What Tamar Learned at PLA: "Capturing the Hearts and Minds of the Gamer Generation"

Uh-oh, bad news for libraries struggling to keep up with technology! The speaker at this session of PLA, John C. Beck, has written a book called "Got Game: How a New Generation of Gamers is Reshaping Business Forever." He says that people born in 1970 and later (that includes me!) are the Gamer Generation, a group that is more social, more competitive, and more successful than any generation since the Greatest Generation. This is also the generation considered to be Millenials, and much of what we learned about Millenials holds true for Gamers. Gamers are the generation that grew up with technology. The technology that older generations are still struggling to feel familiar and comfortable with is intregal to Gamers' lives. Basically, to attract Gamers as users, we need to have the technology, and we need to communicate with them through the technology. That means, MP3, blogs, podcasting, video games, etc. We have to be cutting-edge. This is also the generation that is the largest group since the Greatest Generation, so we need to realize that this need for technology is going to grow bigger and bigger as more and more Gamers reach adulthood. There is truly, TRULY, a generation gap out there, and it's growing. Mr. Beck's book is not in the system, I'm going to get it through MORE and pass the title on to Holly for purchase, possibly for the professional collection. This is really interesting information, especially for people in the beginning of their library career, since we'll be working with this generation for a long time!