Using game thinking and game mechanics in non-game settings to promote engagement and learning is a new trend in both business and education sectors. Savvy marketers are gamifying their efforts by offering customers loyalty badges, check-in incentives, and achievement rewards and clever employers are leveraging this new trend to gamify their training and innovation processes. Discover how you can use game design techniques to involve patrons and motivate staff in your library. This primer will walk you through incorporating game thinking into bibliographic instruction, staff training, the online catalog, and more. Learn how to gamify the library experience. This A-Z guidebook covers a range of exciting ways to use gamification in your library. Readers will learn the ins and outs of gamification techniques through projects, such as: *badge hunts for staff orientation; *a "face of the library" game for patron services; *badges for your programs; *augmented reality and a catalog Easter egg hunt; *interactive fiction for information literacy education; and, *top-down video games for library orientation.

Using game thinking and game mechanics in non-game settings to promote engagement and learning is a new trend in both business and education sectors. Savvy marketers are gamifying their efforts by offering customers loyalty badges, check-in incentives, and achievement rewards and clever employers are leveraging this new trend to gamify their training and innovation processes. Discover how you can use game design techniques to involve patrons and motivate staff in your library. This primer will walk you through incorporating game thinking into bibliographic instruction, staff training, the online catalog, and more. Learn how to gamify the library experience. This A-Z guidebook covers a range of exciting ways to use gamification in your library. Readers will learn the ins and outs of gamification techniques through projects, such as: *badge hunts for staff orientation; *a "face of the library" game for patron services; *badges for your programs; *augmented reality and a catalog Easter egg hunt; *interactive fiction for information literacy education; and, *top-down video games for library orientation

Are you a librarian struggling to stay engaged in a digital age? Facing budget concerns to keep existing programs running? Don't have the staff or budget for specialized services? Wonder how to move beyond teaching your patrons HOW to use a computer? This book gives you 15, step-by-step programs, using free online software, that go beyond basic digital literacy, and provides you, the librarian, with all you need for classes that engage the digital natives and computer users in your community. It includes: 15 quick, easy classes focused on actual outcomes for patrons, without requiring a budget, dedicated facilities, or specialized knowledge. Classes that your patrons can relate to, geared towards actual needs or interests, and not just to "techy" people. How to's and other elements to effectively use simple software and allow patrons to get optimal results from their effort. Classes or workshops designed to help the average computer user so he or she can teach patrons with ease and authority. Tips for teachers or librarians on how to engage their audience and not lose them with information overload. This book is a complete computer class upgrade solution. Based on the Montessori Method, classes are problem or project based. You are given all the tools you need as a presenter to show relatable uses of technology, making sure the patron can see the possibility involved in using the software. There are step-by-step instructions that focus on your patron leaving with practical skills for everyday life using freely-available software such as YouTube, Ebay, Google, and Monster. Best practices are also included so your patron's project has the greatest chance of being successful.