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Canadian Libraries Want $300,000 To Buy Games
AirborneGamer writes "The Toronto Public Library is asking for $300K to build up a collection of video games. They have not said if they will buy all types of games, or leave out the M-rated ones. As the City Councilor of Toronto said about the project, 'It may be the only time a young person comes in. It can act as a magnet to attract people. Once we get them in there, you can be darn sure that our librarians will be hard at work to introduce them to everything else the library can offer.' This is a good plan actually, and besides bringing kids into the library it will bring in parents and or guardians who otherwise may not visit the library on their own."
... of public money well spent. Thumbs up, Toronto !
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Go Canada!
Libraries are becoming increasingly less relevant to the generations who grew up with the internet at their disposal. I personally only made the trips back to the library when they started offering DVD's/ Blurays.
The kids that want to go to the library already do. Their parents usually are readers also and tought them by example.
Also, I'm not sure why a kid would want to go to the library to play video games. Most kids have what they need to play at home.
Seems like wasted money to me.
Sure you can play Super Street Fighter IV Jimmy, as soon as you finish reading War and Peace :D
I can see kids getting dumped at the library. Enough kids in a confined space, with limited resources and supervision (and no where else to go). This could lead to problems. They need to tread lightly. I can see how this could succeed, but also how it could backfire.
In Michigan our local library always carried computer games. Not always up to date but a good selection of Maxis games, tycoon types and even a few shooters. It seemed to work out quite well to me...
I know the library has DVDs and some music for free, but with Redbox having the newest movies for $1 and other game rental services out there, it is almost as expensive driving there with gas as doing something else almost free.
Not sure this is the best idea but what do I know?
I wonder how DRM would work out with this sort of concept. If the game tries to keep itself from passing from user to user.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Maybe we should stop calling them libraries. Library comes from Liber and refers to "inner bark" or wood, and refers to books made out of trees. I don't think music, videos and games are made of trees, nor are they rooted in trees. Maybe they do in the sense of telling stories, but I wouldn't consider half the media today to tell a congruent story.
All the popular titles use some kind of DRM. Did they keep this in mind? What will the publishers say? Are there for rent versions or will the librarians just have to go and unlock the games through dozens of different hotlines or however this works?
Or are they only talking about console games?
Im all for this idea, hopefully it will go some way towards people seeing Video Games as another medium the same as a film or book. It was only a few years ago that my local library started lending out DVDs (with a price but one much smaller than a rental store) and I know that at least in the beginning it brought in some young people to rent DVD's and it gave a small trickle over to the lending of books.
Ooh, Super Mario Brothers! Well, if you like this, you may also like:
The Encyclopaedia of Plumbing
The Mushroom Index: food, fun, or poison?
Carnivorous plants of South America
The Princess Diaries
which is totally what she said
Back in the early '90ies, I got loads of games from the public city library in my home town. It was especially great for adventure games, because they have a limited replay value anyway. And my library got all the CD-ROM versions, which meant you could get full speech on games like Day of the Tentacle, which was awesome of course.
Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
I've seen video games in my library for a couple years now.
I'm an American living in Norway and I was shocked to find that my local library has a large collection of Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games that can be checked out. They also have a sound-proof room where you can play Guitar Hero and Rock Band, as well as a large collection of contemporary music CDs with everything from Metallica to obscure Norwegian music. You can listen to them there or check them out. My wife checked one out and lost it, only finding it several months later and they didn't even make her pay a fee or a late charge. I've been here a while now but back when I had just moved here and was learning Norwegian, I used to go in and use the computers. They had children's games with everything from Oregon Trail-type clones to Harry Potter. It helped me learn vocabulary that wasn't in my books and get a working knowledge of the language, not just the grammatically-correct style that almost no one speaks. One day, a new bitchy librarian decided that I wasn't allowed to use the ones with the games on them because they're "for children", even though there are ten of those PCs and hardly any children in there. Norwegians can be like that, but I digress. I never counted how many PCs they actually have in there, but there are at least 30 for surfing the web, research, or looking through the library's online catalogues. Interestingly, the ones for games run Windows and all the others run Linux.
I lived in the Netherlands about ten years ago and my local library had an extensive collection of music and movies (VHS and DVD). In addition they had quite a lot of older PC-games. The best part was their kick ass English book section with a lot of sci-fi and fantasy.
