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Games and other forms of play are used in today’s libraries to attract underserved patrons, to introduce patrons to other library resources and services, and to facilitate engagement between library patrons. While many perceive gaming as a new library service, gaming services have been part of librarianship since the nineteenth century through chess clubs. During the Great Depression, libraries supported patrons with puzzle contests and developed circulating toy and game collections. Academic libraries built game collections for research and classroom needs, while school libraries collected and facilitated educational games to aid teachers. Video games have been used in libraries to help patrons learn to use technology and to bring groups of patrons together to enjoy shared experiences. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the different ways in which libraries have used games, toys, and puzzles over the last 150 years through both collections and services.

Three school library staff members explore how they have used tabletop games in different school library settings. Teresa Copeland (Tesseract School, Paradise Valley, Arizona, USA) explores how tabletop and role-playing games have been integrated into the curriculum across a wide variety of grade levels. Brenda Henderson (Trinity High School Learning Resources Centre, Redditch, UK) discusses how a board game club has made a difference in a high school library in the United Kingdom. Brian Mayer (School Library System, Genesee Valley Educational Partnership, LeRoy, New York, USA) supports multiple school libraries in finding matches between the curriculum and authentic games and runs game design workshops.

This series of questions and answers is designed to help you take the first steps toward the successful production of a scholarly article in librarianship. You may find yourself in a library position that requires writing or you may have just decided that you are ready to share your findings, experiences, and knowledge with the current and future generations of librarians. While following the guidelines listed here will not guarantee that you will be successful, these steps will take you closer to discovering the thrill of seeing your name in print and making a difference in the field.

While a growing number of the digital reference services in libraries have become part of collaborative reference networks, other entities that serve similar information-seeking needs such as special collections and museums have not joined these networks, even though they are answering an increasing number of questions from off-site patrons via the Internet. This article examines the differences between questions asked electronically of traditional reference services and those asked of special collections services; it further explores how a better understanding of digital reference in special collections will facilitate the development of the tools and models needed to create a bridge between digital human intermediation at general academic libraries, special collections, and museums.

Librarianship, as a profession, relies upon a strong network of colleagues outside the institution for collaboration. The seeds for this collaborative culture are planted in library school; however, in an online environment the challenges are greater when creating that sense of community. By supporting more ways to allow students, faculty, staff, and alumni to communicate in a distance education environment, the sense of community of the school can be raised. This community building can be done either within the confines of a course (internal) or outside the course structure (external). In both cases, the concept is the same - develop more pathways through a communication scaffold that allow individuals who are part of the community of the school to connect. There are three dimensions to consider in developing this scaffold: Synchronous vs. Asynchronous; Facilitated vs. Non-Facilitated; and 1-way vs. 2-way. By being conscious of these choices, those working to improve interaction can try to incorporate different types of experiences in order to encourage a larger group of people to participate.