{"id":84309,"date":"2015-09-14T16:09:17","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T21:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=84309"},"modified":"2015-09-14T16:08:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T21:08:13","slug":"one-librarys-quest-to-start-a-board-game-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=84309","title":{"rendered":"One Library’s Quest to Start a Board Game Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Fallon Bleich
\npreviously published 11\/13\/14<\/em><\/p>\n

One Library\u2019s Quest to Start a Board Game Group<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"BPLGames4Edit\"<\/a>

Dalene Schrier, Adult Services Specialist & Cataloger<\/p><\/div>\n

Earlier this year, the reference department of the Bentonville Public Library, where I work, decided to\u00a0put together some new adult programming. One of the programs that came out of their brainstorm was\u00a0the TableToppers group, named for the Wil Wheaton YouTube show. While the program is still gaining\u00a0some traction, so far we\u2019ve had regular attendance and people really enjoy coming. I interviewed her\u00a0to get some insight into what the process was for starting the group, as well as how she went about\u00a0launching the program:<\/p>\n

Why did you decide to start doing TableToppers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was introduced to the wonderful world of tabletop gaming by Wil Wheaton. Tabletop gaming is not\u00a0the same as a board game such as Monopoly or Candy Land. Tabletop games are more intensive and\u00a0typically require more strategy whereas board games are mostly luck. Being a fan of Wil Wheaton\u2019s\u00a0YouTube show TableTop and seeing the success of his crowd funding for season 3, I saw an opportunity\u00a0to use his success and influence to bring in a new demographic of patrons. Our community has an\u00a0untapped population of those who are dedicated gamers and geeks. I saw this as an opportunity to start\u00a0a whole new program type for our adults.<\/p>\n

\"BPLGames2Edit\"<\/a>What was the process you used to acquire games?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Knowing the higher prices of the type of games that we were planning to promote, I started reaching\u00a0out to our local game stores. While they are able to contribute to our program, we still needed more\u00a0games for participants to play. The owner of the first store had mentioned that some companies will\u00a0donate games or send out demo copies. Demo copies are typically an unfinished prototype of a game\u00a0made for game stores and others to use to test and see if the game may be popular or find some of\u00a0the flaws. Having this thought in mind, I wrote to some of the more prominent game manufacturers\u00a0and distributers that would be the most likely to be able to help support our program. The first round\u00a0of letters that I sent out got a great response. To date, we have had a total of 24 games donated. In\u00a0addition to the donation requests that we sent, we also received donations from staff members. At this\u00a0time, we still have committed donations that have not arrived yet.<\/p>\n

How many sponsors do we have for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

While we have received a lot of encouragement from everyone that we have reached out to for support,\u00a0we have had 5 corporate\/local sponsors and 2 individuals who have already donated games to the\u00a0event. Currently, we have at least 4 committed sponsors from whom we have not yet received their\u00a0donations. There are still come companies that wrote to that have not yet responded but we are\u00a0hopeful to hear from them soon.<\/p>\n

Sponsors:<\/span><\/p>\n

Rio Grande Games<\/p>\n

Alderac Entertainment Group<\/p>\n

Barnes & Noble Booksellers-Rogers, AR<\/p>\n

Steve Jackson Games<\/p>\n

Galaxy Games-Springdale, AR<\/p>\n

Gear-Fayetteville, AR<\/p>\n

Committed Sponsors:<\/span><\/p>\n

Gamer Utopia-Rogers, AR<\/p>\n

Atlas Games<\/p>\n

Individuals<\/p>\n

\"BPLGames3Edit\"How easy\/hard was it to get the games?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Considering what we are asking for from each sponsor, we have had a relatively easy time getting\u00a0donations. The hardest part of putting together all of the material to send\/take to the potential\u00a0sponsor was creating the material. Knowing what our end goal would be (participating in International\u00a0Tabletop Game Day 2015), we had to figure out how to pull all of our ideas together to create a cohesive\u00a0program. While Wil Wheaton has a great format for his show, we had to restructure it to fit into a\u00a0limited time frame on a larger scale.<\/p>\n

What methods have you used to get an audience for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

While we are promoting the event by the usual ways of posters, handouts, press release, social media,\u00a0and in-house promotion we have also reached out to our local gaming community by way of the local\u00a0game stores and venues. We have also reached out to the local RPG (role play game) group to help\u00a0spread the word. So far, these methods have worked pretty well.<\/p>\n

\"BPLGames1Edit\"<\/a>Great Resource: http:\/\/reviews.libraryjournal.com\/2013\/08\/blogs\/games-gamers-gaming\/wil-<\/a>
\nwheaton-talks-tabletop-games-gamers-gaming-august-2013\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Our upcoming game this month: http:\/\/reviews.libraryjournal.com\/2014\/03\/blogs\/games-gamers-<\/a>
\ngaming\/ticket-to-ride-games-gamers-gaming\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"fallon.bleich\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Fallon Bleich previously published 11\/13\/14 One Library\u2019s Quest to Start a Board Game Group Earlier this year, the reference department of the Bentonville Public Library, where I work, decided to\u00a0put together some new adult programming. One of the programs that came out of their brainstorm was\u00a0the TableToppers group, named for the Wil Wheaton YouTube…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":84316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,5154,3592,3835,5594,4377,6670,6669,6671],"class_list":["post-84309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-bentonville-public-library","tag-blog","tag-fallon-bleich","tag-fallon-zschiegner-bleich","tag-inalj-arkansas","tag-tabletop-games","tag-tabletoppers","tag-wil-wheaton"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/BPLGames2Edit.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-lVP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}