This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on March 2, 2009.

A group of librarians from the Nebraska Library Commission was audited by state auditor Mike Foley after a video showing the librarians playing Rock Band was discovered on YouTube. The video (which is embedded below) is an instructional video that shows the librarians setting up the system and playing the game. In his report, Foley claimed the librarians misused taxpayer money to basically sit around and play video games. The Library Commission responded with a report of their own in which they detail exactly what they planned to do with the games and how bringing Rock Band into the library is in line with the state’s library goals.

The incident has been picked up by various news organizations, including Library Journal (which provides a good blow-by-blow of what happened) and Omaha’s Action 3 News. This kerfuffle shows that some people just don’t get it, and while it’s no laughing matter, it reinforces the idea that some people need more education on what libraries are doing with games (or anything not book-related) and how video games long ago stopped being “kid’s stuff.”

Here’s the video in case you were interested: