Libraries as Social Hubs
by Karen Nicholson
I am the librarian at San Marcos Middle School. I want my school library to be thought of as a fun and safe place in the school. I want it to be a place to read a book, play a video game, socialize with friends, do some homework, or play a tabletop game. I want it to be a refuge for the kids that need a place to just be themselves. This library is not the shushing and be quiet type, unless it is reading time during class library visits or homework time after school. The most popular games in our library are UNO, chess and checkers. I love it when a student asks me to play a game of UNO with them. It gives me a chance get to know the students better, have some fun, and make new connections with the students that inevitably join our game.
I’m almost at the end of my first year as the library media technician at San Marcos Middle School. I am absolutely loving my job and I am looking forward towards what I would like to add to the library in the next few years. The first is to start a book club. I know of several teachers that are also interested in this, and I would happily host it in the library. We could read a book every few weeks and meetup to talk about it. I would want the students to have input on what books we read, and maybe have them each take a turn suggesting a book. I would also like at least one period of time to have each student to read different books they are interested in and let the other students know why they picked it and what they thought about it.
The other activity I would like to start up in the library would be a tabletop gaming group. I am a gamer, I LOVE to play video games and to play analog tabletop games with my friends and family. I find video games to be a solo adventure for me, but tabletop games are very social and a great way to build relationships with friends. Almost every weekend I get together with some friends and we play a tabletop game. We often re-play our favorites and enjoy trying out new games. There are so many great games out there that would be fantastic to play in a middle school library. So many students are playing games on their phones, or on the computers in the library. I would like them to get more involved in playing games with each other. According to Alvarez, “modern tabletop games have been proven more engaging than many of the older games, but they also have been proven to leave fewer feelings of resentment or discouragement if gaming outcomes are not favorable. In fact, students leave the table strategizing better outcomes and looking forward to the next challenge” (42). These games go beyond the luck factor of popular older games like Monopoly or Risk. There are many modern games that use more cooperation, include more variety in decisions needed to be made to be successful, and have less waiting between player turns (Alvarez, 45). Using a cooperative game like Forbidden Island can be a way for students to feel successful, but not the pressure to having a goal of defeating their opponent (Alvarez, 45). They can work on their teamwork skills, while having a lot of fun. Every student that is playing can give important input on the best way to win the game. When I start up this group I plan on starting with Ticket to Ride and trying other games after that. Based on the games I have played with my friends over the last several years I would recommend the following to try with students in a library setting: Carcassonne, Descent, Dominion, Fluxx, Bang!, Forbidden Island, Legendary, Machi Koro, Mysterium, Pandemic, Qwirkle, Sushi Go!, Settlers of Catan, Takenoko, Ticket to Ride, Tokaido
Alvarez, Vivian. "Engaging Students in the Library through Tabletop Gaming." Knowledge Quest, vol. 45, no. 4, Mar/Apr2017, pp. 40-48. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=121512460&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
BoardGameGeek. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.
BoardGameGeek. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.
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