"Room size may dictate the kind of gaming experience you deliver."

~Beth Gallaway,
Information Goddess Consulting
Hampton, NH

Facility, Staffing, and Other Issues

Time :: Space :: Staff :: Money

No Time, No Space, No Staff and No Money are sometimes just excuses. Here are some strategies for creating bare-bones programs from almost nothing. Keep in mind that when you tackle a new project, something has to be dropped. Make conscious choices to provide library services that align with your library mission and your patrons' wants and needs.

Time

Share responsibilities. Can't fit in planning a program? Find a partner willing to do the legwork if you provide the funding. Or, pressure your main library or library consortium to purchase traveling kits, saving you the time of advocating and creating a collection to use.

Delegate. Get volunteers to create the publicity materials and set up and break down the program.

Hire. If your expertise isn't game design, hire someone to run a session. You don't have to do everything yourself.

Don't reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of grant experts, gaming email discussion groups, templates, and the best practices session to enable quick decision-making and spend less time on planning.

Staff

Start with staff. Gaming is so ubiquitious, chances are someone on staff can help run a program or workshop, or has a gamer friend or relative who would be willing to pitch in.

Local Experts. Try Board Game Geek to find a local tabletop gaming group.

Local Businesses. Ask local game design companies to speak at a career night. Ask a local college to provide students to talk about game design. Ask a local hobby store to run a Magic the Gathering Tournament. Ask the local electronics store to run a videogame night.

Consider after-hours. Don't have enough staff to spare someone from the desk during regular business hours? Ask for comp time and do it after hours.

Apply for a grant. Often, manpower can be a percentage of the grant budget. Hire an assistant t cover some of your regular duties, or take over gaming entirely.

Space

Room size may dictate the kind of gaming experience you deliver. A space with portable furniture, electrical outlets, and variety of lighting is recommended (ability to dim lights near screens for videogaming, and brighten lights near tables for tabletop gaming). Rock Band, an active game with many pieces of equipment, may require a lot more room than Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which can be played while seated.

Don't forget to leave additional space for spectators. Chairs should be at a distance to encourage waiting in line for a turn and participatorywatching. With rhythm games in particular, players need more space to move around; those waiting may play air guitar or dance along in the background behind the players who are actually using the controllers to play the game. Keep seating on hand for those who just came to watch or hang out. In almost every program, at least one person sits in the corner and reads, or texts a friend.

Have power strips, extension cords, and pencils on hand (for scorekeeping in tabletop games),so you don’t need to go running all over the building unplugging staff computers to borrow powerstrips on the day of your event.

Handheld Gaming

Gaming on handheld devices might be a good solution for smaller libraries; participants can spread out in the library after hours, flop on beanbag chairs in the teen area, sit together in a meeting room or classroom, or sit on cushions or rug squares in the story time room.

With a Nintendo DS, players within 30 feet of one another can connect and share games without any Internet connection.

Tabletop Gaming

Board, card, and dice games may require tables and are often better suited to a meeting room, children's program room, or craft room. Another alternative is the use tables within the library near the reference desk. A seat for every player is a must. Tables should be well lit and equipped with pencils and scrap paper for scorekeeping. If you are teaching games, have two copies on hand.

LAN Party Gaming

If you are thinking about a Local Area Network (LAN) party, you need to consider the structure of your library's networks. A school or college library with a large computer lab may be able to provide access to 30 or more participants. A speedy Internet connection and computers with fast processors, plenty of RAM, and good video cards are critical. If you are concerned that your facility's computers are not up to par for role-playing, shooting, or racing games online, you can invite patrons to bring in their own laptops or PCs and hook up (wired or wireless) to a LAN. These programs can be structured (with Halo tournaments, specific quests to complete in RuneScape or dungeon runs on specific servers in World of Warcraft, or ) or unstructured (provide a list of recommended games, offer go-at-your-own pace game design, or encourage free play).

If you are feeling that your library is just too small, consider holding an after-hours program. You can host multiple board or videogames spread out in different areas of the library. Staffing may be an issue in smaller libraries. Sometimes there isn’t enough coverage—willingness—to open after hours. Offering a multi-generational program hosted by staff from different departments may be a solution.

Think outside the box. The session doesn't have to be held at your location to be branded as a library program! Consider bringing your games to a senior center or nursing home, city hall auditorium, school cafeteria, YMCA, girls or boys club, church basement, local college, or other space in the community. Holding your program outside the library allows for cross-marketing, and may be a partnership opportunity.

Biological Needs

Access to restrooms is a neccessity; access to kitchen is always a bonus. Provide sink access and antibacterial soap. Have a broom or vacuum on hand, and provide plenty of napkins, hand sanitizer (especially during cold season), and baby wipes. Use disinfectant wipes or a bleach solution to sanitize equipment after each program.

At the very least, serve water at your program. A bucket filled with ice and water bottles works, but a water fountain or a water cooler in the meeting room saves on ice and plastic waste. Consider asking gamers to bring their own water bottle to refill, or offer them as prizes. Customizing, labeling, or tagging a bottle or plastic cup with permanent marker can be part of the program; fine-tipped Sharpie pens survive multiple dishwasher exposures.

If you are thinking about food, you may want to have it in a separate area. If this isn't possible consider offering food before or after the program. If you are determined to have food during the session, be specific about what kind of food you want to provide (everyone may love to eat pizza, but do you want greasy controllers or stained cards?).

If stains on the new carpeting are a concern, and you haven’t accepted the fact that it’s better for a space to be well-used than pristine from non-use, consider clear beverages only: water, ginger ale, lemon-lime drinks, apple or white grape juice.

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