This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on January 29, 2007.

2006 has come to a close and with it, year two of having PlayStation 2 games available is in the books. After twenty-four months and 170 games (the collection was able to more than double in 2006), video games have become business as usual with the staff and the patrons.

But “busines as usual” does not mean the games have lost any of their popularity. It’s actually the opposite. They still occupy their small shelf in the video section but every game, no matter how old, still circulates constantly and even though the collection has grown considerably since the initial handful of titles, no more than five games are ever in at a time. Continue reading →

This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on January 25, 2006.

It has been one year since the “Great Video Game Experiment” was started at the public library where I work. And in those twelve months I’d have to say it has gone as good as anyone could have hoped. In the end, the numbers don’t lie, and a success is all this experiment can be called.

Seventy-seven PlayStation 2 titles have been added to the collection so far with at least a dozen still awaiting processing. Sadly, Culdcept, one of the games purchased in the initial batch of games at the end of 2004, is still on that list. It’s a little short of the 100 game target I had thought was reasonable back when I started, but 77 seems like a pretty respectable number.

Jak II was the first game to come back broken at the end of July. We had a pretty good run before that. Seven months and not a single problem to be investigated. And then Jak II comes back with a complaint that it won’t start after 8 circs. I pop it in my PS2 at home (because we can’t afford a test unit to sit in the library at all times) and sure enough, the game wouldn’t advance past the Dolby Surround logo. It looks much less scratched up than some of the titles, but it just won’t play.

This has seemed to be a trend as the year moved on. Many younger kids brought back certain titles and say “they’re too scratched to play”. But when I test them on my regularly cleaned PS2 at home they work fine. So back on the shelf they go. But it wouldn’t be unexpected if they didn’t work. Library materials get beaten up regularly. It happens. However, a theft ring is something nobody expects. Continue reading →

This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on June 24, 2005.

It has been six months since PlayStation 2 games were added to the collection of the library I work at. In those six months the collection has grown from the meager six titles originally offered on that first day to a healthy collection of 40. Best of all, not a single game has been lost or damaged (although several are on the extended overdue list). Not that I don’t cringe everytime someone brings back a disc that looks like they used it as a dinner plate.

Circulation numbers have been brisk. With two week loan periods and late charges of only 25 cents a day, people are jumping at the chance to check out games, any game. I don’t know why it’s surprising, but people (adults and children, but mostly children) will pull stuff off the shelf and check it out without even looking at what game it is they’re getting out. I asked one frequent game borrower (an adult) about this and he replied “Well I wouldn’t check out Harry Potter, but pretty much anything else, yeah.” Almost every game also has a reserve list of some size, WWE Smackdown VS Raw has been on hold since it was added. And not surprisingly for a library, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the most popular game in the collection. Even the processing department downtown has begun adding games to the county database quicker than ever. However, that’s not to say there still aren’t speedbumps. Continue reading →

This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was the first Video Game Librarian article and was originally written on February 25, 2005.

Libraries and video games have never managed to hit it off. Several games, including GoldenEye and Halo, have levels called “The Library”, but that’s really where it ends. People in all corners of the Internet debate about the academic merits of games, but libraries are ignored. Until now. Public libraries all over the country have been adding video games to their collections. Its very possible that a library in your hometown has games on its shelf right now.

When I am not writing about games, I work at one of these libraries. I had floated the idea of adding games to my manager several times last year, but always as a joke. Even though many patrons, children and adults, had requested that we carry video games. Libraries would never carry console games I thought. But in a sense, games are already a recognized part of a good library as most carry CD-ROMs, a few of which might even be games. However, they are the exception, not the rule. Around June of last year, we discontinued our CD-ROM collection. Everything was being locked down with CD Keys and other security measures and it made the borrowing and re-borrowing of materials between patrons impossible. CD Keys would lock up and refuse access to the install process after a piece of software had only circulated several times. Even though we were well within our rights that were spelled out in the License Agreements.

This was my opening. I explained to my manager that video games didn’t require CD Keys, and that unless they were scratched beyond repair they would always work. I was also given a break because many public libraries are looking to increase their use by teens. Graphic novels had been added earlier in the year and helped the circulation numbers a little, surely I argued, games could bring in more people. So at the end of the year, I was given the OK to use a little leftover money in the budget to look into video games. Continue reading →