Professor receives grant to bring gaming to libraries, other campuses

By: Michael Jiang

Posted: 2/12/08

If Professor Scott Nicholson has his way, the library would no longer be a place just for studying - students could also play video games.

Nicholson, an associate professor in the School of Information Studies, recently received a $5,000 grant from Gaylord Brothers, a library supply company located in Syracuse, to begin building a portable library game lab. Money from the grant will specifically go toward purchasing projectors, consoles, screens, accessories and games, Nicholson said.

"This was a great way for Gaylord to support Syracuse University, the community and gaming libraries in general," said Henry Orr, director of business development at Gaylord. He also noted that the credit for the grant should go to Gaylord's President and CEO Guy Marhewka.

"Professor Nicholson is a fantastic individual," Orr said. "He has lots of ideas, and will be able to take libraries to a new place."

Nicholson's goal is to explore the implications of offering gaming as a library service. Additionally, he hopes to study the entire gaming experience and how gaming will change the attitudes of students toward the library.

"Gaming activities are like the new coffee shop in Bird Library; it's not about the coffee so much as the social atmosphere it creates," Nicholson said.

"Libraries are witnessing a shift in the culture of library science and user behavior. Gaming can bring non-users into the library and introduce them to library resources," said Meghan Westbrook, an SU grad student who recently signed up to help with the project.

There have been many of studies conducted regarding the effects of games on individuals and what can be gained through gaming, but "there has been very little exploration of the concept of gaming as a service," Nicholson said.

"Gaming is currently the wild, wild west of libraries," Orr said.

Nicholson said gaming is the next form of popular media, and that in order for libraries to remain relevant, they will have to find a way to support games, as they have books, music and movies.

"In order to have a positive gaming experience, you have to match the player to the game, just as you match a reader to a book," Nicholson said.

"Gaming can help the sense of community that a library hopes to provide," Westbrook added.

Nicholson hopes his Library Game Lab will be able to help libraries effectively allocate resources to support gaming.

The Library Game Lab project will occur in three main phases, depending on the availability of outside funding. Nicholson has been working on the first phase of the project for the past year, working with students to survey libraries and how they view gaming.

"We have learned that at least seven out of 10 public libraries support gaming in some way," Nicholson said.

The project's current phase, to create a portable library game lab, will be followed by the next phase, to increase awareness about the project.

"With this project, I will travel to library conferences and expose librarians to the spectrum of games, talk about what types of games are best for certain demographic groups with libraries and collect more data about what is happening," Nicholson said.

The third and final phase of the project will be to set up research projects, which will explore how the different types of games relate to different types of people.

"This will be the ongoing life of the lab - to analyze new games and game types, to recommend the best games for different goals and demographic groups and to work with industry to help them create gaming experiences more suited for a library/school setting," Nicholson said.

Nicholson said as soon as he is able to secure more funding to build the program, he hopes to start aggressively drawing in students to help with the project. So far he has relied heavily on volunteers to help with research and promoting the program. In addition, Nicholson is teaching a graduate-level iSchool class in May on gaming in libraries, and it has already received considerable student interest.

There has been both support and criticism from the Syracuse community at large regarding the Library Game Lab, but Nicholson said the key is getting people to understand that this is not about "first person shooters," but rather about "understanding how gaming works as a service and how libraries and schools can be engaged."

The first trip with the portable Library Game Lab will occur later this month. Depending on the amount of funding Nicholson is able to receive, he said he hopes to be able to develop and expand the project in the coming months.

myjiang@syr.edu