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]

The “Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Spotlight” area at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting was very successful. We had a pretty steady stream of folks watching and playing videogames. I’d be a rich woman if I sold gaming equipment on commission at these things (hint, Nintendo, hint).

This year, the setup was in the registration hall, rather than in a booth on the exhibit floor, so we got a couple of members to help cover the area. Big thanks to Chad Haefele and Matt Roach for doing such a great job.

So great, in fact, that Chad scored a starring role in Philly.com’s coverage of the Meeting on their website (although they did spell his last name incorrectly - sorry, Chad).

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the spotlight and helped us have so much fun. We’ll see you at Annual in Anaheim when we do it again (along with the big game!).

Bonus: The paper also included an editorial about videogames in libraries by ALA President Loriene Roy.

A few things I’ve wanted to blog about in-depth but am just throwing out there for now.

• Paul over at ResearchQuest beat me to the punch to post about Carnegie Mellon University’s Library Arcade. This is a must-read, must-play combo for all library staff interested in using gaming in instruction. Heck, maybe we should have a leaderboard on this one. I love the idea of adapting an old school style game (like “Diner Dash”) but putting a library spin on it.
• When I wasn’t looking, Penn State turned its Virtual Worlds blog into a big ol’ Educational Gaming Commons, now with forums in addition to the blog.
• Chris attended the Games, Learning, and Society Conference back in July (the one that I also went to), and you can read his notes over on LibLaureate. In his reflections on James Paul Gee’s opening keynote, Chris wrote, “When do we reach a threshold and go grab a walk-through or a cheat code? Is this the importance of social networks - I’ve reached so far and now I need some help?” That’s a great question, and I think the answer is yes.
• At Learning2007 later this month, they’re going to do a Rapid Learning Game Experiment. While the exercise itself is fascinating, it’s the last sentence that intrigues me most (emphasis is mine).

  “We are going to push Gaming for Learning Development to the max in an upcoming experiment. Here are the ingredients:

  • Take several undergraduate students from Champlain College’s Electronic Gaming & Interactive Development Program in Vermont and bring them to Orlando for Learning 2007.
  • Give them an assignment to create a Learning Focused Game, defined by a group of companies at Learning 2007.
  • Over the next 58 hours, in full view of 2,000 participants - with feedback every few hours - they will build an web based immersive learning game.
  • This learning activity will then be reviewed, edited and released into Open Source for the entire global community to use.“
• The following video is just awesome in every sense of the word. I laughed, I cried, and then I laughed some more. Watch the whole thing to find out who’s behind it. Not only is it an object lesson in how social gaming can be and how libraries could implement it, but it’s also a great marketing lesson for us. I’ll definitely be showing snippets of this one in my presentations.