2024 Conference

Level up your instruction: Designing playful learning experiences with games-based learning and gamification (Xavier)

Amber Sewell, Teaching and Learning Librarian
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Have you wanted to implement games and gaming in your work in academic libraries, but have been unsure how to start? In this workshop, participants will dive into the emerging field of games and librarianship and begin to build the confidence to create a meaningful, aligned learning experience. We will start by differentiating between games-based learning and gamification, exploring different contexts for instruction and identifying which approach best fits each scenario. The presenter and attendees will share playful learning experiences they have designed or observed, and participants will consider how these might be adapted to fit their own contexts. Moving beyond our own experiences, the presenter will then share a worksheet that guides participants through the backward design process to facilitate the development of playful learning experiences. During working time, attendees will have the option to begin the backward design process, share their ideas for implementing games in their work to elicit feedback and suggestions, engage with example games for instruction to inspire ideas, and/or engage in a question and answer session.

Board Games in Your Library: How to Create Polished Tabletop Games to Use in the Classroom for Years to Come (Berman)

Gary R. Maixner III, User Experience/Project Management Librarian
University of Nevada, Las Vegas Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

Mari Kermit-Canfield, Creative Learning Librarian and Coordinator of Research Services
FLITE Library, Ferris State University

• Board games are an ideal solution for one-shot instruction, as they can give students a unique and memorable session outside of the traditional sage-on-the-stage instruction style, while giving them authentic goals to work towards in pursuit of their learning. It also allows the instructor to take on a facilitating role to create a deeper connection to students. It also offloads much of the work of instruction, reducing burnout and lowering preparation time.
• In this session, two will teach participants the skills that they need to start creating and prototyping their own board games for the classroom. These skills will include how to write effective learning outcomes and map them to gameplay for their games, how to modify a game to make it easier or more challenging, methods for prototyping a game, and how to use tools to polish the game to a finished product. Participants will be given time to start working on their own game ideas and receive feedback from the presenters.

embracing the chaos: improvisation and movement in information literacy instruction (Maraschi)

Sarah Cohn, Head of Reference
The City College of New York, CUNY

Gina Levitan, Reference & Instruction Librarian
Hunter College, CUNY

• While many librarian instructors turn to games to bring a sense of play into their information literacy sessions, these games at times can feel rote or proscribed. How can we, as instructors, invite spontaneity and fun into our classes? Our answer is to incorporate improvisational activities that have no fixed expectations for how they will unfold, even if they have an intended outcome or destination.
• In this workshop, attendees are invited to learn more about using improvisation and movement in their information literacy instruction, and the connection between these types of activities and critical pedagogy.
• Attendees will engage in movement and improvisational activities during the session, hear our praxis in implementing activities in our own classrooms, and work in small groups to brainstorm their own activities and ways to implement them in their own teaching.

Dress Up Your Boss in Silly Costumes: Best Practices for Library-Faculty Professional Development  (Xavier)

Amy Pelman, Upper School Librarian
The Harker School

Meredith Cranston, Upper School Campus Librarian
The Harker School

• How can librarians educate faculty about information literacy and inspire them to collaborate with us? With skits of course! During faculty orientations, we librarians seize the opportunity to drop some specific info lit knowledge in a way that is engaging and fun. It helps center information literacy and emphasizes its importance across the entire curriculum. We started making this presentation kooky around 2012 and we have never looked back. We have used Monty Python to explain disciplinary literacy, created campaign videos for our databases, and explored COVID-19 learning loss through a faculty game show. In order to learn more about onboarding faculty with a side of library PR, we will begin our CCLI session by inviting attendees to participate in the show. Attendees will also have an opportunity to share how they educate their own instructors and spark information literacy collaborations on their campuses.