But I hate the idea of tax money going to frivolous things like this. Personally, I can't stand that my library lends DVDs and music too. Public libraries, in my opinion, should solely be about self-improvement and betterment. Books, movies, and music should be classics, self-help, technical, etc. It doesn't make a lot of sense to have the library just be a surrogate Blockbuster/Netflix/Gamefly.
The kids who are already at the library reading books are suddenly going to be tempted by the newly available video games.
And the statement: "you can be darn sure that out librarians will be hard at work to introduce them to everything else the library can offer" Umm.. yeah right. Because kids who come to the library for free video games to make copies of really give a sh!t what a library has to say to them.
Our local library does this. they have XBox 360, PS3, and Wii games available (I think PS2 as well, but not sure). It's definitely a great way to get folks into the library and see what else might be in there.
Video games now serve that function and having them in libraries is probably long overdue. The only issue I see is which console to support. Unlike videos, where any DVD player will do, the library might indirectly provide promotion for a console. Also, as has been mentioned, video game makes are becoming increasingly rude about the second hand market.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Every year Toronto's debt goes up, and every year Toronto property taxes go up, and every few years Toronto's unions go on strike to have their already large salaries increased. Maybe once the city can control its finances and its unions, then it can think about buying video games to attract children to the Library.
Why can't they just download them for free like everyone else?
Funded by your taxes and responsive to the wants and needs of the community. If you don't like the mix of resources available, join the board of your public library and advocate for change.
I'd say anything that gets kids in the door of a library is a good thing. Who knows what they'll pick up to read while waiting for a turn at the video game?
300,000$ is far from enough to build a complete collection. The biggest game library to exist is in the warez scene private topsites, if the FBI could simply stop destroying them and use them for culture instead.
Why don't they just spend a couple o' grand on porno.
I remember my formative years spent in the school library, searching the dictionary for all the rude words. While I was there, I noticed some other books as well.
Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
Of course, we are social-democrats (socialists) :)
Oh, and thanks for not calling Finland a Scandinavian nation, they're a Nordic nation like you said. So many people don't understand that Scandinavia is only Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Finland does not share the ethnic, linguistic or cultural history of Scandinavia. They do however share the same modern political culture.
... do so bad in school and are getting so fat is they are spending their time play video games. The time they might be exercising and reading. I expect that it also is rewiring the way their minds work, but I have no proof of this.
Of course, it will prepare them for a future as drone pilots in the Air Force.
You could convert a library into a cybercafe or a disco, and that may atract more/different type of people. But thats not really atracting more people to a library, more like atracting people to a cybercafe/disco that use to be a library.
The idea sould be make the library more interesting, that could be adding a cybercafe to it, anything really, but thats that "fit" the existing things, so the core of the experience is not damaged.
If you want to make a romantic sci-fi movie, your first step can't be to drop the romantic and science fiction part of it. There are parts of things that are esential to the experience, you sould never make concesions on core values, because the result will not be great. A Disco or a cybercafe will not make concesions, or only where it not affect the core experience, as a result most Disco or Cybercafes are great.
-Woof woof woof!
It would be a good idea if the games weren't going to be out of date almost as soon as they're bought. What good is a huge collection of outdated games?
I think I went to the local library once... maybe twice in my life. When I was younger my school library had a good selection of fantasy or sci-fi books to read. Not large but it was good. Course I never read much recreationaly until high school/college. At that point though most books I wanted to read were incredibly cheap. Hell most paperbacks cost less then $8. At college that's, what? Deciding to not go for that late nite pizza/beer/McDonald's run once more that week? My only expensive books were D&D books. So I never much understood the point of having to goto the library when I can goto the local bookstore and get one I know will be brand new for cheap and I can expand my own personal library! I personally like the thought of when the wife and I get a house that we'll need to designate a room as the library with our large book collection. How many homes have a library these days? Even if it's not large it still feels classy =)
I had a quick look at this and other articles and the TPL website and found no mention of how they arrived at this decision. Did they ask young people what they wanted? Formally? Informally?
Why not set up a depository for used games? I'm sure there are tons out there that people would be happy to contribute.
As a meeting place, they're also a lot safer than the local bar.
