King County, Washington is taking the startling step of putting video games in libraries. Not to check out — we all know they'd never come back — but to actually play in the library on GameCubes, Nintendo DSes, Xboxes, and Xbox 360s. Apparently the idea is that once lured in by promises of E- to T-rated gaming pleasures, the kids might suddenly realize that they're surrounded by books and decide to read one. Also, one librarian is quoted as saying "To succeed in a game, players need to read manuals and understand the rules." Read manuals? Like open them up? Then what are the in-game tutorials for?

Video games add interactive dimension to local libraries [King County Journal]

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