With DOK-gaming taking on iFrag I decided to take a close look at the organisation and what they were doing. DOK-gaming was created by DOK a library from Delft, Holland. The library has set out to hugely modernise itself to set itself apart from its more traditional counterparts. DOK attempts to attract young people back to libraries with access to a large collection of music, films and of course gaming facilities. Games are available to rent and PCs, PS3s, XBOX360s and wiis are available on site. DOK believes that gaming can be used as an educational tool that children can enjoy. For example Assasins Creeds depiction of the Crusades can not only give children a basic idea of the area at the time but also inspire them to read up on the subject and pay more attention when it is mentioned in class. Also games such as CSS can teach a child team-work and reasoning skills. In short DOK hopes that games can provide a good balance of both work and play. In this respect it provides a very interesting modern experiment.

But how does DOK-gaming come into this? I can see that a library could embrace games and I can understand there aims but how does a competitive gaming organisation help this? The following is from a interview with team manager CompleX on DOK-gamings website:

So what is the history around DOK? 

When I started my job at Concept Center Library DOK, I made up a plan and changed the name to DOK Gaming axis project or DOK. Besides gaming on top level, I wanted to create a source were people can find more information about online gaming, it's no important to create a stable organization and create educational information about online gaming. 

If you would not mind explain a bit further into the details about DOK library. 

Library Concept Center DOK is not just a library. We've got lot more books then we also have an assortment of music, art and games. We're one of the most modern libraries of the world and would like to keep that placement. Gaming is one of those projects 

At the moment DOK is just evolving, getting known in the community and its education area is promised 'very soon' but how will this work? They show obvious dedication to gaming hosting a few large LAN partys for there membets and a conference on the benefits of video gaming to education (http://www.ugame-ulearn.com/en/index.html). In order to find out more I interviewed CompleX:

Hi complex, can I firstly ask What is DOK-gaming and yourselves connection to DOK and how does it all work?

First of all I worked at DOK as a trainee. I introduced myself as a fanatical gamer, football player and much more. They liked the gaming part and they told me that might be useful for the library. DOK is a library concept centre. We're one of the most modern libraries of the world. There was a list published a few weeks ago of the most modern libraries of the world and from this DOK came out as the most technologically advanced library in the world and we're somewhere in the top 25 of most modern libraries of the world. Gaming is something that fits perfectly in their ambitious plan. Personally, I work for 5 days a week as a trainee at DOK. When my trainee period ends, I'll continue my work there for a few days each week.

And how close is DOK-gamings connection to DOK taking into account things such as your players not coming from the library and knowing fully about it?

I'm the intermediary (the agent between DOK Gaming and DOK). DOK is supporting the teams and that's why the players would like to know more about DOK. So most people read the website or asked me about it. When we're ready for it, we will have some boot camps at DOK. If possible we will put it on big screen shown in the 'readcafe' of DOK.

I can see that a library could embrace games and I can understand there aims but how does a competitive gaming organisation help this?

Most people don't know anything about gaming. I noticed that when I've organized a little 'crew competition' at the consoles from DOK. Some of the older staff were even confused as to how to operate a joystick! When I did a presentation in the library in Rotterdam for about 100 library employees, I asked them if someone knew what a clan or LAN Party is. Nobody knew what a clan was, Very few people recognized the term "LAN" and those are just easy terms in the gaming world. So we don't need to talk about pcw's, rushes, pwned, etc! It's the goal of DOK Gaming to inform people about on-line gaming. Not just the gaming part but also the scene and community around it. Our teams will be the example to show the non-gamers how it works. We also would like to create a source of information about it. So people could visit our website to read more about on-line gaming and what are the positive things about gaming.

OK so you want to attract more people to gaming and let people realise how beneficial it can be. You can and have let yourself can noticed at our end (gaming) but how do you hope to get recognised at the other end and communicate what we do to the general public and the users of DOK?

On a normal day we've got about 2000 customers in the library. With posters and flyers we will get their attentions. All of our 40.000 customers are registered in a database with an email function. We bring out a DOK magazine monthly with possibilities to put DOK Gaming in too. The libraries website also gets 600 unique visitors daily and we can use that. The PR department of DOK has a lot of connections with newspapers and other press. So we've got some nice options to capture the attention of the general public.

And what will you provide for that general public?

Educational information on subjects such as: What's on-line gaming, what's a clan, what's a LAN party etc. And let them know that gaming isn't just for fun but it could be educational too. Like you talk with your team-mates a lot, you'll gain motor skills and you'll get better insight in situations, learns how to react fast to a situation and stuff like that. With some examples we would like to tell them gaming is a lot more then most people think.

Thank you complex for your time any shout-outs?

Shout outs to Eppo van Nispen tot Sevenaer (director of DOK), Mark Borneman, Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer and Tim Beusen. Special thanks to Parts for interviewing me.

I wish DOK and complex the best of luck in achieving in what they are doing and believe looking at gaming like this could later greatly help eSports in general. It will be interesting to see what they achieve both in eSports and communicating with the public as well as how much the public is interested. Thanks to DOK for helping me with this article.