Education Commons^™

Level Up! Library Orientation With A Phone-Based Exploration Game, Beth Jane Toren

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This self-paced, reasonably priced, and imaginatively blended activity provides an effective, customizable, and scalable alternative to in-person tours. The Green Door Labs EdVenture Builder is specifically targeted to libraries and museums and has an interface with game mechanics built in on menus, allowing users with no programming experience to independently create games. Students learn about the library in an engaging way and instructors can be provided with game scores to provide credit for the activity.

Individuals or teams new to the library play an exploration game on their mobile phone while exploring library physical and/or virtual locations, services, and resources. …

Bam! Pow! Graphic Novels Fight Stereotypes In Academic Libraries: Supporting, Collecting, Promoting, Beth Jane Toren

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

This study examines the launch of a graphic novel collection in an academic library and presents a study analyzing the increase of titles in Association of Research Libraries with the subject heading “Graphic Novels” between fall 2008 and fall 2009. Statistics show a 40% increase, averaging 62 additional titles, during a year of global financial crisis. Exploring the prejudice against comics lingering in more traditional corners of academia, this paper encourages librarians to counter stereotypes and therefore bring more people, including other librarians, to view graphic novels as literature. This study includes recommended practices for supporting, collecting, and promoting these …