Gaming expert to discuss gaming in libraries
Contact: JoAnne Kempf
Office of ALA Governance
(312) 280-3212
NEWS
For immediate release
December 9, 2009
The next installment in the series of ALA President Jim Rettig’s ALA Connections Salons will be an online discussion with Scott Nicholson, an avid expert on gaming in libraries. The discussion, entitled “Gaming Connections,” will take place from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Friday, Dec. 19.
Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) Coordinator Tom Peters will begin the hour with an interview with Nicholson. Nicholson is an associate professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and the chief scientist of the Library Game Lab of Syracuse. In addition to gaming, Nicholson’s interests include the assessment of library services through data mining and participatory librarianship. Nicholson is also the host of the “Board Games with Scott” video series, the “On Board Games” podcast and the “Gaming in Libraries” podcast.
Following the interview, participants will be free to ask questions and engage with Nicholson and with one another to discuss gaming in their libraries.
The salon will take place in OPAL, a user-friendly site offering online rooms where participants can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting, synchronized browsing and other functions. The link for the salon is
http://tinyurl.com/6ncakq, and a tip sheet for users is available at
http://www.opal-online.org/firsttimetips.htm.
Like its 17th and 18th Century European counterparts, the ALA Connections Salon offers a place for ALA members to gather and discuss professional topics of interest. Future salons will take place each month throughout Rettig’s presidency on from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Fridays as follows:
2009
February 20 ALA Connections
March 20 Next Generation Catalog Connections
April 17 Advocacy Connections
May 15 Education and Recruitment Connections
June 19 Future Connections
For more information about ALA President Jim Rettig’s initiatives, please visit
http://jimrettig.org/content/initiatives/initiatives.htm .