My mother's assistant director at a suburban public library. They just developed a "youth center," filled with Wii & Playstation consoles to attract youth to the library and give them a place to hang out.
What they soon discovered was that it got more attention than they expected. Kids would just loiter there all day on the weekend, or all evening on weekdays. Many parents also dropped their kids off at the library in the morning and left them there all day. The library isn't built to be a babysitting service, but lots of parents didn't see it that way. They started having problems with graffiti, fights, turf wars, and other general mischief, and complaints from the general patrons have been on the rise.
Free video games in public places may attract kids, but they often attract the wrong kind of kids. The jury's out on whether or not the attraction actually increases awareness and utilization of the public library.
First, most libraries in Morris County do not have video games. I have been to alot of them like Wharton, Boonton, Rockaway, Morristown, Mt. Olive, Dover, Roxbury, etc., and I do not recall seeing video games at any of them. Of course I do not bother to look for non-book materials since I cannot loan them out except in my home town of Dover and I am not a gamer.
Our library had a Technology section, with a gaming section in there with a variety of games.
It made it a pretty decent hangout spot with friends, especially at lunch times in school, and the meals at the cafeteria were pretty great too.
It was decently popular with around 10-30% of the people around lunch times usually ending up there hanging out at the desks or on the computers.
There was also a lot of courses and groups run there as well.
But the school recently (several years back) closed, which actually shared the same building with the library.
Bad times.
Personal experiences follows, not that important.
Mainholm Academy was a fantastic place, it used to be pretty crap at first, but as my 6 years there passed, every year got better. (not personally, the school in general)
Our year and the year above eventually started a lot of after school courses as well, and eventually led to it becoming quite a popular thing.
Then stupid financial decisions and the discovery of asbestos and potentially damaged / inefficient pipes led to it being closed entirely.
Article about the aftermath caused by the pupils being split around all the other schools if anyone is interested.
Think that was 3-4 years after i left.
It is never a good thing when a school closes.
Not really. One of the positive things to come out of my recent stint of unemployment was rediscovering city and community college libraries. I used to just pick books off of Amazon or Half Price books. Now my new gig is within walking distance of the main city library, which is awesome. Some of the smaller regional libraries are pretty much ruined by all the people that come in to use the computers. Not only do they leave their cell phones on, but have no problem having a loud conversation while others are trying to read. I don't really need to know about your pedicure appointment while I'm trying to get my Asimov fix.
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
Most people just come into libraries to use the internet because they do not have it at home(or other reasons, maybe they are in the neighborhood, etc.) and to rent DVDs, etc.
Sadly the fewest amount of patrons at contemporary American libraries come to read. Coming into the library for another reason besides books will not convert someone into a reader which requires a different habit, pace and orientation than watching a movie or viewing Youtube.
The public library in Columbus, Mississippi already does this. There's even a "Teen Room" with systems available to play.
Queens Library in New York City carries video games for all the currently supported video game consoles. At first, I was skeptical of libraries carrying video games, but then I figured they already loan audio CDs, video DVDs and have loaned computer software (including games) for years. As for it being a waste of public funds, just because I might now borrow these games, doesn't mean that other people won't. The library can also reap more funds in late fees. And besides, public libraries carry all kinds of things that I have no interest in borrowing - like the "Twilight" books.
Regarding games bringing more kids into the library, it seems to work. Whenever I go to the library, lots of kids are there playing awful Flash-based web browser games, right under signs that say they're not supposed to be playing games on these computers.
I'm sure there's a solution for this, as you can rent games from lots of places other than the library, right?
At least in the United States, 17 USC 109 reserves the right to rent or lend copies of computer programs exclusively to the copyright owner with three exceptions: 1. nonprofit libraries, 2. software embedded into a device that can't be copied out of the device, and 3. console games. So nonprofit libraries are the only place that one can try PC games without a demo before buying them. What does Canada's copyright statute say about this?
Out of interest, what word do you use to refer to a file containing position-independent code which can be linked into an application at run time and provides a set of documented features?
That's an object code archive. The tool to make them is even called 'ar' because is an archiver.
Maybe some locals can donates some game that aren't used too much?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Ooh, Super Mario Brothers! Well, if you like this, you may also like:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Carroll. The SMB1 team cited this book as an inspiration.
