Everyone Plays at the Library: Creating Great Gaming Experiences for All Ages

by Scott Nicholson

"Everyone Plays at the Library is the single most important starting point for any library that wants to start or expand a gaming program.”
— Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian

If you are interested in the why, what, and how of library gaming, Everyone Plays at the Library is the place to start. Scott Nicholson—educator, librarian, game designer, host of the "Board Games with Scott" video series, and founder of the Library Game Lab of Syracuse—shows how gaming programs can be successfully implemented in school, academic, and public libraries, covering all types of games for all age groups.

You'll learn how to determine user needs, achieve library goals, gain stakeholder approval, reach out to users, build an affordable collection of great games, assess program effectiveness, bring all ages together, and create the type of memorable experience that gets users talking and keeps them coming back for more.

“Nicholson has given us the roadmap for developing top-notch gaming programs as well as the background, models of gaming experiences, and evaluation tools that promise best practice programs and great learning outcomes.”
— Sari Feldman, Executive Director, Cuyahoga County Public Library

Genres: Nonfiction, Librarianship, School

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Dr. Scott Nicholson is an Associate Professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and the Director of the Because Play Matters game lab. His areas of interest include meaningful gamification and the creation of transformative games for informal learning and training. During the 2011-2012 academic year, he was a visiting professor at MIT in Comparative Media Studies and the GAMBIT game lab. Dr. Nicholson is a published board game designer, wrote the book Everyone Plays at the Library, and was an academic reference librarian. His research blog is at http://becauseplaymatters.com.

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent "how to" manual for program librarians. Mr. Nicholson provides examples of gaming programs in many different library settings and with all different age audiences. A must have for any public or college library professional bookshelf. Gaming isn't just for teens! It can be for younger kids, tweens, teens, young adults, families, and empty nesters. It's all about the way you frame the event and publicize it in your community.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book overall. It combines common sense practices of library programs. Most, I've thought about and practiced, other tips, tricks, and techniques were new to me and I will definitely use.

It also has a ton of great suggestions for what games to purchase when starting up a gaming program.

I would not recommend this book to someone who is already has a successful library gaming program. It covers the basics.

[Mariella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect what I was looking for when presenting gaming to the library as a really good intergenerational programming idea. Adult play is the word floating around nowadays, and I feel like board games, and video games, but I prefer board games are a great step towards addresses recreational activities for adults to come to the library.

[Cat Bascle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm working on a grant for my library that requires me to propose a youth literacy program. It will be my first time designing such a program, and this book is part of my research. There are a lot of good ideas here, but I wish there had been more discussion of the practicalities of running games, especially non-digital ones.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about games for public libraries. I really like that it is targeting games for people of all ages. Excellent examples and ideas.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted an overview of great games to play at the library and this provided me with that. It also provided me with a good overview of how to market programs in general.