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Posted October 28th, 2008 by Greg
in
During the summer and autumn this year, Oak Park (Ill.) Public Library has held monthly teen gaming tournaments. This is a video of sights and sounds from the September tourney, as well as an interview with Young Adult Librarian Monica Harris, who explains why and how the library got into gaming and the benefits it offers the library and the community. Transcript (Opens in new window or tab).
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I wish more libraries would embrace gaming like this
That interview is great. My local library has a very limited video gaming events, and they're always for kids/teens and not open to adults/seniors.
I wish more libraries would open up these events to adults/seniors. I'm 30-something and would love to be involved with something like that. We all want kids to go to the library more, but there's no reason we shouldn't want to keep going back as adults/seniors for other than just books.
I'm not sure how much adults make up patronage at a library, but I'm guessing it's possibly more than kids - so why not try to get them into the library more as well? Such a simple solution.
I hope more libraries can see this and expand what they already offer.
Gaming for adults
Thanks for the kind words about the video. In fact, gaming programs for adults do exist and the trend is growing (Old Bridge Public Library in New Jersey has had a lot of success with gaming programs for seniors, even), though it's probably a fair bit behind gaming for kids. I'd recommend you talk to your library and let them know that you're interested in gaming programs too; time and money demands mean they may not be able to take every suggestion, but there's a good chance they'll at least be receptive.
Gaming in the Oak Park Pubic Library
What a wonderful YA program. Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm with us, Monica. I especially appreciated your note that libraries don't need to have lots of consoles to host a successful program. I think I'll try and incorporate some of your innovations at our (tiny) library. - Beecher (Ill.) Community Library District