Libraries Lure with Video Games

“‘Bellevue’s library, near Belle­vue East High School, hosts a game night twice a month. About two dozen teens take turns thwack­ing vir­tual ten­nis balls or throw­ing super punches on Nin­tendo games. Some do their home­work as they wait. Oth­ers browse the library for comic books and novels.

A.J. Score, a shy 15-year-old, aspired to join the high school’s foot­ball or golf teams. But he was afraid he wouldn’t fit in. Gam­ing was his thing.

At the library’s game nights, he imme­di­ately became a star. And gam­ing gave him some­thing to talk about. He talks smack and teases gamers about their weapon selec­tion. It’s all harm­less fun, he said.

‘I’m not so much quiet any­more,’ A.J. said.

Any par­ent who has strug­gled to tear a child away from a video game may cringe at the notion that libraries, of all places, are pro­mot­ing them.

But the games are age-appropriate and can help to inter­est kids in books, Wyant said. Library game nights typ­i­cally are open only to those ages 10 to 18 and require a parental per­mis­sion slip.

Some nights, A.J. does home­work or checks out mur­der mys­tery books until his mom picks him up.

‘Every week he has a new book. It’s great to see a teenager read­ing at the library and not in trou­ble,’ said his mom, Tam Score.

Cir­cu­la­tion of young adult lit­er­a­ture has increased at some libraries with game nights.

Last year, teens bor­rowed 20 to 30 books a month at the Chadron Pub­lic Library. Now it’s well over 300 each month. The rea­son: video games.…

The Loren Corey Eise­ley Branch, which sits a block from a mid­dle school, gets 50 to 80 kid gamers each day. The Arnold Heights Branch held a game day that attracted more than 80 kids dur­ing spring break.

Since Lin­coln libraries have added game nights, teens don’t cause as many dis­rup­tions. They used to run up and down book aisles and talk loudly.

‘They were just being teens,’ said Greg Mick­ells, Lincoln’s library direc­tor. ‘They’re prob­a­bly still a lot louder than our reg­u­lar patrons, but they know if they’re mis­be­hav­ing they’ll be asked to leave.’

The Coun­cil Bluffs Pub­lic Library hopes to offer game nights or tour­na­ments this summer.

At Plattsmouth’s library, teens have formed a gam­ing coun­cil. The coun­cil plans tour­na­ments and devel­ops rules (such as no cussing).

The library has restricted gam­ing hours to between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. because par­ents com­plained that their chil­dren were spend­ing too much time at the library and not focus­ing on their studies.

Library direc­tor Hunt said video games bring back a sense of com­mu­nity in libraries.

‘We have kids who come in that have never been to the library before,’ Hunt said. ‘We’re get­ting a sec­tion of read­ers we don’t nor­mally have because of gam­ing.’ ” [Omaha World-Herald]