Games- What a novel idea!

I read this article yesterday in the American Libraries magazine. On one hand I'm like "Oh great games are getting recognition as part of literacy" on the other hand I say "DUH!" Why is this concept so new?

Sidenote: I really really want this game for the toy library :)

GAMING GOES MAINSTREAM

Gaming of all types continued to gain acceptance in libraries, and librarians are asking increasingly sophisticated questions about the ways they can use games. ALA TechSource’s second Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium, held November 2– 4 in Oak Brook, Illinois, explored gaming as a tool to achieve myriad goals, including improving literacy, inspiring academic interest, building bridges across generations, and raising money. Statistics helped to back up gaming’s advocates, with research from the Pew Internet and American Life project indicating a link between gaming and civic engagement among teens. ALA, meanwhile, launched National Gaming Day @ your library November 15, with free copies of Hasbro’s board game Pictureka sent to every public library in the country, and ALA’s Annual Conference featured “California Dreaming,” a “big game” that participants played by interacting with their physical surroundings.

American Libraries(CB). American Libraries (Volume 39, Issue 11, December 2008).

Chicago, IL, USA: American Libraries, 2008. p 40.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ala/Doc?id=10255361&ppg=42

Actual Conversation

Girl: "Why does this toy keep talking to me?"

Me: "Because you keep pushing the button"

Girl: "I think it's mental. Maybe it needs to go to the hospital"

Article from Babble Magazine

Toy Libraries: An Idea in Need of a Comeback?

Posted by Amy Kuras

Since we’re apparently – at least here in the cradle of the car industry – blowing right past “recession” into raging depression (in every sense) I think toy libraries are an idea whose time has come again.

In San Diego, a toy library started in 1937. Works Progress Administration workers (part of Roosevelt’s New Deal) cleaned and repaired 2000 toys that had been collected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Many of them came from a department store that had burned down.

The first toy library opened at an elementary school in the city, and soon there were 9 within the city of San Diego and 14 around the county. More than 5,000 children were registered. There was no charge to join, nor were there overdue fees or damage fees. Instead, if a toy was badly damaged or overdue, children lost borrowing privileges for a certain time. In between uses, workers would clean and sanitize the toys for the next user. A certain number of toys retuned on time earned children one toy that they could keep.

The idea was that being responsible for the borrowed toys helped build character. It was also thought to lessen juvenile delinquency, because children would not steal what they could borrow.

This was back in the day where children didn’t have very many toys, unlike today’s kids. I think in this economy, this could really help families ot save – after all, how often do you buy your kid a toy that’s their favorite thing for like a day and then just sits? This would be a great way to try out toys and see what’s worth buying, and would be so great for families that can’t afford high quality toys for their children.

Donations

So yesterday I began the process of cleaning off the donations shelf. I had bins there from a month ago and after I looked through them, I remembered why I was avoiding them. I probably had 2-3 boxes of random pieces, a few games and Elmos.

I can't decide which of them wins on the obnoxious scale... but both make me giggle. The Elmo Loves You has these sweet little heart eyes that light up when he sings. The second one is called Check-Up Time Elmo and it kept asking me to check it's boo-boo and help him blow his nose. It freaked me out a little. I have seen infants with toys like these and they seem to share my hesitation with them. Even my dog (a very fierce Shih Tzu named Murphy) knows better. But older children (a little older than the toy's intention by the way) love them! This is why I have a small collection of talking/ laughing/ singing Elmos behind my desk. I can only take so much. There is already a Sesame Street toy that sings the character's songs that I put up with. I hear them in my sleep.

Anyway, back to the point. Donations. Last year around this time a woman came in with her 2 children and about 10 months pregnant with her 3rd. This was only her second time there and she brought her father with her. A couple weeks later she came in again bringing in 2 of the 2007 Hess Trucks, saying that her father was so impressed by the place he wanted the library to have these. I was so completely touched by the gesture. It showed me that there really are just good hearted people out there, especially around this time of year. A few weeks ago the woman came in again after not being here since last winter. She gave me a hug and re-introduced me to all three of her children including the newly walking infant Daniel. She brought her father in again with her and with him he carried the new fancy 2008 Hess Truck. I got a giant smile on my face and was again reminded of the simple nice deeds that we can do for others around us.

I love that people care enough to give back to the community and give me their children's old toys for the library. They are giving away part of their childhood and it will be recycled over and over again into someone else’s childhood memories. That’s fantastic. And then there are the other people who give me pieces of toys. I have a large bin on wheels for people to carry out items to their car. It is big enough to put a Cozy Coupe and a teeter totter in, so it’s pretty big. It was full of miscellaneous pieces and toys. I cut it down to about 20 pieces in a small bin. I just threw away a large box and am giving away 3 smaller boxes to boss lady for giveaways. It was so much work to go through them though and I would never say it isn’t worth it, because sometimes I find those odd little treasures. But honestly, and I say this with the best opinions at heart, it was crap. It was pieces of toys that my OCD brain could not handle. But you know what? Children that come in here, that my boss will give these to, will probably love them.

Now only if they would take the Elmos away.....

Karma

Two mothers came in the other day with their (combined) 5 children. They have been coming in for at least 2 of the 3 years I've worked here so I know them reasonably well, enough to joke around and begin random conversations. Anyway, one of them has a little girl and she just cracks me up. Maybe she reminds myself of me when I was that age, or how I imagined myself to be... I'm not sure. But she's cute as a button, has no fear, climbs on the tops of tables or shelves when she wants something. So I laugh, every time. Just like when the kids come in from the school next door... they come in running and screaming and every single time I crack up.

Karma is going to kick my butt one day, I guarantee. I am going to have children one day and since I have spent the last 3 years laughing my butt off at kids, mine are going to be sooo naughty. I just have a feeling.

I must go grab toys now for a workshop being hosted here this evening. And by the way I found out about it yesterday... Somehow me and one of the pages got this entire room clean and beautiful!!!
((It won't last)) Ha!!!!

Let's try this again

I always think about continuing to write in this blog but quickly get lost in piles of toys (work). So I am officially attempting to put effort in. Instead of cleaning up the room, I sit here in slight disgust with my OCD twitching and catch up on the happenings of being in a toy library.


It has been busy. VERY busy. But the circulation doesn't show it. All I know is this place is always a mess and I can't keep up with the donations, returns and straightening up. I try. I drink my red bull and try.


There is a new group of children coming into the library after school and on weekends. I like to call them the naughty bunch; individually I call them all trouble. I may be adding to their complex... I'm not sure. All I know is that they come in here and disrespect every other child and adult in here, myself included. After telling a child to get off a bike since he was too big for it he told me he was going to punch me in the face. I go home twitching. Officially. It's bad enough that the Elmo song is stuck in my head a majority of the time, but now every time I hear a crashing sound I look up in despair hoping that one of my shelving units isn't lying on top of a child.


The point is... I want to know when children became so disrespectful. When the adults stop caring? I don't mean to generalize, because I have met plenty of great parents and children. I have moms who come in here that I absolutely adore, children also. But then there are some days where I am amazed I didn't have a conniption fit in the middle of the room and crumble to the floor crying. That is dramatic. I am trying to teach these kids that I am indeed not the enemy. I just have rules in the toy library because I have to. Because I don't want them to get hurt, I don't want my toys to get hurt and most of all I don't want to yell at kids because they feel the need to climb all over my shelves.