Andrew Lewis.

Exploring multimedia for engaging children with libraries in

Windsor and Maidenhead.

Library and Information Services

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead

LILAC 2005, Imperial College, London. 5th April 2005.

Abstract This paper accompanies the presentation given at LILAC 2005, and outlines the work

of Multi-Lib, an electronic service development sub-programme looking at multimedia

in libraries primarily aimed at children, within Library and Information Services in the

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Multi-Lib aims to explore the ways in

which libraries’ work and missions can be promoted using the media that are

embedded in children’s everyday lives. It explores ways of using multimedia for

delivering core library service to children such as reading, using ICT and access to

and the use of information, and the marketing of these services.

Multimedia for children is part of their social culture. They play, learn, communicate

and socialise using it. Failure to accept this means we may be alienating ourselves,

and may mean we limit how well we can get our messages across.

It is not within the scope of this paper to detail the evidence for using computer

games and related multimedia for learning. For this please refer to the short

bibliography provided in Appendix A. Listed here is Mitchell and Savill-Smith’s

substantial literature review for the Department of Learning and Skills in which they

conclude that:

“…producing educational games that are true games is a worthwhile activity… a

necessary development if we are to reach out to current and future generations in

ways that cater for their needs and expectations.” [2004, p69]

A more detailed article about the work within Phase 1 of Multi-Lib features in the New

Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship: Volume 11, Number 1.

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the organisers of LILAC 2005 for their hard work.

Introduction This paper describes real experience of the use of multimedia to develop marketing

models for attracting children onto library computers, using computer games and

animation cartoons. It discusses issues such as balancing content design to

maximise return on investment, approaches to evaluation, and using networks to

communicate user behaviour.

This paper does not assume any great technical knowledge. It offers practical

experience of issues that can arise in a real environment where resources are not

unlimited. And is aimed at anyone looking to use multimedia for service development

in the following areas:

Issues surrounding content creation

In marketing services beyond simple printed media such as posters and text

The collection of user behaviour data for evaluating learning and progress

The information presented is based upon work implemented within the public sector,

but is presented in generic terms. It is hoped that is relevant to anyone thinking of

developing multimedia content for learning, or development programmes such as

information literacy.

Multi-Lib Phase 1 (2002-2004): The main work within Multi-Lib Phase 1 concentrated on the use of computer games

as a motivational marketing tool to overcome perceptions of ICT amongst customers

in libraries, especially children and their accompanying adults. It aimed to develop

basic ICT skills for very young children and also explored the creation of multimedia

reader development resources.

Based upon this some experiments were undertaken in developing animation-based

marketing. The first of these involved pre-launch promotion of new games available

only on computers within libraries, using an animated trailer via the library web

pages. A second promotion used character based cartoon trailers to alert computer

users to the Reading Rollercoaster Summer reading scheme.

Objectives within Multi-Lib Phase 1

The main aims of Phase 1 were to encourage use of new library computers,

especially by children, to overcome the observed behaviour of adults who

accompanied child customers and who appeared to be afraid to allow children to use

them, and to change perceptions of the library service in general. It was intended to

ensure the service was recognised as technically up to date and leading, as

providing early years skills for children in ICT. The strategy was to do this by

creating in-house content and using this to embed library messages within this

content

The work involved creating a suite of ICT skills games aimed at 3-9 year olds for

content and level. These used very simple bright bold designs and each was limited

to a single simple mouse task such as clicking with a mouse, dragging and dropping

and double clicking. The game play for these was developed to be appealing and

fun, so that young users who played the games learned to develop each skill by

actually doing it, but without necessarily being made aware they were developing

skills in doing so. There were deliberately no messages about learning or

educational benefits within the gameplay to avoid being too seen as patronising. The

key selling point was fun; the developmental benefits came simply from playing them.

The other main audience was parents and accompanying adults of children. For

these, there were subtle library messages about the learning aspects and the

benefits of the libraries. Creating the content in-house gave complete control over

the style and design, as well as the messages contained within the games. These

messages not only promoted the library service, but also were pitched to reassure

parents that the content was created specifically for their children’s development.

A multimedia-based guide to the Hobbit was later developed as an interactive reader

development aid aimed at older children. This was intended to see how users

reacted to alternative media rich presentation.

There were two animated promotions within the later stages of Multi-Lib Phase 1

used. The first used an animated GIF on the library web pages. The objective was

to alert web page users at home to new games content on the computers within the

libraries.

The second promotion used cartoon trailers on the main games interface on the

library computers to alert children using the computer games that reading schemes

were also taking place. The objective of this cross marketing of services was to

utilise the proven appeal of the games to expose potential readers in a new way. It

was hoped that this tactic might reach users who might not immediately think of

taking part in a reading scheme. A secondary objective of this promotion was to

attempt to record user behaviour with a simple branching interface that gave users a

choice of whether to play the games, or look at further information about the scheme.

