Wii Play @ The Library
Where did the Nintendo Wii Come from?
The Woodbine Recreation Council gave the library a grant to purchase a Nintendo Wii and necessary other items to do active gaming programs for preteens and teens.
Erin Burke March 2008 Carroll County Public Library
A new program at the Mount Airy public library sponsored by the Woodbine Recreation Council
eburke@carr.org
Goals, Results, Options, What you learned and Thrive
G.R.O.W.TH
My goals with Wii Play @ the library were to: Provide a fun program using interactive technology for preteens and teenagers at the library. Keep participants involved and active, even if they are waiting for their turn. Invent an autonomous and orderly way for preteen and teen participants to take turns. In order to accomplish my goals, I worked with the members of the Mt. Airy Young Adult team to get ideas for what items we needed to purchase to do a program for teens using a Nintendo Wii. We thought of ways to publicize the program to attract more teens. I worked on figuring out ways to ensure a large group could all attend and have something to do while they waited for their turn. I also talked to members of the teen advisory board to get feedback from actual preteens and teens. Additionally I read a book all about how to run gaming programs in
a library that helped me plan out how to set up the room. Once the library had the Nintendo Wii, I got a chance to try out my ideas for the program, which including a system for autonomous signing up, with staff members at a branch meeting. I advertised the program with posters both at the library and the middle school. For the program, I set up the room so that there were chairs for teens to sit in while they watched the screen, board games to play while they waited and a second gaming system barrowed from another library branch for additional players. I have learned a lot while planning and procuring necessities for my program Wii Play @ the Library. Getting the Nintendo Wii was a lot trickier than I thought. I learned that it’s never a good idea to purchase things right around the holidays, especially if it’s related to one of that year’s hottest toys. I have learned to set up and use a Nintendo Wii. I know how to play all of the games we purchased for the program, although the preteens and teens are still better than I am at playing them. The last thing I learned is
that I can’t expect a teen program to bring in as many attendees as a children’s program. When I started planning I was sure that this program would lead to a packed room where the attendees would only get a single turn. Instead, I’ve gotten a small group of kids that return each month and can all have numerous turns. And their enthusiasm and repeat attendance has shown me that this is a successful outcome. I suppose I would give myself an 8. There were other ideas I had for promoting the program that I haven’t done such as visiting a school to promote it to the kids. I also feel that I should have anticipated how hard it would be to get things around Christmas and should have gotten everything before the holiday season. However the preteens and teens who attend the Wii Play @ the Library program enjoy it. They are kept active and involved throughout the program (mainly due to the fact there are so few of them they can all be playing one of the gaming systems). And the attendees autonomously decide whose turn it is and which game to play just by talking to each other. However my system hasn’t really been used due to the small numbers of attendees.