharing Session is an hour-long session for you to not only share your ideas with your peers but help educate and excite librarians new to games and gaming in libraries. We have slots for 10 librarians/teams. Now is your chance to shine!
The Waccamaw Neck Branch Library (located in Pawleys Island, South Carolina) has opened registration for ShushCon 2018. ShushCon is a “games and geekery” convention that’ll be held from March 23 through March 25. Attendees will be able to try out a large number of video games, tabletop games, and escape rooms, while also taking part in events related to cosplay, anime, coding, and more.
The library will also host a Computational Thinking Games Workshop for librarians on March 23.
If you’re interested in attending ShushCon 2018, you can sign up for a free event badge with the Registration Form.
Every year, Germany’s Digital Gaming Culture Foundation (Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur) supervises the Gamescom Committee, a small group of journalists who choose the best games that were present at the Gamescom expo. The Gamescom expo is held in the Summer, and serves as the European equivalent to the Los Angeles-based E3 Expo.
While most of these titles are still in development, you should keep them in mind when you add games to your collection this Fall and into 2018.
Super Mario Odyssey was named “Best of Gamescom,” and the full list of winners and nominees can be found below. Continue reading
The American Library Association’s ALA Annual Conference traveled to Chicago this year, and there was quite a bit of discussion about games and gaming.
The ALA’s Games and Gaming Round Table highlighted some of the events as part of a report for the ALA’s Games In Libraries page:
This year’s ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois, was brimming with opportunities to experience and learn about games. The Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT) started with Escape to the Library, a pre-conference about escape experiences and breakouts in the library. Attendees at this sold out event received an overview of escape rooms and breakouts, experienced three different custom breakouts, and received guidance in approaching the design process.
The Games and Gaming Round Table also looked at several other topics in their report. The ALA Play event, where game publishers and distributors demo their products, was a bit hit. As was Conference Sessions that discussed enhancing discovery of game collections and active learning through games. Sharing Sessions looked at “Teen Driven Game Programming” and “Using LibGuides to Promote Your Game Collection,” and a huge panel about “Tabletop Gaming 101” closed out the gaming portion of ALA Annual 2017.
Every year, the Game Critics Awards, a collection of editors from more than 40 major publications that cover the video game industry, get together to choose the best games at the E3 Expo.
While all of these titles are still in development, you should keep them in mind when you add games to your collection this Fall and into 2018.
Super Mario Odyssey was named “Best of Show,” and the full list of winners and nominees can be found below. Continue reading
The ALA’s Games and Gaming Round Table is hosting a Board Meeting on Monday, September 26, at 11:00 AM (Eastern Time). The meeting is open to everyone and you can virtually attend using the Adobe Connect software.
More information can be found at ALA Connect, and an agenda will be available soon.