By now, most people have heard of Minecraft. You may have even played it, and your young patrons certainly have. It's amazing how long this game has remained popular in a world where the shelf life of technology is so short. This long-term popularity is in part due to Minecraft's flexibity. It is a building game, sure, but it's also a game that can be used to build other games.
Last month, I talked about some of the things you should consider before starting a Minecraft program at your library. Now you've got your server, your facilitator, your computers (and hopefully, some willing participants). So what kind of game are you going to play?
"The book was better" is a phrase I probably utter too much. I'm that killjoy in the room who will refuse to see movie adaptations because they never seem to measure up to what I imagined as I read the book. However, when a group of friends suggested we do a Book-to-Movie Club at the library, I knew it was too good an idea to pass up.
Hour of Code is an annual event (held in December during Computer Science Education Week) created in 2013 to encourage students to learn computer science and advocate for more schools to teach it. Only 25 percent of U.S. schools teach computer science, according to Computer Science Education Week. That's where libraries come in: By hosting an Hour of Code event, librarians provide a platform for patrons to receive an engaging introduction to computer programming.
If you're like me, you look forward to International Games Day every November. Maybe you'll participate in this year's International Minecraft Hunger Games tournament or play the Global Gossip Game, provide a selection of awesome board games, or set up a LAN party and play Halo 3 (like we're doing this year at our library).
Have you played "Apples to Apples" with your tween or teen group and are wondering what to play next? Do you have middle school Minecrafters you'd like to introduce to the wonders of board and card games? Try on these kid-friendly games for size! They're a ton of fun and perfect for tweens, teens and beyond!
Want to participate in a fun event this autumn that promotes literacy, creativity and the use of your library as a community space? Try hosting events for National Novel Writing Month! It's not too early to start planning for November. I'll tell you how.
So you want to run a Minecraft program at your library? Great! Minecraft is a crowd-pleaser, is easy to adapt for a whole host of ages of interests, and, once you've got a plan, is a very easy program to run. We've been playing Minecraft several times a month at our library for two years now, and the excitement surrounding it doesn't seem to be waning at all among the older elementary and middle school-aged children of our village.