The City of Ottawa began offering Video Games two years ago (as well as public play times and private room rentals for those willing to pay for it) and it has been a huge success.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/editorials/story.html?id=dcb8c723-d154-493d-8d6d-1baad564294e
Not only are what libraries buy under discussion in the Canadian national capital of Ottawa. The relevance of library buildings themselves isa hot topic. Ottawa wants several million dollars to build a new library. This comes at a time when city and library budgets are under review in these tight times. The topic has gone well beyond what content a library should purchase. It has now expanded to the discussion if libraries are relevant in our world of the Kindle.
One Kindle could hold the complete content of a 200 million dollar library building, plus the costs of running it. Should we not question the whole idea of a bricks and mortar building. The costs to the tax payer is huge in a time when there are very few users of the buildings. Are cities better off financially to open kiosks in stores just like the post offices are now around the city. At these places people could borrow a kindle with the appropriate book activated? Is our tax money better spent in this fashion?
But what about copy right? With the new and expanding legislation and ingrained DRM are we going to lose the concept of a library. Have there been provision for electronic libraries to exists. If there is I do not see it.
Pay the kids to go into the library :)
Short sighted would be more correct. I do understand that it can be confusing with Neo-Cons destroying everything conservative.
DVD lending has given me and my kids looks into other cultures. An example of that would be Anime.
An added bonus is that going to the library is a normal experience for my children.
"Public libraries, in my opinion, should solely be about self-improvement and betterment. "
So no sci-fi? romance?
who do you think you are where you get to tell people they need for self-improvement and betterment. MY daughter is interested in Learning Japanese solely because we where able to get Japanese movies from the library.
"Books, movies, and music should be classics, self-help, technical, etc."
Who are you to determine what a classic is?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I think everyone should follow his own way. Somebody reads books but somebody else doesn't.
"Harry Potter is selling well, so kids are reading more books!", went the cry. As it turned out, kids were just reading more Harry Potter. There was no halo effect.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Shut uuuuup! Shutup shutUP SHUTUP!!! It's a library fer Christ's sake. SHUTUP already.
Why is this classed under Canada? This is only one city.
So tomorrow when New York City or Los Angeles plan something, will the headline read United States plans ****?
Do you stop carrying books if they move to books on tape? Do libraries refuse to carry fiction? No. Libraries are places where we store and share media, not just written words. Video games are the new media and deserve to be stored. As for copyright protection, the library should have the legal write to circumvent it, but the holders will probably object and attempt to use the force of law to prevent it.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Libraries as Babysitters is not a new thing. It has been going on at least since the 1980's. Google 'unattended children in library' for more information.
My response would be, what's the big deal?
I know for a fact that it's almost universally accepted in places such as Britain that public libraries will stock computer games, DVDs and even CDs. The don't usually rent them out for free like they do with books, instead they charge a small fee. Enough to pay for the item in the long run, but still less than Netflix or Blockbuster would charge for the same rental.
It's a great idea.
They should have M titles, too. Over 18s use libraries, too, you know. It's not like they will be handed over to kids. Just put them on a different shelf to the children's title. Libraries carry art books with pictures of naked people in them, and they carry history books with images of graphic violence in them such as piles of bodies in the Nazi death camps. It's common sense not to allow a 5 year old to take them out. The same is true for games.
Wouldn't they achieve the same result by carrying game strategy guides? That way kids are actually learning to go to a library to use it for research purposes. Some may not agree that the research topic is worthwhile, but I can't believe those detractors would think video games themselves would hold more research value.
A link to a blog with no sources or names. Great.
Here's a link to the actual story with things like details
Some notes:
So: Proposed idea from one guy, that isn't going to happen.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
This is also illegal within Germany and Austria.
But just across the border, in Switzerland, this is allowed
(as long as the breaking was done in order to produce copies which fall under the usual exceptions of the copyright law).
Welcome to the madness of the DMCA-euro-clones.
I hope the day we end-up with Euro- (and CH-billateral) wide law, we end up with a more reasonable variant (which tolerates fair-use exceptions).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I got a chuckle out of the fact that Stony Brook U's main library had Playboy. Great because I would never pay for it. I never asked if I could take it to the john though? Who knows, maybe my classmates did, in which case I wouldn't want to touch it.
