Video games in some form have been around for over thirty years now (Newman 29). The medium has come a long way since those early days in the 70’s with two rectangle paddles bouncing a circle back and forth in Pong, growing into a complex medium with a massive culture attached to it. Libraries have been slow to recognizing the value and opportunity that video games provide their collections, their users, and their institution (Levine, The Shifted Librarian).
There’s a shift in motion as we near the sunset of the Baby Boomer generation. Their influence on our culture is increasingly being relinquished to the generation born after 1970 who grew up playing video games: Gamers. “Organizations that don’t understand or acknowledge them run the risk of becoming increasingly isolated and irrelevant” (Storey). If we are here to serve the public’s entertainment and educational needs (Rubin 382), then the placement of video games in a public library’s collection is something that needs to be examined and recognized. Gamers working in the library need to be making the push to bring this tribe together for their library.
The popularity of video games cannot be ignored. 2005 saw $365 million in video game sales alone, and 2006 saw that number increase to $446 million. Total revenue of the industry is well into the billions (Glazer 954). In 2002 research showed that 60% of people in the United States over the age of 6 played video games (Jones 5). By the 1990’s Nintendo’s Mario, of Super Mario Brothers fame, had become more recognizable among children then Disney’s Mickey. By 2004 the gaming industry overtook the film industry in sales. While the film industry’s revenues continue to slump, the gaming industries continue to rise (Squire and Steinkuehler 38; Sutton and Womack).
The increasing sales in gaming despite growing costs further emphasize the importance of gaming to this generation. It’s also cutting out an important user group. Not unlike, perhaps even tied to, the ‘digital divide’ that technology has created between the poor and middle class, there is an equity gap in the gaming industry. “Gaming is a part of growing up in the U.S.” (Jones 7). For these lower income households with limited access to high-tech hardware Libraries building a collection may be their only access to the medium (Glazer 950-951).
Gaming is a far from solitary activity. It is inherently social (Newman 147). A Pew study of gaming found that games helped students both make friends and improve existing friendships (Jones 2). Beyond the multiplayer aspects of games, a culture has been built around gaming that encompasses both passionate and casual gamers. Gamers debate aspects of game play, create fan-fiction, and write walkthroughs of games to help other players through problems (Newman 153; Squire and Steinkuehler 40). Taking advantage of this social aspect of gaming can really support both the users and the libraries themselves. One of the ways some libraries are doing this is through game nights.
When thinking about why libraries should consider doing game nights, an excellent analogy can be made to story time. Kids or parents can still check out books, but we still have story time at a library. The target audience is different, but “tournaments are to video games what story times are to picture books” (Levine 50).
While some institutions were initially skeptical of these events, an overwhelmingly positive, even enthusiastic response from kids as well as parents has assuaged any fear (Levine 46, 49). At Ann Arbor District Library, which has started regular game nights as tournaments, they have found that as many as 30% of people attending their tournaments had never been to the library prior. This drawing in of new patrons is a common theme in other libraries that have also taken attempted game nights (Levine 45, 50, 52)
Dan Braun, who runs gaming events for Worth Public Library in Illinois, has found that providing gaming helps engage atypical users in other library services (Levine 47). One gamer in Ann Arbor, Ian Melcher, proves Braun, “If it wasn’t for gaming stuff dragging me in that first time, I would have gone maybe once in the past two years… I realized the library was pretty cool and had other things I was interested in” (Glazer 939). At the time of being quoted, Melcher had just checked out two books from the library.
Glazer, Sarah. “Video Games: Do they have Educational Value.” CQ Researcher 16.40 (2006): 937-59.
Jones, Steve. Let the Games Begin: Gaming Technology and Entertainment among College Students. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2006.
Levine, Jenny. “Case Studies: Public Libraries.” Library Technology Reports 42.5 (2006): 45-55.
—. Gaming @ Your Library Sessions Blogged!., 2005. http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2005/05/26/gaming_your_library_sessions_blogged.html
—. “Why Gaming?” Library Technology Reports 42.5 (2006): 10-18.
Newman, James. Videogames. London: Routledge, 2004-00-00 2004.
Rubin, Richard. Foundations of Library and Information Science. 2nd ed. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2004.
Squire, Kurt, and Constance Steinkuehler. Library Journal; Meet the Gamers: They Research, Teach, Learn, and Collaborate. so Far, without Libraries.(Cover Story). Vol. 130. Reed Business Information, 2005.
Storey, Tom. “The Big Bang.” OCLC Newsletter.267 (2005) http://www.oclc.org/news/publications/newsletters/oclc/2005/267/thebigbang.htm.
Sutton, Lynn, and H. David Womack. “Got Game? Hosting Game Night in an Academic Library.” College and Research Libraries News 67.3 (2006) http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2006/march06/gotgame.cfm.
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