On January 16th, the ALA Council approved the formation of the Games and Gaming Member Initiative Group. Scott Nicholson (srnichol@syr.edu), associate professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies and director of the Library Game Lab of Syracuse, appeared before the ALA Committee on Organization on January 15th as a Designated Organizer with a petition with 149 member signatures to request that the group be started as a channel to bring together librarians of all types to talk about tabletop and digital games. The other Designated Organizers were Kelly Czarnecki, Christopher Harris and Allan Kleiman; Terri Kirk, ALA Executive Board member, also worked with the group. Jenny Levine and John Chrastka, both from ALA, assisted the Designated Organizers in crafting the Charge for thegroup, which is:
To engage those interested in games and gaming activities in libraries
and to collaborate with ALA units to support gaming initiatives and
programs across the Association. Games, as defined in their broadest
sense to include traditional and modern board, card, video, mobile,
computer, live-action, roleplaying and miniature games, and gaming
activities, including planning and running gaming programs, providing
games for informal play, developing a game collection, creating games,
development of information and other literacies through games and
partnering with other community organizations to support gaming, will
be topics for professional exploration. This group is open to all
members.
The Member Initiative Group structure is designed for new topics and creates an ALA organization that lives for 3 years. After that time, if the group is flourishing, it can apply to become part of the ALA’s
permanent organizational structure as a Round Table. ALA will be creating a discussion forum, blog, wiki, and other methods for the group to begin discussions shortly. More information about the
Library Game Lab of Syracuse and updates on the Games and Gaming MIG will be posted at http://gamelab.syr.edu.