Infomancy n. 1.The field of magic related to the conjuring of information from the chaos of the universe. 2.The collection of terms, queries, and actions related to the retrieval of information from arcane sources.

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ALA Gaming Member Interest Group

January 17th, 2008 by Christopher Harris

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 the group, 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.

Posted in infomancy | 1 Comment »

One Response to “ALA Gaming Member Interest Group”

  1. Ulrike Dieterle Says:
    January 18th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    Wonderful news! Thanks to all who worked to make this happen. Having the ALA stamp of approval gives tremendous credibility to an area of learning, interaction and information that many still view with distain and about which there is many misunderstandings.

    There is so much creative activity bubbling up from so many sectors regarding games, sims and immersive environments. These new tools and approaches are being embraced by the health sciences fields, which is my area of concentration, for treatment, education, intervention and prevention. It will be very interesting to watch as the marriage of new Web 2.0 technologies and creative approaches to information transfer lead us all on explorations to yet undiscovered territories.