Libraries, Literacy and Gaming Grant

About the Libraries, Literacy and Gaming Grant These grants were awarded to libraries that clearly demonstrated creativity, capacity, sustainability and a strong commitment to literacy-related gaming services.

Administered by:

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Public

2009 Selection(s)

Brewster Ladies Library, Brewster, MA

Project Description: Geocaching, “Hi-Tech Hide and Seek,” provides the perfect blend of simplicity and complexity needed to design a successful gaming and literacy project.

Target Population: middle school students

Project Design: The library will use GPS technology to create an adventure game that requires reading, research, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and aligns closely with technology standards established by the International Society for Technology in Education. The library will create themed gaming events by:

· Devising a search promoting an understanding and appreciation for Brewster’s historic places and regional history.
· Utilizing a book featured on the summer reading list (such as The Graveyard Book) as source material for a hunt could require students to do genealogical research at the library and visit a local cemetery to locate a cache.

Project Goals:
· Encourage civic engagement among youth

The Library will partner with:

· Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School
· Local historical society or natural history museum
· Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops
· Nickerson State Park


Indian Trails Public Library, Wheeling, IL

Project Description: Involve these young patrons as creators of the kinds of games they enjoy playing.

Target Population: Youth age 10-18

Project Design: Participants will learn about four categories of gaming from gaming experts: computer animation games, card games, board games, and role-playing games, then work in teams to create games. Then, they will participate in a Game Fair using the Science Fair model, and compete in the Chicago Toy and Game Fair Young Inventor Challenge.

Project Goals:

· Improve reading and writing proficiency while following and creating instructions and descriptive;
· Improve collaboration skills while taking games from concept to reality;
· Develop information literacy skills to identify appropriate approaches, sources and tools for the games they envision;
· Use reading, math, science, literature, history, logic, storytelling and myriad other skills to demonstrate and play their games;
· Improve communication skills when demonstrating and discussing their games.

The Library will partner with:
· Girl Scout Troops
· Chicago Toy and Game (Chitag) Fair
· Support from other library departments (webmaster, computer services)


Sewickley Public Library, Sewickley, PA

This afterschool gaming partnership with the local school district
Stresses programs & projects “based on constituents interest.”

Project Design:
In this 10-week program, middle school youth will plan and facilitate gaming events for younger students, which will then be held at the public library. Participants will document their efforts by producing a video of the steps they followed. A school assembly to showcase participants’ finished movie would entice fellow teens to get involved with the next session and would make the students accountable for their time spent in the program. A viewing would also be held in the library for parents and interested community members.

Project Goals:
· Enhances visual literacy skills of participants
· Enrich educational endeavors of participants
· Increase leadership skills by empowering youth as facilitators
· Increase number of teen & tween library users
· Give the librarian the opportunity to interact with teenagers who might not normally seek out library events
· Build a bridge between the school and the library

The Library will partner with:
· Quaker Valley School District


Weber County Library System, Ogden, UT

Project Description: This ambitious proposal to move tween/teens beyond merely playing games, and to immerse them in a physical, creative, visual, and written game creation process to foster artistic, literary, and media literacy has many unique components, including a computer building workshop that addresses a level of
technical analysis and critical planning skills in a practical hands-on effort seen in no other proposal.

Target Population: Teens & Tweens ages 10-18

Project Design: Activities include:
· A board game modification program with a “create from scratch” option
· Classes to teach teens to develop and write game storylines and to design their own professional-grade video games
· An interactive Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) program for participants to write and construct CYOA novels and have the opportunity to play a live-action CYOA game, each tween choosing his or her own path
· Console RPGs gaming as research
· A hands-on workshop to teach teens the fundamentals of designing and building gaming PCs
· Podcasting workshops will teach teens to write, produce, and post podcasts featuring book and video game reviews
· An. This interactive Alternate Reality Game that will use the real world to immerse players in a fictionalized narrative quest involving geocaching. Development of a collection of 50 gaming novels to be used in a traveling display for GIG events., complimented by bookmarks, book lists, and booktalks will be developed to market this circulating collection of novels

Project Goals:
· Increase traditional programs attendance by 50%
· Increase in gaming participation by 30%
· Improvement of written/verbal skills
· Increase in knowledge of game story structure and design

The Library will partner with:
· Boys and Girls Club
· The Marshall White [Community] Center
· Youth Impact [Community Center]
· local schools


School

2009 Selection(s)

Cascade Middle School Auburn WA

Project Description: The library’s Gaming Zone initiative will develop two afterschool programs a week, encompassing board and video game creation workshops, tournaments and hint book/cheat sheet development.

Target Population: middle school students

Project Design: During bi-weekly afterschool programs, the library will:
· Offer games that tie into the curriculum
· Host daily/monthly tournaments to challenge skill and hold interest.
· Hold themed gaming days designated for special groups (i.e. 6th grade day, Girls day, All-Madden day)
· Offer a game creation workshop to teach basic video and board game creation skills
· Create opportunity for students to create hint books and/or cheat sheets for the various games
· Provide Homework Help available from peer tutors, supervisors, and volunteers
· Create a high-interest book collection
· Develop a gaming council


Hanshew Middle School Library and the Anchorage School District, Anchorage, AK

Project Description: Expand DDR to 10 middle schools & add a lunchtime computers gaming program to use Spore & Civilization, strategy simulation games.