Volunteering to Learn: Harnessing Fun to Motivate Students (Maraschi)

Alexis Gomez, Evening Circulation and Reserves Supervisor
Dartmouth Libraries

Jentry Campbell, Research and Learning Librarian – STEM
Dartmouth Libraries

Laura Barrett, Head of Teaching and Learning
Dartmouth Libraries

• Many librarians face the same dilemma: the number of students we seek to interact with outstrips the hours librarians have to work with students. As part of a library-wide initiative to scaffold learning throughout the undergraduate curriculum, we identified library learning outcomes for first-year students. Unable to rely on curricular integration to achieve the learning outcomes, we identified play and gamification as ways to encourage students to spend their own time learning about library skills and spaces outside of mandatory course sessions. The three activities we developed were:
  • Agents of Time‚ a Canvas-based game with escape room mechanics using a hybrid model of digital puzzles and movement through the library to solve a mystery.
  • Halloween Library Maze‚ an immersive library experience emphasizing story to introduce students to the library.
  • Jolly Jane Escape Room‚ a library escape room drawing from community stories.
• The core of these activities are compelling stories that combine play, information, and place-based learning to immerse students in the lore of their community to leverage library learning. We will discuss the challenges in gaining buy-in from the academic support community, partnerships with design courses to leverage student time for play testing, and testing and promoting the activities.

There and Back Again: A Playful Journey into Generative AI for Library Instruction (Berman)

Elizabeth Novosel, Computer Science, Mathematics and Social Sciences Librarian University of Colorado Boulder Libraries

Katerina Allmendinger, Success and Engagement Librarian
University of Colorado Boulder Libraries

• AI tools: they can be daunting for librarians and students alike. But what if your students are already using AI? (Spoiler alert: they are!) How can you address this technology in information literacy instruction in a positive and constructive way?
• This session will share activities that use generative AI tools to bring humor, fun, and a community spirit to library instruction. Geared towards undergraduate information literacy instruction, these activities encourage students to use AI, but to also think critically about the ethical and practical considerations.
• Additionally, we will foster discussions about how librarians can use AI to communicate key IL concepts and invite participants to share their thoughts and experiences. Due to the incredible speed with which this technology is developing, and increasing demands on librarians’ time and energy, we believe it is important to explore, play with, and share about our uses of AI in the classroom. Although subject to change (and new discoveries!) our session will include activities such as scavenger hunts and cooperative trivia games. Attendees should come ready to actively participate, share their own experiences using AI, and join in on the fun and games!

Lightning Talks (Xavier)

The Playful Path to Information Literacy: Empowering ELL Students through Interactive Instruction (Maraschi)

Bryan J. Sajecki, Social Sciences, Student Support, and Instruction Librarian
SUNY University at Buffalo

Keith T. Nichols, STEM Librarian
SUNY University at Buffalo

• English Language Learners (ELLs) are a unique set of students to teach Information Literacy (IL). Besides cultural and language hurdles, there are knowledge gaps that need to be approached in different ways. Because there is no framework for teaching ELLs, two librarians sought to create a progressive IL curriculum for first-year students, focusing on student involvement and activities to bolster playfulness, inquiry, and discovery while being sensitive to cross-cultural understanding and the need for simplicity.
• This presentation will display several methods employed to invigorate students. It will demonstrate the multiple, inventive low-stakes-high-reward active learning strategies created to promote engagement and critical thinking. Examples include music as a primer, storytelling and humor, use of props, and cross-cultural examples. Additionally, attendees will also understand skill growth from the beginning to the end of the lab, with assessment data that evidences the success of the curriculum.

Playing to Learn in Higher Education: Thinking outside of the pizza box (Berman)

Megan Lotts, Art Librarian
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

• Play and playful learning can be freeing and allow for spontaneity, which is crucial when performing scholarly research, solving problems, or honing life-long learning skills. But also, playful teaching moments provide opportunities for individuals to engage with libraries in non-traditional ways which expands the ideas of what is possible in our civic spaces. Engaging play encourages individuals to reflect, strategize, and work in unconventional ways all while using tools which are readily and easily accessible.
• This presentation will look at the course Playing to Learn in Higher Education which is a ten-week seminar taught by a faculty librarian in an academic art library. Those who attend will learn more about the pedagogy of play and view examples of playful learning activities and assignment used for multi-modal library engagement. But also, individuals will have the opportunity to try a series of playful learning exercises facilitated via a zine similar to an assignment used in the course.