Much like many older "brick and mortar" stores have had to do to survive over the years, libraries need to follow suit. They either need to feature a very strong online presence (as in actually useful) or merge their resources together into a massive central location that's easily accessible and relatively clean/safe.
In recent years, libraries have gotten a bad rap for stock-housing materials that are so outdated that the materials themselves are either no longer relevant or are now historically inaccurate. These days, no one trusts anything printed over a decade ago, mainly because that's the point where the internet really started to take root in our culture. For many of us, if content isn't constantly updated as more information becomes available, the source of the content loses it's credibility.
Given how we tend to act within our own culture, our school systems have pretty much changed to adapt. As such, it's very likely that any student that goes to a library to study in the manner our generation did 15-20 years ago (nose buried deep in a book) would probably not get a decent grade. There's also the potential problem that having been born into a post-internet-boom world, they may not be able to adapt to information retrieval in that manner. It's possible that even being faced with such a task for prolonged period of time would trigger several bouts of cognitive overload. As it is, the current protocol this generation uses for handling information is to obtain it in short chunks at high speeds, relative to an information terminal... versus earlier generations who dealt with information in slower, longer chunks. The further back in time you go, the slower and longer these information chunks become, relative to our technological advancement. (books->newsprint->telephone->radio->television->personal computers->internet)
At any rate, libraries should not be trying to play up the whole "books are cool" line, and should be focusing more on how to adapt themselves to the demand for high speed information exchange. It might even make more sense for a company like Google to simply buy every library in every community, and turn them into data centers. Perhaps even establish some sort of proprietary network outside of the internet that would facilitate nothing but the absolute highest speed searches possible, then let the public utilize it via terminals at these libraries.
8==8 Bones 8==8
The libraries are running Linux on their public terminals, so they don't have too many choices for games.
...as an American living in Norway, you ARE aware that Norway is a state awash in petrodollars, yes?
It pretty much destroys the point I think you were trying to make, ie "lookit all the cool stuff they have in their libraries, they don't even charge late fees!!"
-Styopa
I guess big cities are catching up with the small town I grew up in (in Canada). Our library had Commodore 64 games to borrow, as well as a reading incentive program: read a book, get a block of time to program in Logo on their computer. I read a book a day for a time.
1. May be they can make a web bulletin board for exchanging games as well. With the library as the middle-man ... better make it insured as well :-).
2. They can also ask people to donate used games or buy them for a small fee.
3. Don't start reading books and play games side by side in the library. Very distracting at least for me.
Okay, where can I go to find free books, movies and music in physical formats, online? I don't want to download to a screen reader. I want an actual physical book. One I can take out on my lawn and shake at you kids, yelling, "Get off my lawn or I'll throw this book at you!"
Now, I have a further question. Name one single media technology that has killed off any previous media technologies. Okay, okay, the telegraph finally died a few years ago after a hundred and fifty plus year run. But I still read books, see plays, listen to radio, watch TV, and go to movies. All of which have been pronounced 'dead' by various prognosticators at one time or another. All of whom have been wrong. I don't think the Internet is going to kill anything off. And there is a sizable group of people for whom their local public library IS their Internet access point: low income and homeless people.
The purpose of libraries is to pay for an externality: an educated and cultured citizenry, one of the cornerstones of any democracy. Because every citizen gains value from having an educated and cultured populace, but baring government intervention only the individual pays for it, the price point of culture and information does not reflect its true value to society, and we need things like libraries and public schools.
Now, some people do not see the cultural or educational value in video games, but I ask you this: how will people who know nothing of video games vote correctly on issues regarding video games? Will they just listen to kooks who tell them video games are evil? If they have to buy or rent games, they may not bother to check them out for themselves. But if anyone can check out a game from their local library. maybe a few people will actually look for themselves when someone says so and so game is evil, immoral, and bad for kids. This is a good thing for society, and worth our tax dollars.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Instead of asking for donations of money, how 'bout asking for donations of games? Real avid gamers buy the game the day it comes out, and are bored with it in 2 to 4 weeks.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
"As the City Councilor of Toronto said about the project, 'It may be the only time a young person comes in. It can act as a magnet to attract people. Once we get them in there, you can be darn sure that our librarians will be hard at work to introduce them to everything else the library can offer.'"
