Librarian's Guide to Games and Gamers: From Collection Development to Advisory Services

(Paperback)

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Description

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 gameswhether they are new to gaming or seasoned playersthrough advisory services. This book maps all types of gamesboard, roleplaying, digital, and virtual realityproviding 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.

Reviews

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. * Library Journal *

Author Bio

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.