Comments on: Libraries Fast Becoming a Source for Video Games

By: Don Wood

Don Wood — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:12:55 +0000

ALA TechSource, in collaboration with the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), held the first annual Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium, July 22-24, 2007, in Chicago. Top gamers, librarians, and others discussed how gaming impacts our nationâ€™s libraries.

Participating in the symposium were Judith Krug, Office for Intellectual Freedom Director, and Katherine Fallow, a partner in Jenner & Block. The presentation, What IF: Gaming, Intellectual Freedom and the Law is available as an MP3 audio file.

http://blogs.ala.org/oif.php?title=what_if_gaming_intellectual_freedom_and_&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

By: Jenny Levine

Jenny Levine — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:37:10 +0000

Heh, these stereotypes of librarians are almost as bad as the ones about gamers!

Clearly we have some differences across the pond, but we just put on a whole conference about gaming and libraries. Beth Gallaway and others have helped make video games more accessible (and acceptable) in libraries in the U.S. In fact, there’s a great new book by Eli Neiburger that details how to hold gaming tournaments in your library.

It’s a whole movement!

By: Jetsetlemming

Jetsetlemming — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:57:02 +0000

The entire local government around here is falling apart, really. Take the school district for example: $100,000 of the district budget went missing last year, and they just raised property taxes in response without actually investigating the money, or anyone getting punished, fired, or blamed. A cart full of about 30 Mac laptops was stolen out of the highschool last fall because someone forgot to lock the doors to the library after school. A little girl was kidnapped by an estranged family member angry at her father from the elementary school, taken out of class with the teacher’s blessing. The last school board elections were run with a campaign based entirely on the political parties of the candidates. When you know the whole image, the local library being underfunded and needing to charge for checking out new books makes a bit of sense.
The possibility of me renting any videogames around here from anyone but Blockbusters would seem to be a pipe dream.

By: Stephany

Stephany — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:19:58 +0000

That defeats what the library stands for! Rental fees for books???? I am afraid to ask really, but what does your city government do with your taxes? That is why most libraries charge 5.00 for a card every few years. What a strange thing.

By: Jetsetlemming

Jetsetlemming — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:15:03 +0000

Somehow the concept of libraries ordering from wholesale retailers, the same way they’d get their books, slipped my mind. Blame it on late night posting. \
Though really, most of my local library’s new intake is a result of donations. I get the feeling their budget is pretty low. On some of their new books they actually charge $1 rental fees now.

By: Stephany

Stephany — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:02:31 +0000

Our local library carries video games and has for years. I rented many a SNES game from them, and they were free along with the DVDs and CDs (or cassettes and albums at the time…)

Jetsetlemming – Your taxes pay for what the library purchases, they do not go into Wal-mart and peruse the shelves. They have catalogs they look through, and online Book sellers who specialize in exactly this sort of thing. This is where they get the majority of their inventory. Here is one such place: http://www.bwibooks.com/. Could you imagine a stuffy librarian walking into Game Stop? That would be fun to see.

By: Exogenous

Exogenous — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:55:22 +0000

I used to work for a Book Wholesales Company that sold millions of books to libraries across the country along with CDs and DVDs. There are MANY libraries that ‘rent out’ PSP movies, and many had requested video games as well, so we started ordering games. Great way to get a kid into the library, and it is nice to see our local government using our tax money on something cool for the public instead of lining their own pockets.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:18:35 +0000

Forget Gamestop / EB Games, I’m going to head to the library on a game’s launch date and demand they carry it!

Seriously though, this would be an awesome thing if implemented correctly. I doubt libraries will be able to carry the latest and greatest video games, but there have been times where I want to try an old game, but I either can’t find it or I’m just too lazy to pony up the dough for it. Perfect example, I’ve never played either of the Fallout games. Now that Fallout 3 is being worked on, I’d like to play the older ones to see what I’ve been missing.

By: Jetsetlemming

Jetsetlemming — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 13:24:32 +0000

My local library has had VHS and DVDs for rental (A dollar per 3 days) for as long as I can remember. It’d be nice if they integrated videogames into their catalog, but I have to wonder, where do they get them? Donations? The public library system going out and buying games to stock their shelves sounds…. unlikely to me.

By: Norbit

Norbit — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:58:18 +0000

My local library (in north London) has been renting video games for over 5 years although they charge a small fee for it.