That's the most utterly ridiculous thing I've heard in days. In my entire life (of fairly significant library usage) I've never been in a library anywhere and had a librarian "pitch" me stuff I didn't ask for like they're a used car salesman or something. That's not their job, and they have better stuff to do with their time. Totally fucking ridiculous.
He should've said "it's a slam dunk" instead of "darn sure". That would make it even more convincing.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
Printed newspapers, while not quite dead yet, certainly appear to be at risk for extinction in my lifetime due to the Internet. Many of the local and regional papers have closed, and the ones that remain are slim shadows of what they were just a couple years ago. (USian perspective, your global village mileage may vary). Vinyl records remain, but (my opinion, I may be wrong) this is a niche medium for some audiophile cranks and collector and has been entirely surpassed by CD, DVD, and MP3. Verging on being pedantic, but 78 records, 8-track tapes, Betamax, regular cassette tapes, 8mm home movie cameras, all of these technologies are essentially dead. OK, so these are incarnations of media, not media types per se.
I'd also suggest that a number of service oriented industries are also taking a severe pounding and may eventually go away entirely - businesses like video rental stores, travel agencies and insurance agencies spring to mind.
What's dialup? Oh, is it that thing where you plug a grey cord into an ethernet-like port in your computer that makes squeeling noises?
Be careful declaring "this is a good idea" (or some variant thereof.) It may very well be a good idea, but it might also utterly fail to achieve its accomplished goals of getting kids interested in other aspects of the libraries in question. I would hope the Slashdot community could differentiate between ideas that sound good and are generally compatible with Slashdot-like values (video games, open source, math education, etc. etc.) and ideas that may possibly have some merit but would require objective verification to measure their actual effectiveness.
All the Nordic countries have libraries like this, and only Norway has significant amounts of oil. As I posted above, in Finland, where the only natural resource is wood (and Brazil is beating us out on wood exports these days) and there isn't much to the economy besides Nokia, the libraries are just as good. It's simply a different use of citizen's taxes than in other countries.
Our local library already buys games for young children and let's you borrow them for several days for free! The first time we found out about this my kids were ecstatic when they saw the selection of well known childrens character based games (ie Dora the Explorer...etc..), but when we got home and tried to play them the crying began.... not even one of the games we borrowed was usable... every single disc was scratched horribly. I was able to repair one myself using the toothpaste trick, but all the others were beyond repair. Totally useless. What a waste of money. I took them back and asked the library about the problem. They were pretty much indifferent, and actually just put the same damaged games back on the shelf ready to disappoint another batch of children! Wasted money and toothpaste, emotional trauma... there was nothing good about this.
-- INTJ Geek Blog http://www.intjgeek.com
I feel sorry for you, going your whole life, supposedly without using publicly-funded libraries. (Someone else already made the point about public universities, so I won't retread that.) Going your entire life...I'm guessing at least thirty years...without knowing the exquisite joys of the public library...to be able to obtain knowledge and entertainment without spending a ton of money each time you do so...to be able to read materials that are no longer in print (and not available on the Internet)...to know the pleasure that comes from simply browsing shelves upon shelves (and maybe floors upon floors) of well-kept, useful, well-organized books...I can't imagine how that's a good thing.
And really (full disclosure: I'm a graduate student in Library and Information Science) I would think that an engineer would be kinder, more knowledgeable, and more understanding about libraries (and, by extension, librarians) in general because your profession depends on information that is only available through library resources. And I don't just mean books - I mean expensive subscription-only electronic resources - journals, databases, technical data.... This sort of thing isn't available to just anyone - it's too damned expensive. But that's a big part of what libraries do. Large corporations like PPG have their OWN libraries to serve their employees. Check out the Special Libraries Association for more information....
Spekkio Master of War
I have been badgering our public library here to check out games for years! This is a huge step forward in the evolution of the library. The student government at the University of North Texas was able to finally convince the administration to check out console games about a year ago while I was finishing my undergrad, and The University of Texas at Arlington soon followed suit. It is a good thing to try and bring normal non library fairing folk into the public library. There are a whole lot of people who cannot afford games for that PS2 they bought at a garage sale, and this provides the exact public service libraries were designed to give.
