Skip to main content

Duxbury Free Library hosts a Minecraft world

Do your teens play Minecraft on your public computers every afternoon? Ours do. We've been trying to figure out a way to host a Minecraft game for some time at the library and played around with setting up a LAN at a couple of Game Nights, but thought it would be more fun and good outreach to host a world on a more on-going basis. After all, do people have to be in the library to participate in a library program?

Last week we heard Bill Derry from Westport, CT Public Library say, "You don't have to do it all yourselves, tap into a cadre of enthusiasts."
Enter my former Bookmarks, Colby and Callum, both in college now and experienced gamers. With their help, we chose a Minecraft hosting company, set up an account, trouble-shot our initial obstacles,signed up a Beta testing group of eager 8th graders and we're off to the races.
Truth: I would never have been able to do this so quickly without my wing men.  Lord only knows how our Minecraft world will evolve. They've all signed waivers for good behavior. Let's hope that doesn't stifle them too much. Let the Games begin!

Here's a great practical article about what you can do in a library Minecraft world.

Comments

  1. My 8th grade Minecraft enthusiasts would love to take on the Duxbury 8th graders. Want to make a South Shore towns competition?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting!

Popular posts from this blog

3D Printing Signs for the Library Collection

Last weekend, I went to the annual Tee-Off mini golf event at the Brookline Public Library.  As a first time visitor, I was mini-golfing with my phone at the ready. Special thanks to the AMAZING librarian rockstar Robin Brenner for so many great ideas. It truly is worth a visit just to see her teen room. Here are a few 3D printing/marketing ideas to takeaway: Having a  3D printer filtration cart would be wonderful in our library.  Look at the price if you dare.  Right now I have to go downstairs to retrieve prints because we are concerned about the fumes and little hands touching anything while the printer is on.  I have a video camera set up downstairs using an iPad 2 and the free app called Presence  for monitoring but sometimes I do forget to keep checking the presence website while I'm on the desk especially since it makes this annoying beeping sound to say, "Are you still watching?!"..As the sign reveals on the cart, the propensity to want to lean or...

When Makerspace Projects Come to Fruition

I love stories of patrons or staff who use our equipment to make something truly creative and original. We had two of those instances this week: Our first comes from our talented staff member, Karen, who runs a monthly knitting night at the library. She draws a big crowd as individuals work on solo projects, share their skills and troubleshoot with each other.  These knitting nights have brought out some spinners and loom enthusiasts that have shared their talent as well. Using these new skills, Karen made her own sweater.  It doesn't stop there though. Over the past year we have increased our collection of unusual items for circulation to include a polymer clay kit which Karen used to make her own designer button for her creation. I told her she could have her own couture business! Read more about this and other projects on her knitting blog.  The second project came from a pair of siblings who won 1st place in the Pembroke Science Fair with the 3D printing help...

Our most popular makerspace/STEM/Library of Things

As of April 2018, we did a kit circulation report.  We had 106 kits which have circulated 1,047 times since it's inception in 2015.  Here is the top 10 list of most circulated. These include hobby kits, puzzles, cake pans, instruments, science robots/STEM, and American Girl dolls. The ukulele kits (we have one soprano and one concert kit) have been around the longest and have circulated 106 times total.  Just remember someone should change the strings yearly and definitely include a tuner (we like the snark) as new strings on a uke take a while to break in. Surprisingly our meditation toolbox comes in second with 51 checkouts.  It is just some CDs and a DVD.  This one has also been around since the inception of our kits. Next up is our virtual reality headset toolbox.  It is a Homido Virtual Reality headset. If that is too pricey, I recommend Google Cardboard.  Our sewing machine comes in 5th.  Knitting is a great idea fo...