I said in a recent post that I was going to leave the decision about gaming in libraries up to the public librarians because they know more about it than I do. When I read finger-waggling preachy blog posts like this recent one by Library Garden,(recommended by one of fave lib blogs, iLibrarian) my back gets all up. Library Garden states that the number one reason that public libraries should dedicate some of their library budget (snort) to providing gaming services for kids is [drumroll, please]…”Welcome to the 21st Century.”

Oh, how I miss being a passionate young librarian looking down my righteous nose at the granny librarians and their quaint old fashioned ways! This gaming thing might get the kids in the door, I get that. I get that games help increase a kid’s ability to learn. I will even buy that that gaming helps the young learn to read. But you are really going to have to sell me on the fact that they get valuable information from Guitar Hero. The Library Garden librarian says that “if you choose not to have any kind of video games in your library, you’re living in the past,” and that providing gaming services is expensive. Ok, your library has money. Good for you. But what if you are a library with very little budget and you can only afford a couple of these games? There’s this thing called Collection Development. If a library can’t sustain the service/collection and keep it relevant to the user then it becomes more lame than a library that doesn’t provide it at all. Try to keep in mind that some public libraries are doing everything they can to just to keep body and soul together before accusing them of being obsolete. Sometimes libraries have to focus on doing their primary mission really well. I choose to support them and, in some cases, beam with pride as they keep making it happen for their communities while their budgetary support dwindles.