LIS 9763

Last Friday I attended a Webcast entitled: “Can’t Get There from Here: Achieving Organization 2.0.” It was led by Meredith Farkas as part of the ACRL Virtual Conference. One thing that she said was rather obvious--in fact I’ve heard and said it myself many times--but still, it resonated with me. She insisted that rather than jumping on every 2.0 trend (like librarians-turned-sheep, as “the Annoyed Librarian” implies),  we should instead investigate ways that Web 2.0 tools address and provide practical solutions to present problems libraries are experiencing. And if they are proven to be useful, then we should follow through. In terms of gaming and virtual worlds, I think that this warning needs to be underlined and placed front and centre. These initiatives can take a lot of time and resources to create and maintain, and since many are relatively new on the scene they can conceivably create more headaches than help.
 
That said I’d like to focus this blog post on potential uses of gaming and virtual worlds in academic library instruction. I think these could very successfully address a variety of on-going problems some libraries are facing into the future, keeping in mind a number of current drawbacks need to be worked out first as this technology evolves.  I’ll therefore get those drawbacks out of the way first. The Educause reading did a good job of describing a number of these pointers, which included the fact that virtual worlds like Second Life pose significant technological challenges (e.g., high system requirements and a tendency to crash even on the best computer) and pedagogical challenges (e.g., they only cater to certain learning styles and objectives and require a somewhat high degree of technical skills among students). Furthermore, less complex online initiatives (such as the info. lit. game offered by the University of NC) are simply rather boring and repetitive. However, if we assume that technological constraints will be ironed out in the next few years, and if we accept that all methods of teaching pose inherent hurdles that require patience, experimentation and persistence, there are still a number of ways that virtual worlds might remedy some issues facing academic library instruction into the future.
 
First and foremost, many of this week’s readings pointed out that gaming (in virtual worlds or the real one) can provide learners with hands-on, involved means of experimenting, interacting, exploring, and practicing different skills. Given the shifted focus from memorization and rule following to conceptual, critical thinking in many disciplines (and thus workplaces), virtual worlds provide fertile territory for instruction librarians. Using gaming and virtual worlds to teach students is thus not just about jumping on a new bandwagon or trying to hold student’s attentions and cater to some sort of “inherently generational” learning style because they “grew up with video games.” It is instead potentially an effective, dynamic way of teaching people of all ages and backgrounds skills that apply to the technologically-rich, complex world that we live in today.   
 
Second, the demand and thus the supply of distance education courses in higher education are prolific. Furthermore, instruction librarians in many libraries are overworked, and often forced to lead arguably ineffective instruction literacy classes in one-hour sessions that do not easily allow hands on learning, and often leave students feeling both bored and overwhelmed with content. Therefore, virtual worlds present academic librarians with an alternative way of reaching students and teaching them information literacy skills, in a dynamic and involved online environment that could be far more sophisticated and engaging than the UNC example we looked at this week, for example, or the plethora of rather linear, one-dimensional and disengaging html/ flash library tutorials currently littering the web.
 
Apart from instruction, do game nights like those in the case studies this week get youth into the public library? Do they attract both boys and girls? Do they encourage youth to read more books? Or, do most games constitute reading and critical thinking all on their own? The jury’s still out on these questions, but there seems to be a lot of promise there.
 
As for reference, like in instruction, I think virtual worlds have a long way to go before we start seeing any major successes. The bulk of reference questions that seem to come to Second Life librarians, for instance, seem to revolve less around library research and more around Second Life itself. However, here to there may be promise as the technology itself improves and more users potentially become regular users.
 
In conclusion, a) there’s nothing wrong with integrating games into instruction, online or off. It’s a dynamic and involved way of encouraging interest and involvement among students if you have the time, technical know-how/ support, and creativity to devote to it. And b) Technology and librarians’ use of it has a long way to go before virtual worlds become a practical means of offering effective library services to users, but as I have said throughout this post, there is a lot of promise there.  
 
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Second Life aside: On Second Life, I am “Pearl Muggins.” And I, meaning Pearl Muggins, am pretty awesome, having spent hours at work searching for free clothes, hair, eyeballs, etc. (whilst learning to use SL for work-related purposes, of course). Unfortunately, I do not have much of a second life at home since my “first life” computer does not have a graphics card that makes the cut. I would, however, highly recommend going on there if you get the chance since it’s a great way to meet other librarians, and on a stressful day at work, teleporting to Hawaii and lying on a beach, or better yet, riding a whale, is a great stress-reliever. ;)