Be part of the Zine Library Game Board!

IPRC Library Game

Be part of the Zine Library Game Board!

The IPRC is looking for 5-12 individuals to serve on the Zine Library Game Board (pun intended) to help create our new zine library cataloguing game. We’re looking for people who are excited about games, independent publishing, and want to be part of an innovative way to encourage community service through games.

The Zine Library has a great problem: more zine donations than we can catalog. We have more than 30,000 zines waiting to be catalogued, some from as far back as 1965. Cataloguing is simple and fun: find a zine, read it, write a short description. But there’s a neverending pile.

In Febuary, we created a unique event to help solve this problem: Raiders of the Lost Archives, a 24-hour zine cataloguing competition. By harnessing the power of friendly competition, we had 85 volunteers, ranging in age from 12 to 83, show up to catalog 1000 zines all night long.

But since it would kill our Zine Librarian to run 30 24-hour events (even librarians need to sleep sometime), we have to come up with a new solution to cataloguing zines. Drawing on the power of friendly competition that had such success at Raiders, we’re creating a simple year-round RPG that will encourage volunteers to catalog with merit badges, leveling up, experience points, and competition. It’s gonna be rad, and no non-profit has done something like it (that we know of, please let me know if you do!)

The Game Board is the advisory committee and work group that will help make this RPG happen. Being on the Game Board is a volunteer commitment that will take up 5-20 hours a month for six months, depending on your level of involvement.  You can act as a designer, a coder, or a liaison that outreaches to the game and tech communities.

And our big launch party, tentatively in February, is going to be a big superhero-themed nerdfest with beer. Are you interested now?

Perhaps you’re a game designer looking to use your powers for good, or a student of games looking to expand their portfolio? Maybe you’re a game nerd who is great at thinking about what makes games fun and addictive? Or a programmer who likes contributing to community projects?

Be part of something really darn cool and support access to independent and self-published materials.

Deadline to apply is August 31st.