Librarian's Guide to Games and Gamers: From Collection Development to Advisory Services
Ebook
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Overview
Helps librarians who are not themselves seasoned gamers to better understand the plethora of gaming products available and how they might appeal to library users.
As games grow ever-more ubiquitous in our culture and communities, they have become popular staples in public library collections and are increasing in prominence in academic ones. Many librarians, especially those who are not themselves gamers or are only acquainted with a handful of games, are ill-prepared to successfully advise patrons who use games. This book provides the tools to help adult and youth services librarians to better understand the gaming landscape and better serve gamers in discovery of new games—whether they are new to gaming or seasoned players—through advisory services.
This book maps all types of games—board, roleplaying, digital, and virtual reality—providing all the information needed to understand and appropriately recommend games to library users. Organized by game type, hundreds of descriptions offer not only bibliographic information (title, publication date, series, and format/platform), but genre classifications, target age ranges for players, notes on gameplay and user behavior type, and short descriptions of the game’s basic premise and appeals.
Helps librarians who are not themselves seasoned gamers to better understand the plethora of gaming products available and how they might appeal to library users.
Provides a new approach to gaming that fills the gap in the library by introducing the idea of gamers’ advisory
Contains a representative list of board games, video games, roleplaying games, card games, and more for librarians to consult when working with patrons or programming
Discusses the aspects of gaming collections in libraries including cataloguing, preservation, purchasing and collection development, stack maintenance, understanding player motivation, genre-specific terminology and phrases, future trends (e.g., AI, AR, VR), and other tips and tricks for maintaining a successful gaming collection
Acknowledgments
Introduction: "Roll for Initiative"
PART I: GAMING COLLECTIONS AND GAMERS
1: Gaming Collections in Libraries: A Primer
2: Collection Development
3: Collection Maintenance
4: Programming
5: User Behavior in Gaming
6: Gamers’ Advisory
PART II: GAMERS’ ADVISORY
7: Board Games
8: Video Games
9: Online Video Game Platforms
10: Collectable Card Games, Role-Play Games, and Miniature Role-Play (Minifig) Games
11: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Conclusion: "Press Start to Play"
Appendix: Speed Run: A Quick Reference Guide
Resources
Index
A superb book for early-career librarians, librarians who are new to games and gaming, academic librarians hoping to install games into the collection, and anyone looking for a fresh perspective on gaming.
- Title: Librarian's Guide to Games and Gamers: From Collection Development to Advisory Services
- Authors: Michelle Goodridge, Matthew J. Rohweder
- Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 262
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBN: 9798216110958
- Resource ID: LLS:9798216110958
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T15:41:13Z
Michelle Goodridge, MA, MLIS, is Liaison Librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario.
Matthew J. Rohweder, MA, MLIS, is Liaison Librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario.