Re-thinking my ‘message’
Posted by Jamie Holmes on May 7, 2008
When I got the idea for my Suvivor Library project, lots of folks looked at me with raised eyebrows. “You’re going to have college students play a game of Survivor in the library computer lab? That will never work.” Well, truthfully the idea wasn’t fully developed, not even enough for me to describe it. But it had worked with 7th graders…Surviving Grammar Island was a hit with them. It was one of my most successful units! And, as I developed the idea more, added ‘challenges’ to the blog and actually had students completing the challenges in a loosely structured format in a couple of instruction sessions, it seemed to be working. My LOEX proposal was accepted, and even though I didn’t get IRB approval until after most of my spring instruction sessions were over, I still felt like I had a good idea.
There were a few problems though:
1. I knew that by using Survivor Library, I could be violating copyright by using the familiar show trademark. Even though I attempted to get permission from CBS, I never received it, and I didn’t think it was a good idea for a librarian to proceed with something that might be an illegal use of a trademarked phrase.
2. I couldn’t think of appropriate prizes or a way to frame something valuable enough for the winning team…it seemed, and it was, superficial.
3. I didn’t like the negative connotation of the word SURVIVOR, as if the library was something dangerous that one needed to somehow get through unscathed. Perhaps that is true for some of us some of the time, but it just didn’t seem good for marketing the library’s resources and services.
See my first post for more on this discussion.
