what is important to you

What is important to YOU?

• Bringing in more teens?

• Engaging the teens that you have?– Developmental Assets

• Encouraging repeat visits?

Library Priorities

• Mission and strategic plan

• Values and organizational culture

• Challenges

• How can gaming support what your library is doing and meet the challenges facing it?

Two Conversations

• Discuss gaming with the administration and your staff at all levels simultaneously.

• It’s a disadvantage if administration mandates gaming without previous staff buy-in.

Key Points

• Administration

– Initial Interest

– Concerns– Details

– Role of IT

• Staff

– Values Clash

– Customized Excuses

– “Positive Negatives”

– Assess Resistance

Reaching Staff

• Present at group meetings of different kinds.

• Talk with individual staff:– one on one– unrelated meetings– specific location visits

Remember

• Administration support is essential…

…but staff make gaming A SUCCESS!

Find Your Gamers

• They can educate and reassure.

• They can be experts and can informally answer questions.

• They can give staff demonstrations and oversee gaming pilots.

Pilots!

• Find locations that represent different communities to host a pilot.

• Invite staff from across the organization to observe.

• Have teens be involved in the pilots too.

Find Your Converts

• Staff who – resisted – on the fence

– no opinion

After observing it firsthand, they became sold and can then share their convictions.

Burden of the Naysayer

• Encourage them to attend pilots—the success of the first programs will be hard to argue.

• Look to your converts and believers who have credibility with the naysayers.

• Cut your losses—agree to disagree as long as the system is on board.

Purpose of The Proposal

• Gain support

• Establish credibility– Nontraditional

– Threatening (teens and technology)– Educational Value/Ties to literacy

“Gaming is Cool” is Not Enough

• You MUST show how gaming specifically ties into your organization’s mission and values.

• Have the cultural and statistical data to refute claims that gaming is “just a fad.”

Ask Admin and Yourself

• What extent do they envision their commitment?

• What is a realistic timeline for implementation?

• What are their expectations for staff

follow-through?

Writing the Proposal

• Look to “What’s Important” and “Key Points” for content.

• Answer and anticipate the questions and concerns.

Which Literature to Use?

• The most relevant.

• Examples of success.

• The reality of technology and implications in library service.– i.e. Ann Arbor, Voya February 2005– i.e. ESA, debunks myths, powerful statistics

Power of Testimonials

The narratives from the pilots are essential to show gaming in action and reflect the

universal positives of the program.

Importance of Narratives

• Reflect pilots, observations, and reactions in action.

• Reflect how gaming can work at any location.

• When used sparingly, will be powerfully persuasive.

Behavior

• “John and James have been repeatedly evicted for rough-housing, disobeying and disrespecting staff and library rules over the years. They have also never, ever, attended a library program…however, they were the first to sign in, and they brought friends and cousins with them. They were polite, respectful, and even friendly with staff during the program too! They were also really good at some of the games, so staff were able to praise them and applaud them in ways that we’d never been able to do before.”

Esteem Building

• “One week we noticed the older of our two televisions had a power plug snapped at the head and exposing wires. One of my gamers who works on cars and electronics at home said he could fix it if he had the right supplies. We walked to the Radio Shack right by the branch. For under $10.00 of FOL money and Kevin’s expertise, our television was soon up and running. What a wonderful opportunity for Kevin to build developmental assets like responsibility, personal power, and self-esteem.”

Staff Buy-In

“I was amazed that the teens seemed to “own” that space in the library. They acted like they belonged there. They seemed totally comfortable. They also had great rapport with library staff; talking about what they had been doing for the summer and what they would be doing next at the library. It was great!”

Questions?

Julie Scordato, Teen Services Specialist

Columbus Metropolitan Library

614-849-1227 ext. 8911

jscordato@columbuslibrary.org