Esports (video games played competitively) dovetail perfectly with the mission statement of most school and public libraries. Video games may not be the first thing you think of when you hear the word “library,” but when you look closely, an esports team has all the hallmarks of a perfect library program: builds community and contributes to positive academic outcomes for students. Esports teams also allow participants to develop leadership, entrepreneurial, and media literacy skills. Running an esports team might seem daunting for librarians that don’t play video games, but you don’t need to be a gamer to run a successful program. Librarians, by the nature of their profession, already possess the skill set needed to get an esports team up and running in under a year. We’ll show you how!
Participants will learn:
How esports align to library standards and missions
How to start an esports team in under a year, even if they have no prior gaming experience
Presenter:
Lindsay Cesari
Teacher-Librarian & Esports Coach @ Durgee Junior High/Baldwinsville CSD
Lindsay Cesari is a junior high school librarian in Baldwinsville, New York. She considers herself an “accidental esports coach.” Her school’s esports program, now in its third year, was started after an especially persistent student made a request. Lindsay has written about esports for School Library Journal and provided esports professional development to educators all over New York State. Additionally, she developed the Introduction to Digital Gaming course taught in her district. Follow her on Twitter: @MrsCesari, Instagram: @DurgeeLibrary, and TikTok: @DurgeeLIbrary
---
Questions? Email gamert@ala.org
This webinar is presented by the American Library Association's Games & Gaming Round Table (GameRT). Registration for this webinar is free and open to anyone. This webinar will be recorded, but initial access to the recording will only be available to GameRT members. ALA membership information can be found here:
http://www.ala.org/membership/joinala.
The Zoom capacity for this webinar is 500 attendees. If the webinar reaches capacity, it will also be publicly live streamed to the ALA Games & Gaming Round Table Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/gamertala.