IN DEPTH
Ideas for digital game-making events in libraries
Libraries are places of innovation and they constantly change to meet new needs. Over the last few years Ash Green has been exploring how gaming in libraries can engage users and offer creative ways of thinking about services and collections in libraries and other GLAM organisations. Here they share their experience and advice on how to set up your own sessions.
I’VE been making digital games as a hobby since the mid-1980s. I began on eight-bit home computers, and later moved onto PC and web games. And I’ve been working in libraries since 1996 – starting out in cataloguing and then moved into other technical roles. Around 2016, during my time in Surrey Public Libraries, I became Team Lead for Dig- ital Services. This team was partly responsible for the development of online STEM activities and creative tech, under the banner of a mak- er-space programme. It was then that I had the opportunity to start exploring the idea of running game-making activities and explor- ing the link they have to libraries. In this article I am going to explore ideas behind this, including how I’ve worked with games in libraries and other GLAM institutions (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums), and where the successes have come from.
Lo-fi and inclusive
I tend to focus on lo-fi digital game-making, and have shared my passion for game-mak- ing through various projects. This includes running hands-on game and interactive fiction making sessions. What’s interactive fiction, you might ask? Well, think about those choose your own adventure books you
42 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Ash Green, Systems Technician, Goldsmiths University Library
might find in a library, and turn it into a digital version with branching narratives, and that (put simply) is the basis of inter- active fiction.
I’ve run sessions for children and adults, including library colleagues, and have teamed up with colleagues at the British Library to support their work in the Digital Scholarship Team. I’ve also worked with other organisations in the GLAM sector, including heritage organisations focused on running arts based creative programmes. Additionally, I’ve co-organised game jams, such as the Global Game Jam in Guildford Library in 2019, where teams of adults created games based on a theme
March 2024
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