Gaming in Libraries

We had an interesting, and as far as I was concerned a rather shocking, discussion at the OC library last week concerning gaming in the libraries. I was shocked by the vehemence with which the library staff objected to having gaming at the library. As it stands now, we have tons of kids, mostly boys, playing computer games such as 'Runescape' and 'Medal of Honor' after school, during school breaks, and especially during the summer. We are charged with monitoring how long they stay on the computer and it gets to be rather tiresome as even I would admit.

So when there was a proposal that we add XBOX for kids--well, you can imagine that it didn't go over well. Not all because it would be one more thing for us to monitor, but because of the objection to the damage that gaming creates. So, knowing that there is a lot of research out there about gaming, and lots of libraries who are really getting into this, I went out and took a look at what's going on. Surprise, surprise, but it isn't just libraries who are 'wooing' the teenage crowd with games and all things associated with gaming--so is the business world and schools!

Join me as we walk through the gaming world in libraries:

Are you missing a segment of your population in the library? Teenagers? NPR has a short segment you can listen to that talks about wooing those missing teenagers back to the library....to the games, near the books.

The Blog Game On has a very long list of research articles related to gaming in school, public and academic libraries. Very well worth looking at some of those articles

Those English Language Learners are using gaming to build their English skills, not to mention the critical thinking skills all students gain by playing games in the library or not.

If you're at all serious about gaming in the library, this is a MUST READ series: ALA held a symposium on Gaming in Libraries and you can listen to podcasts or read articles related to this symposium: explore how libraries fit into the intersection of gaming and the digital learning landscape.

Before you write the idea of gaming off--or even before you embrace it--think through what this means to your library in general. The whole idea of having gaming in the library is a challenge to librarians to 'think outside the box'. How can we offer traditional library services to a new generation of users in so that they'll understand and come to love libraries the way we do? Is it possible to use something as radical as GAMING? At the very least, it's worth a second look!