January 23, 2015 (Friday)

Time: 10am-11am; 11am-12pm(2)
Hours completed (IST): 11.75/135
Hours completed (Kara Robinson): 4/15
Accumulated on-site hours:15.75/150

Today I attended two IST meetings. The first reviewed the current progress of a scavenger hunt to introduce first-year students to the library. The second meeting concerned "game night," an outreach project for students on campus.

During the first meeting we watched and discussed the videos that students will watch to get clues on where to go next. Students move through the hunt and during the process are introduced to locations and services in the library. The hunt itself is a shorter, more manageable version of the ARG (alternate reality game) developed by the Penn State libraries where their mascot has been kidnapped and the student is charged with finding them. The videos and the overall composition of the Kent State seems like it will do a good job of introducing the library and some basic information literacy skills to students.

The "game night" meeting was to further develop an outreach event that invited students to come to the library to play video games and board games and to socialize with each other and librarians. It is similar to the Library Late Night that is held at the beginning of each academic year. That event has music; food; drinks; along with several video game stations and other activities. The library owns several Nintendo Wii systems along with games. There are several official and unofficial gaming clubs on campus and, based on the popularity of Late Night, it is a great way to bring students into the library. The meeting considered adding more hardware or software, assessed how different areas might be set up, possibly making room for a LAN party, and attempting to contact Red Bull representatives who are often on campus. The plans for the event will be further solidified with the hopes of having the event next academic year.

Attending department meetings has helped to show not only how far out planning for events seem to being, but how important time management is with so many short and long-term projects coexisting.