Daniel Pink is on target in his book, A Whole New Mind:  Why Right-Brainers will Rule the Future when his states “Many adults haven’t fully comprehended the significance of these games.  For a generation of people, games have become a tool for solving problems as well as a vehicle for self-expression and self-exploration.  Video games are as woven into this generation’s lives as television was into that of their predecessors.  For example, according to several surveys, the percentage of American college students who say they’ve played video games is 100%.  On campuses today you’d sooner find a short-tailed tree frog taking calculus than an undergrad that’s never fired up Myst, Grand Theft Auto, or Sim City.�  As two Carnegie Mellon University professors, write, “We routinely poll our students on their experience with the media, and typically we cannot find a single movie that all fifty students in the course have seen (only about a third have usually seen Casablanca, for instance).  However, we typically find at least one video game that every student has played, like Super Mario Brothers.�

Consider Xbox Magazine’s article on Grand Theft Auto’s release - April 08, issue #82, page 22:  “We have just one bit of advice:  take multiple vacation days or call in sick for the entire week of April 29th.  One day off will not suffice.� 

 May 2008 Issue of Xbox on GTA relays this user experience:  “When we ran out of pedestrians to slaughter, we stole some nearby watercraft and took to the high seas.â€?    Wow, you can slaughter on land, sea and air, I thought to myself as I turned the page.  This game is full of illegal activities.  “What could be worse than this?â€? The words uttered aloud were in earshot of a few teens.  One teen leaned over and answered, “War.”

 With the phone at my ear awaiting a tech call response, my attention turned to the next article in the May issue entitled, “OXMS Guide to Fake Guitar - Hey, Wanna-be!  You Still Stuck on Medium?�  The article supplied tips on improving Guitar Hero skills.

If you have never played a video game, I would suggest giving it a try.  I needed to stick with Guitar Hero for a few hours of extended play before I became lost in the game.

Light game play provides non-gamming librarians and educators the opportunity to experience the immersive “video game feeling� even if plans do not include gamer aspirations.  I was surprised to find myself passing on my latest reading selection in favor of getting home from work to play the game for a short time. 

BTW – has anyone played Guitar Hero on Tour?  If so, feedback is welcome.

Thanks to Karen Hyman’s motivating presentation at the last SJRLC membership meeting, WDFPL staffers came back to the library with a host of suggestions for ramping up library service including adding a link to NoveList on the WDFPL home page.  

The link was added to the prime real estate of the WDFPL homepage soon after the meeting.  The move got me thinking about NoveList’s usability.  I thought, “why don’t I use this product more?”

FYI - it takes too many clicks.  WDFPL’s simple solution.  Set up a catalog link on the NoveList page. 

Kamal at EbscoHost tech support was responsive to my request to embed the catalog link.

WDFPL now has a link to NoveList on the homepage and patrons can search the LOGIN collection from within the NoveList product .

I know a few patrons who, in the past, used dual windows to access NoveList along with the catalog interface.  The new usability enhancement, set up with cooperation from EbscoHost Technical Support, speeds up service for WDFPL library users and should increase use and public awareness of NoveList. 

Check it out!  Then consider adding a direct link to your library homepage!

Librarians and library marketers may want to keep this deal on their radar due to the shockwaves that may develop regarding production and advertising shifts in the publishing market. 

How cool would it be to work on a secret project in “new media” like Will Schwalbe has been doing since January 2008?  I suspect video trends are driving development.  Project results should benefit HarperCollins, Hyperion, Disney and ABC Inc. in the long run.

Hyperion Loses President to HarperCollins Publisher Ellen Archer Promoted to Top Spot.  by Leon Neyfakh  |  April 3, 2008

|  Tags:

• Media
• Ellen Archer
• HarperCollins
• Hyperion
• Robert Miller

Robert Miller, the founding president of Disney’s publishing operation Hyperion, has stepped down to take a job at HarperCollins. Hyperion’s publisher Ellen Archer, who has been with the company for nine years, has been promoted to president effective immediately. Ms. Archer will report to Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of the Disney-ABC Television Group.

Hyperion loses its president just three months after losing its editor-in-chief Will Schwalbe, when he resigned to pursue a secret project in new media back in January.

Mr. Miller, who was brought in to start Hyperion for Disney in 1991, is doing something kind of similar, except he’s doing it at HarperCollins. According to a press release sent out by that publishing house this morning, he has been hired to found an experimental publishing “studio” there.

This studio will “[challenge] conventional trade publishing standards” by putting out 25 books per year “in multiple physical and digital formats including those as yet unspecified.” It will also try to take advantage of marketing and advertising opportunities offered by the Internet.

Unclear what that means or how that’s different from what every other publishing house has been trying to do lately, but one way the as yet unnamed venture does unambiguously “follow a ‘non-traditional business model,’” as promised in the release, is that authors will be paid through a “profit sharing model” instead of getting royalties.

Mr. Miller, who will report to HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, will ceremoniously assume his new role on April 14, “at the London Book Fair.” One wonders what that means too—will there be a public coronation?

More corporate background information.