Post by leunas on Oct 4, 2006 14:12:49 GMT -5
Over at The Shifted Librarian blog, Jenny Levine poses this stumper:
So how are we going to mesaure actual gaming services in the library (not just collections or supporting materials)? Do we use the same outcomes we do for other groups that meet in the library? We use attendance figures for so much - programs, knitting group members that gather in the meeting room, kids and parents attending storytime, people who attend movies we show, and the like. Even in academic libraries it's still about the door count, the number of books checked out, the number of times a database is used, the number of times reserves are checked out, and the number of reference questions asked.
An interesting question. Obviously, games have almost no literacy value... but neither do knitting clubs that meet in a library, or DVD rentals, or any of the many other activities that happen in libraries.
The question actually seems to be "In the days of Amazon, how do we get people to come INTO libraries?" Jenny points out that everything is measured by door count, which sounds a lot like the business of blogs. Things are ultimately justified not really by how literate they are, but how many people it brings in the door.
The larger question seems to be, "Can libraries afford gaming?" Rooms in your local library filled with consoles and games would, perhaps, be rather cheap to upkeep, but PC gaming would have to keep up with a constant upgrade cycle.
Still, if you equate libraries with the preservation of culture in all forms of medium, and not by literacy, it makes sense. Though I don't really want to have to deal with some 14 year old smacktalking loudly into his Counterstrike mic while I'm trying to puzzle out Ulysses.
www.kotaku.com/gaming/libraries/should-libraries-offer-gaming-204934.php