Evaluation of Multi-Lib Phase 1 The games were very popular as soon as they were introduced. Despite no publicity,

and relying upon word of mouth alone, usage of the games was quickly established,

rose steeply, and has continued to rise. The 6 games are accessed over 3,600 times

each month (averaged over the period April 2003 – January 2005) and have been

accessed over 100,000 times in the two and a half year period between August 2002

and April 2005. In addition there is a clear correlation between children’s holidays

and usage with repeated peaks of use over holiday periods.

The trailers for the Reading Rollercoaster were successful as a simple model for

recording what people did. During the campaign, potential games players had to

watch a short 30-second trailer first before getting to the main interface. Of these

about 30% then chose to watch a further trailer in first month instead of just playing

the games. This tailed off in the second month.

This information obtained by this method may be crude, but it did demonstrate an

example of using a simple model to understand users behaviour. The simple method

of allowing a choice of access to two game files, and by using a web stats

programme recording the numbers users choosing each option, gave not only the

number of people who made a particular choice, but also because of the trailing off of

interest over time, an indication that they were repeat users.

A link between the computer game promotion and uptake of reading was also made:

at least 2 reading participants of the scheme specifically said they found out about it

from the games on their reading card. This could in fact have been much higher, but

the scheme’s national evaluation form was not designed to consider this local

experiment. For example a large number of returns indicated simply that they found

out about the scheme in the library.

The Web trailer that promoted the new game DoubleClicketyWinks was not proven to

be directly effective. The new game became popular quickly, but the data was

inconclusive as to whether this was directly due to the web trailer

Perceptions of the library service were felt to have been promoted successfully.

Corporately, this was demonstrated by this positive quotation from councillor Richard

Fagence in a press release for DoubleClicketyWinks in July 2004:

“Children who read do better in life. That’s why libraries are so important to

get adults of the future reading when they are very young. These games are

an innovative part of a variety of schemes which encourage children to join in

the fun at their local library.”

This positive and newspaper friendly publicity in turn led to a corporate responsibility

grant from Computer Associates for nearly £1,000, and a further research grant from

SEMLAC for nearly £5,000. Income generation has made the Library and

Information Service’s profile much higher.

Within the library profession, the work has attracted positive attention and was

judged winner of the Multi-media and Web Publicity category within the CILIP

Publicity and Public Relations Awards in November 2004. This quote is from their

summary:

“The judges feel that this serious use of computer games has great potential

to encourage the use of libraries”

Again this publicity has helped maintain the library’s profile within the local authority.

Customers comments such as this received in November 2004 have also been

positive:

“I like...the Hobbit game as I am reading the book, so I already know some of

the characters.”

(From a child.)

“My son had great fun playing on the computer games. Pirate Pete (sic) is a

good introduction to mouse control”

(From a parent)

Lessons Multimedia is undoubtedly popular. The games have maintained high usage, positive

feedback from users, positive publicity and generated income. However this

popularity requires careful management. It is suggested that projects should start

small and not build expectation that cannot be met.

Content production is resource heavy, and requires some specialist skill. To harness

the benefits of the popularity of multimedia, the investment required needs to be

planned to get the maximum return. It is clearly important to identify the key aims

that need to be conveyed, to use content that does not date, and that applies to the

widest audience possible. The design brief should include these aims as objectives,

as well as an appropriate design to appeal to the target audience.

The means of evaluation should also be incorporated at the design stage. Within

Multi-Lib Phase 1, the use of the web trailer promotion was hastily implemented, and

the method of measuring success was not thought out in advance, leading to a lack

of conclusive evidence from it. The cartoon trailer promotion that followed, learnt this

lesson, and used a method that allowed a controlled method for collection data that

provided reliable evidence.

Generic content is likely to be the most effective in terms of return on investment.

The DoubleClicketyWinks game took around 32 hours of staff time to create, but was

accessed over 2000 times in the first 6 months. The simple appeal of the games to a

very large audience has been felt to be key to their success.

Specific content may also be effective, but probably only if targeted carefully. The

Hobbit was not felt to be scaleable as its scope was too small for the effort. The

Hobbit is a very well known book with wide appeal, and benefited from contemporary

interest due to the release of The Lord of the Rings. To create one of these guides

for every book however would not be an effective use of resources.

It was felt that core subjects are scaleable once an optimum audience size is

reached. This would typically include marketing activities with large audiences, and

development tools for core subjects. For libraries this would clearly include

information literacy.

In financial terms, it was felt that the use of multimedia was be efficient where the

above issues are considered. The work within Multi-Lib Phase One has in a crude

sense been at no cost to library service customers when one considers that the

income generated by the programme to date has exceeded the cost of staff time

spent developing it.

In advocacy terms multimedia can be used successfully, as long as sensitivity is

given to issues surrounding attitudes to games and related media. As Kirriemuir and

McFarlane point out, these tend to polarise into those who suspicious of social

concerns about the use of computer game, and those who defend their use in

learning [2004, p7]. They go on to warn of the risk of potential bias in research from

these stances.

