Games in Libraries?

“The Case for Video Games in Libraries” by Suellen Adams

            Many games have the stigma of being violent and disruptive are thought to be a waste of time for teens. Professor Adams suggests that some video games have both educational and entertainment value and should be including in library programming. Libraries are a social space and certainly do more than promote reading. According to Adams, “…librarians can, through the use of video game programs provide and support education, promote community interaction not only among young people, but among a broader spectrum of patrons, and even level the playing field between haves and have-nots”. I believe that the key to having a good video game program at a library is the careful selection. Much like other parts of collection development and community programming is decided on the needs of the community, the video game program must be designed with the same careful considerations to the audience. A video game/book club is a great idea for linking common interest in video games to reading.

IL Games

“Percolating the Power of Play” by Sarah Faye Cohen, Timothy Miner, and Laurent Niskikawa

            I wish I read this article before I completed my literature review! I had trouble finding a lot of literature on teaching IL using 2.0 technologies. I found some literature documenting how blogs and Flickr were used successfully to teach IL. But games, what a great idea! Like Suellen wrote, games may not be considered a useful or educational tool. I guess on some level I did not consider it an education tool either. I searched using terms such as, IL, Blogs, 2.0, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I did not even consider games for teaching IL and I’m a bit disappointed in myself. This article was an eye opener for me for sure!

Video of Howard Rheingold of Stanford University about Second Life

            I know that everyone learns differently, and using second life to visualize things might help some people. When I watched the video though, I kept thinking, “Yeah, sure, that’s cool. But can’t he just post a page with the links on them. I guess I like my information more compartmentalized and not so bells and whistles. It seemed so scattered. But that’s just me!

            The library I work at does not have any video games in the library for circulation. Nor do they offer programs for teens to game in the library. We do have some interactive learning games on the computers in the children’s room. I strongly believe we should have games in our own collection. We process interlibrary loans daily for patrons that end up requesting games from other libraries. Other libraries lend both games and full gaming consoles to our patrons. I think it is a waste of interlibrary loan resources to not supply our patrons with gaming options at their home library.