Target Population: middle school students

Project Design: With purchase of additional equipment, the library will make gaming available to all middle schools in the district, host a lunchtime gaming group, offer gaming as an incentive to specific classes, host family game nights, and extend gaming year during a summer Internet Camp

Project Goals:
· Expand the use of DDR events to all middle schools in the district
· Purchase additional gaming equipment to expand into different types of gaming.
· Extend gaming opportunities to Camp Internet summer program
· Increase impact from 1000 students to 10, 000 students

The Library will partner with:
· 10 librarians and 10 library assistants from other district middle schools
· Community business partners who will donate prizes for gaming events
· Gifted & Talented teacher


School Libraries

2009 Selection(s)

CMS Gaming Zone Auburn, WA

Project Description: The library’s Gaming Zone initiative will develop two afterschool programs a week, encompassing board and video game creation workshops, tournaments and hint book/cheat sheet development.

Target Population: middle school students

Project Design: During bi-weekly afterschool programs, the library will:
· Offer games that tie into the curriculum
· Host daily/monthly tournaments to challenge skill and hold interest.
· Hold themed gaming days designated for special groups (i.e. 6th grade day, Girls day, All-Madden day)
· Offer a game creation workshop to teach basic video and board game creation skills
· Create opportunity for students to create hint books and/or cheat sheets for the various games
· Provide Homework Help available from peer tutors, supervisors, and volunteers
· Create a high-interest book collection
· Develop a gaming council

Project Goals:
· Demonstrate academic improvement through a reading assessment
· Provide students a safe place to congregate after school.
· Increased traffic of students in library will expand circulation and accessibility to library material
· Students will increase leadership skills
· Students will have an opportunity to meet students outside their immediate grade-level and/or social group

The Library will partner with:
· Communities in School (CIS)
· PSTA


Game on in Alaska! Anchorage, Alaska

Project Description: Expand DDR to 10 middle schools & add a lunchtime computers gaming program to use Spore & Civilization, strategy simulation games.

Target Population: middle school students

Project Design: With purchase of additional equipment, the library will make gaming available to all middle schools in the district, host a lunchtime gaming group, offer gaming as an incentive to specific classes, host family game nights, and extend gaming year during a summer Internet Camp

Project Goals:
· Expand the use of DDR events to all middle schools in the district
· Purchase additional gaming equipment to expand into different types of gaming.
· Extend gaming opportunities to Camp Internet summer program
· Increase impact from 1000 students to 10, 000 students

The Library will partner with:
· 10 librarians and 10 library assistants from other district middle schools
· Community business partners who will donate prizes for gaming events
· Gifted & Talented teacher


Academic

2009 Selection(s)

Manhattanville College Library, Purchase NY

Project Description: At Manhattanville College, a small liberal arts college dedicated to educating its students to become ethically and socially responsible leaders for the global community, students will design games for middle school students on how to use the library to find a book, use a general database, ask for reference help, navigate the library website, and develop a time management plan.

Target Population: 15 pre-freshmen college students age 17-18 and 265 minority middle school students from low income families

Project Design: As part of the Manhattanville Advancement Program (MAP) that serves economically disadvantaged scholarship students that have demonstrated the potential for academic success, the library will use games during this pre-freshman summer program, to enrich the academic foundation of MAP students. Scratch, a free gaming programming tool, will be used to teach students about design, working with different types of media, and basic programming concepts. Students will be divided into five teams and each team will develop a specific game:
· finding a book,
· using a general database,
· asking for reference help,
· navigating the library website,
· developing a time management plan.
MAP students will, in turn, teach these innovative games to the MPALS students at their weekend sessions in February and March, 2010. .

Project Goals:
· To nurture students for academic success and to strengthen the leadership qualities of the participants
· Develop five specific types of games related to information literacy and bibliography instruction
· Use games created by these students can be used as models for other undergraduate programs

The Library will partner with:
· Manhattanville Promotes Academics and Lifelong Success (MPALS)
· Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
· Graduate School of Education


Academic Libraries

2009 Selection(s)

Educational Gaming Program Purchase, NY

Project Description: At Manhattanville College, a small liberal arts college dedicated to educating its students to become ethically and socially responsible leaders for the global community, students will design games for middle school students on how to use the library to find a book, use a general database, ask for reference help, navigate the library website, and develop a time management plan.

Target Population: 15 pre-freshmen college students age 17-18 and 265 minority middle school students from low income families

Project Design: As part of the Manhattanville Advancement Program (MAP) that serves economically disadvantaged scholarship students that have demonstrated the potential for academic success, the library will use games during this pre-freshman summer program, to enrich the academic foundation of MAP students. Scratch, a free gaming programming tool, will be used to teach students about design, working with different types of media, and basic programming concepts. Students will be divided into five teams and each team will develop a specific game:
· finding a book,
· using a general database,
· asking for reference help,
· navigating the library website,
· developing a time management plan.
MAP students will, in turn, teach these innovative games to the MPALS students at their weekend sessions in February and March, 2010. .

Project Goals:
· To nurture students for academic success and to strengthen the leadership qualities of the participants
· Develop five specific types of games related to information literacy and bibliography instruction
· Use games created by these students can be used as models for other undergraduate programs

The Library will partner with:
· Manhattanville Promotes Academics and Lifelong Success (MPALS)
· Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
· Graduate School of Education


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