The approach in Windsor and Maidenhead taken has been to start quietly and to

build trust based on evaluation. The careful use of customer comments, publicity

and graphs to illustrate popularity has been effective.

It is recommended to use the inherent capabilities of the technology to record activity,

and adopt a cautious approach using the minimum you can to achieve what you

want, rather than alarming partners with heavy demands. This is especially true of IT

departments, and should be backed with a professional approach to their concerns of

issues such as network security. Adopt an informed, planned approach that shows

you mean business.

Multi-Lib Phase 2 and Information literacy This paper has been presented within LILAC, and some mention should be made of

where this fits with information literacy. Multi-Lib Phase 2 is a research and

evaluation phase. Phase 2 will cover the period 2004 until early 2006 and aims to

build upon Phase 1, which though successful, was perhaps not as clearly scoped as

it should have been.

Phase 2 takes an evidence based developmental approach to make best use of

limited resources. The key aims of Phase 2 are the promotion of information literacy

and library resources, to formally analyse identify Phase 1 and identify its pros and

cons, and to undertake user consultation on games amongst children. The latter

includes attitudes to games, learning and libraries and usability and preferences from

previous gaming experience. New game design approaches will be developed from

this and aim to further develop ways in which user behaviour can be evaluated by

capturing progress via game data.

A key area to be explored is to develop interactive game type environments where

players undertake activity in simulated environment that requires them to act in an

information literate way to reach objectives. This is hoped to provide means of

identifying what people are actually doing. The promotion of information literacy aims

to be via active engagement, rather than passive reception of text or lecture-based

delivery.

The ability of computer games technology to record user behaviour - what people

actually do - has huge potential. For example user data about individuals can be

recorded over time to indicate skills that have achieved, how long this took and

patterns of use. The use of networks for delivering games allows remote

communication of data, and immediate feedback from the users. By comparing

direct evidence of behaviour with other evaluative means such as pre- and post-

project benchmarking, it should be possible to assess impact in a very rich way.

It is hoped that the issues and experience covered in this paper will be of use and

help inform the debate for practitioners considering the use of multimedia in

developmental programmes.

12 April 2005

Andrew Lewis

e-Services Officer

Library and Information Services

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead

Appendix A – Bibliography These sources are a mixture of academic and others which have useful information

on the issues of computer games in serious applications. The details and comments

are the author’s offered to inform, but are not endorsements of any of these.

Amory, A. et al. The Use of Computer Games as an Educational tool: Identification of

appropriate game types and games elements. In: British Journal of Educational

Technology. vol 30(4) 1999.

Digicult. Games Technology Resources web page. [WWW]

http://www.digicult.info/pages/resources.php?t=7

Accessed: 12/04/2005

Game Studies - the international journal of computer game research. [WWW]

http://www.gamestudies.org/

Accessed: 12/04/2005

Kirriemuir John and McFarlane Angela. Literature Review in Games and Learning.

Nesta Futurelab Series: literature review number 8. 2004.

Available at:

http://www.nestafuturelab.org/research/reviews/08_01.htm

Accessed: 12/04/2005

Mitchell, Alice and Savill-Smith, Carol. The use of computer and video games for

learning. A review of the literature. ULTRALAB report for the Learning and Skills

Development Agency. 2004

Available at:

http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/PDF/1529.pdf

Accessed: 12/04/2005

Serious Games Initiative. Serious Games Reading List web page. [WWW]

http://www.seriousgames.org/wiki/index.php?page=SeriousGamesReadingList

Accessed: 12/04/2005

Appendix B – Rationale for using games technology

Cultural Multimedia is embedded in children’s culture and that of many young adults. If we

don’t use their cultural channels, we may alienate people. Today’s children and

tomorrow’s adults may not listen to us

Pedagogical Playing is fundamental within learning and computer games are popular. Learning

through games simulation is more about doing it than studying it and so may have a

greater impact, and potentially reach non-academic and disaffected audiences.

In life, information is provided in many more ways than simple text. This requires a

multimedia approach to information literacy.

Technological At a simple level, multimedia can offer sound, vision and communication beyond text.

But its real strength lies in its ability to offer built-in progress monitoring based on

user behaviour

Appendix C - Attitudes to computer games

These two quotes illustrate two different views on the use of computer games at the

time of this paper (April 2005). Multi-Lib aims to inform the ongoing debate about the

usefulness or otherwise of computer games by the use of via evidence based

practise.

“[the reason computers in libraries are there] is not so that people can play

games on them”

COATES, TIM. in evidence to Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport

Minutes of Evidence Examination of Witnesses (Question 37). 17 November 2004 http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmcumeds/81/4111701.htm

“Borrowing ideas from the world of interactive games, we can motivate even

reluctant learners to practice complex skills and achieve much more than they

would through traditional means.”

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION AND SKILLS: e-Strategy Harnessing Technology

- Transforming Learning and Children’s Services. 15 March 2005

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/docs/e-strategy.pdf

See also Kirrimuir and McFarlane, and Mitchell and Savill-Smith in the bibliography.