50 Ways to Use the Wii In Your Library

Published on Tuesday 8th of July, 2008

Libraries are often looking for a way to get the community more involved in the library, and gaming is a great way to do that. And the Nintendo Wii makes an awesome console for libraries because it can be social and collaborative. Here, we'll take a look at 50 fun and educational ways to use the Wii in your library.

Events

Use the Wii to get patrons in your door with these events.

1. Classic game night: With the virtual console, you and your patrons can play and reminisce about classic games.
2. Family play night: Use this family-friendly console to bring families together in your library.
3. Harry Potter Party: Bring Potter fans in with the books and a chance to play Billy the Wizard on the Wii.
4. Pokemon Battle Revolution Tournament: Let your patrons link their Ninendo DS devices and play against each other on the big screen.
5. Going away party: Have fun with library staff that is going away by playing the Wii.
6. Painting party: Play around with the doodle function and see if you and your patrons can emulate famous works of art.
7. Puzzle play: Encourage collaborative work by solving photo puzzles on the Wii.
8. Carnival night: Create a tiny carnival in your library with the Wii's Carnival Games.
9. Comic book night: If you don't have comic books, bring some in, and ask patrons to dress up and come play the Marvel Ultimate Alliance game.
10. Laser tag: Turn your Wiimotes into laser tag tools.
11. Kid instruction night: Let kids teach adults how to play games on the Wii.

Contests

Bring out the competitive side of your patrons with these contests.

12. Dance Dance Revolution contest: You'll get lots of kids to visit the library with a Dance Dance Revolution party.
13. Compete against other libraries: Pit your patrons against others in libraries across town or around the world for some friendly competition.
14. Literary Mii contest: Ask your patrons to create Miis of their favorite literary figures and award the most creative ones.
15. Big Brain Academy challenge: Get patrons to play this game, and give prizes to anyone who beats a certain score.

Education Themes

Use Wii games to create a theme night for educational topics.

16. Trauma Center: With Trauma Center, you can dicuss medical conditions and various figures from medical history.
17. History of racing: With MarioKart for the Wii, you can play and discuss racing through the years.
18. Music education: Pick up a copy of Rockband to introduce music education to the library.
19. Military history: Discuss World War II military flight with Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII.
20. Physical education: With the Wii Fit, you can spark an interest in physical education and therapy.
21. Football history: Play football on the Wii and take the opportunity to share football history.
22. Cookbooks: Use Cooking Mama to highlight cookbooks your library may have available.
23. Agatha Christie: With Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, you can take an in-depth look at Agatha Christie's works.
24. Geography: With the Wii's news and weather channels, you'll have an interactive globe at your disposal.
25. Current events session: Teach patrons how important current events are using the Wii news channel's news slideshow.
26. Gaming history: Use the virtual console to get patrons to take a look back into gaming history.
27. Golf: Play Wii Golf and research famous golfers. You can even make miis of them.
28. Sea Monsters: Use Sea Monsters to take a look at underwater life.

Multimedia

Your AV department will love these ideas.

29. Foldable interactive displays: Take interactive displays for your library anywhere with this hack.
30. Internet presentation: Use the Wii's Internet feature as an alternative to a projector.
31. Library slideshow: Promote some of your library's great photos by loading them onto the Wii's photo slideshow.
32. Share images: Post images to your Wii message board so patrons can see them.
33. Virtual reality: You can use the Wiimote for experiments in virtual reality.
34. Mouse: Use your Wiimote as a mouse. This is especially helpful for presentations.
35. Digital whiteboard: Use your Wiimote to turn your laptop into a digital whiteboard.
36. Finger tracking: Show patrons the power in their fingertips with this cool trick.

News & Weather

Take advantage of the Wii's news and weather channels in your library.

37. Stay updated on the weather: Leave the weather channel up to keep your patrons updated on the weather outside.
38. Share news around the world: With the Wii's news station, you can highlight world news.
39. Constant news ticker: Keep your Wii on the news channel's opening screen, and you'll have an ongoing ticker for the news of the day.
40. Large text reader: With the Wii's large text, you can make it fun and easy for patrons with vision problems to read news stories.
41. Geographic visualization: Share the news on the map so patrons can see exactly where it's happening.

Communication & Information

Use the Wii to gather information and stay in touch with your patrons using the Wii's communication features.

42. Wiimail: Get the console numbers of patrons and send out notices about library wii events and more through your Wii.
43. Leave messages: On the Wii message board, you can put up posted memos for all to see.
44. Vote: Use the everyone votes channel to see what your library patrons really think.
45. Voting competition: See which Mii makes the best predictions on the Everyone Votes channel.
46. Submit questions on everyone votes: Let patrons ask a question they really want to know and see if it gets answered.

Other Uses

These are just a few more ways you can put the Wii to work.

47. Help seniors play sports: The Wii makes playing sports possible for some senior citizens.
48. Game creation project: Gather your technologically-inclined patrons and have them create their own Wii game using WiiWare.
49. Librarian Miis: Connect with patrons by creating Miis that look like librarians.
50. Orientation: Create a more welcome, collaborative environment at orientations by bringing out the Wii.

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