Kotaku: Libraries

Can Guitar Hero Make Children Smarter?

Mike Fahey — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:40:00 MDT

Can video games make children smarter? This is the question the American Library Association is looking into, conducting tests in various library systems throughout the country to see if getting children into the library helps promote literacy or just results in having a bunch of kids in the library playing video games. Tucson's News-4 posted a special report today on how the project is going at the Pima County Quincy Douglas branch, where children can come and somehow gain literacy by playing Guitar Hero and "Karaoke".

I'm not all that clear on how Guitar Hero is going to promote literacy. When you think about it, the very concept of Guitar Hero is about dumbing-down an activity so every one can do it, which would make it the literary equivalent of a McDonald's picture menu, but it sure does give News-4's reporter an excellent chance to stand on camera with a guitar controller. Hit the jump for the video report, condemned there due to its auto-starting nature.

I think overall the answer to the question, at least in regards to the games they are playing, is not really, but I think we should all lie and make it seem like the children are smarter just so we can stop by our local libraries and play Guitar Hero in the future.

Do video games make kids smarter? [KVOA News 4 via Game Politics]

Bizarre Timewaster of the Day: I'll Get It!

Maggie Greene — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:30:29 MDT

Ever wondered what it's like to be a librarian at an institution where your patrons are incapable of finding the most basic of materials on their own? No? Me neither. But just in case you're dying to find out, the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries have put together the 'Library Arcade' (no, really), where you can test your shelving skills following the Library of Congress call number system or try your hand at a Diner Dash-esque fetch it game, where you have to keep hapless patrons happy and find appropriate materials for their "research." What sort of researcher can't use an online library catalog, I don't know. I can tell you I'd be horsewhipped by my advisors for wasting the valuable time of our librarians by asking them to find me the answer to 'Does daylight savings time really save time?'. [via Water Cooler Games]

Library Offers Halo 2 Competition, People Freak

Mark Wilson — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:00:08 MDT

To attract a teenage readership, an Illinois library has planned a Halo 2 competition for this weekend. Minors can come and participate as long as they've had a permission slip signed by an adult. But to the National Institute on Media and the Family, that's just not enough. President David Walsh claims:

...it borders on irresponsibility for a public library to sponsor an activity for kids as young as 12 that the industry itself has said is for adults.

And while the permission slip doesn't specify the game is rated M, how many books in that library—perfectly accessible to children—hold the same level of violence, maturity or societal subversion without any designation? Ah, nevermind. Books like that are better off banned, anyway.
Critics say 'Oh no' to Halo [via gamepolitics]

Should Libraries Offer Gaming?

kotaku.com — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 14:40:08 MDT

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. Florian Eckhardt

How Do We Measure Gaming? [Shifted Librarian, via Game Set Watch]