The Next Step in Public Library Service

The experience we’ve had over the past year at the Guilderland Public Library in upstate New York has proved that building a substantial collection of video games is a great way to attract young adults to the library. It takes only a modest financial commitment to launch a circulating collection of video games and the return on investment is huge—teen patronage increases and the library is recognized as a total media and information destination and truly relevant to teens’ needs.

Gaming is nearly ubiquitous among teens and college-age adults, and the average age of gamers hovers around 33. Since many young parents have grown up in a gaming environment, it can be assumed that these gamers’ progeny will wield a Wii-mote (the Wii’s handheld controller) sooner rather than later. Libraries offer storytime programs for young children and their families, and there are circulating collections of movies, music, and books for the entire family. When you add a collection of video-console games for children, teens, and parents, your library’s value-added services become priceless.

For the Guilderland Public Library, the idea of starting a collection of games grew from the constant demands of our Teen Advisory Committee (TAC). The group insisted that not only would games bring more teens into the building, but that these same teens would “take more books.” Further discussion revealed that games weren’t simply bait, but that the group’s peers really enjoyed reading, especially fiction, manga, and magazines.

For the past ten years, the library has offered PC games for children. And young adults were always in the library playing games, especially RuneScape. Gaming was already integral to our library, both in digital and analog form (chess and the card game Magic: The Gathering have their own regularly scheduled events). We just needed to take the next step.

In August 2006, Joshua Carlson, a very sharp intern whose talents have since landed him a dream gig as the Young Adult Librarian at the East Brunswick (NJ) Public Library, came on board our library staff. We decided that his capstone project for the semester would focus on making video games part of the library’s permanent collection. After writing proposals and making presentations to the library administration and trustees, we received $3,000 to buy games and hardware for circulation and programming with the idea that the next year’s budget would include a line for buying new games and replacing ones that were lost or stolen. The money came with the caveat that all games must be rated E (Everyone), E10+ (Everyone 10 years and older), or T (Teen); no games rated M (Mature) were permitted since the collection is geared to teens in middle and high school.

There were some initial concerns from library traditionalists who saw gaming as the antithesis to reading and knew some once vibrant kids who became antisocial teenagers addicted to video games. To counteract this negativity based on outdated research, Barrie Gunter, in his book The Effects of Video Games on Children: The Myths Unmasked (Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), stated: “In general, research on the impact of video games has changed in recent years. Early studies used TV research as a model, which was an incorrect strategy. Video games are active, not passive. Gamers play, rather than watch. The earlier research was overwhelmingly inconclusive. Despite this, anti-video game advocates used it to criticize video games by implying causal relationships where no supporting evidence for these relationships existed. Modern studies, which take into account the active involvement inherent in gaming, are much more conclusive in their findings, and generally provide positive support for video games.”

To promote the February 2007 launch of the video game collection, the library sent press releases to area newspapers to make residents aware of our free circulating collection. It also received a lot of word-of-mouth publicity from both teens and adults. In addition, the games were clearly visible when you entered the library. The library’s teen page (guilpl.org/teens/) has had a running poll asking teens which systems we should buy software for, and there is a logo that takes users to a list of games.

Joshua Carlson created wish lists for games to be purchased based on suggestions made by users on the LibGaming listserv (groups.google.com/group/LibGaming), lists found on the Library Success Wiki (tinyurl.com/3d72om), and by reading a lot of reviews on GameSpot.com as well as in School Library Journal and Electronic Gaming Monthly. I then showed the lists to the Teen Advisory Committee and they gave me their additions, deletions, and comments. The process has remained largely the same for new purchases. Check out the sidebar on page 31 for a list of our top 25 circulating video games. Most of them were available on launch day. Recently we added additional Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii games which are very popular as well.

Only six video games were stolen in 2007. Rather than buying security cases, we circulate them like we do our DVDs, something that may change once we add smaller handheld console games to the collection. We have 3M security gates, so we place the small security “donut” around the center hole of the game disc. As a backup, we place a tattle tag inside the game label. This has worked well so far, and games are generally returned in good condition.

For those concerned about teens not reading, here are some interesting statistics. From 2004-2006, circulation of teen fiction and nonfiction at the library increased about four percent annually, but the year we launched the circulating game collection, there was a 20 percent increase in the number of books borrowed by teens.

In March 2008, we began hosting “Game 'n’ Read” nights, where bookshelves on wheels with new games and materials related to gaming are available for checkout. There is also some booktalking, and even some sound equipment and a guitar available in case anyone wishes to do a little open mike. This will complement the gaming component of our bimonthly Anime Club by opening up another portion of our teen collection. One of the most exciting results of our circulating game collection and game-related events is the increased use of teen nonfiction materials related to gaming. We have strategy guides for many of the games we own, and have purchased books about game design, game creation, writing for games, and careers in the video game industry.

The success of Guilderland Public Library’s circulating video game collection has been extraordinary. We plan to continue adding new titles to our collection and, in the future, we hope to purchase titles for younger children as well as adults.