This week’s 4cast:
1. Your Public Library = The New Arcade?
As the audience for online games continues to diversify and grow, what steps are libraries taking to accomodate and reach this group? ALA’s Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium (blog), held last month in Chicago, has generated a lot of literature on the topic, and many of the sessions are available online.
- A Quick Guide to Gaming in Libraries (iLibrarian)
- Get your game face on: Understanding and serving gamers (Library Marketing – Thinking Outside the Book)
- The Future of Gaming (Library Garden)
- Online Gaming Is More Popular than Facebook and YouTube (The Shifted Librarian)
2. The Glass is 1/4 Empty
A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll focused on American reading habits. Among other findings, it concluded that one in four adults have not read a book in the last year, and that older people generally read more than younger people. So is this good news for libraries (most adults are reading books) or cause for alarm?
- Where you fall in poll of U.S. reading habits (CNN)
- “I just get sleepy when I read” (Thingology)
- American Reading Habits (Stephen’s Lighthouse)
- Are Books Becoming Obsolete? (The Huffington Post)
3. Librarians to “Slam the Boards”
On Monday, September 10th, librarians from around the globe will attempt to inundate the many online reference sites (i.e. Yahoo! Answers, Askville, Wikipedia Reference Desk, and ChaCha) with some top-notch question-answerin’. The idea is to demonstrate for users of these sites that librarians are really the best go-to when they need reference help.
- Answer Board Librarians (idea-sharing wiki)
- Slam the Boards! (Answer Board Librarians)
4. The Filtering Follies
The price and potential pitfalls of large-scale Internet filtering is playing out Down Under, where the Australian government has unveiled a nationwide Internet filtering initiative, which was subsequently cracked in half an hour by a Melbourne teenager.
- Veto for parents on web content (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Australia to spend $189 million on anti-porn tech initiative (Ars Technica)
- Teen hacks ‘useless’ Govt porn filter (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
- 84 million dollar porn filter circumvented by teen in 30 minutes (librarian.net)