After just renting games for a few months the patrons will probably move to checking out movies, and then be drawn in by one of the programs geared to getting people reading and begin checking out books. It is in the best interest of a government to keep its people well rounded and well informed. This program will draw many people who would have never set foot into the library inside the halls of knowledge. It will expose a new generation to something more than just the copies of HALOx they come to borrow. It will get people reading more, and reading will cause those people to be better informed citizens, and make children into better students. This is a good thing, and should be viewed as such.
People who have never set foot in a library don't understand the magic that happens inside of one. You see people of all ages becoming part of the great conversation of human existence. You see people transported to far off lands, and others discovering new science, and still others finding their political voice. And all of that is FREE. This library is going to give the gift of the grand conversation to a new group of people who have not yet experienced it. That is a good thing.
And *I'm* tired of people thinking that we should all hold hands under a rainbow, singing "Kumbaya" while everyone shares their hard-earned dollars with everyone else for whatever dumbass purpose people come up with, whether you want to or not.
I like video games but don't want the libraries to turn into "Fun Zones", that's what arcades are for. I am not fond of the fact that they have movies either, that's what Blockbuster is for. Where do we draw the line? Certainly before VIDEO GAMES... Hell, I want libraries to give me all the free sheet music I could ever want. And I want them to provide me with picture puzzles, and electronics kits, and battery-operated board games, VR entertainment, borrowable laptops, etc., etc. Gimme an f'ing break...
I think it is wasteful to try to "attract" people/kids to the library. Libraries should be for intellectualism, not teenie-bopper hangouts and disguised day care. When you folks leave your parent's basement and start actually paying property taxes, then I'll consider your opinions on us becoming everyone's entertainment subsidy. In the meantime, I'm reading that my local libraries are running Mario Kart tournaments(!) when they are already complaining that their facilities are too small and want more taxes to build new structures. Isn't it obvious, handling MORE things/media costs everyone MORE money?
Does anyone think ahead anymore? Does anyone want to keep any of their own money to protect their own future anymore? Or are they just planning on getting it from the library?
>>>I want an actual physical book
How quaint.
Well you can buy books for mere pennies via Amazon's used book store. Then have them shipped to you priority, or within 1 week, depending upon how impatient you are. Since you're likely an old person you will probably enjoy the more sedate delivery time. - Or if you're an impatient SOB, then drive to Barnes & Noble and buy the book immediately.
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>>>But I still read books, see plays, listen to radio, watch TV, and go to movies
I'm happy for you. Just don't expect me to fund your hobby (i.e. give you free books, videos, whatever). After all I don't suck dollars our of YOUR wallet to fund my model airplane hobby, so neither should I have to fund yours. Get your own damn money.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Your model airplane hobby is not important to your function as a citizen of the US. Education is. Libraries provide a valuable function to society. Being a model airplane pilot does enhance your ability to contribute to society. It is not a positive externality like being educated is. Societies around the world have agreed on the value of public libraries for hundreds of years. You just don't feel like paying your fair share for the benefits you receive. Fortunately, we live in a democracy, and we can vote on things like libraries. And then you have to pay your fair share whether you want to or not. You don't get to be the freeloader you'd like to be, so very sorry.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Name one single media technology that has killed off any previous media technologies.
The cassette tape killed off the 8-track. By 1988 8-tracks were no longer being made.
>>>Your model airplane hobby is not important to your function as a citizen of the US. Education is.
Neither is playing free games or watching Star Trek vids at the library. If you want to do that, fine, but do it with your OWN cash (buy the games/vids yourself), not by robbing your neighbors' wallets to get yourself free goodies.
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>>>Societies around the world have agreed on the value of public libraries for hundreds of years.
Nay... thousands of years. But just as the Alexandia Library used to be filled with clay tablets, and was eventually phased-out to be replaced with paper tomes... now the paper has been phased-out and replaced with electronic bits (i.e. computer networks). Stop trying to hang onto your old clay tablets. Their time has passed.
You might be able to convince me of the need to have a government-funded Online library (think LOC.gov or thomas.gov), but you will never convince me we still need the inefficiency/cost of physical buildings. Like clay tablets, they are obsolete. Let them pass.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
They don't call them libraries any more, the are media centers. The word 'library' is too book-centered. Modern films tell stories in as good a way as many books do. Games will probably be the next big media for learning. (Games are now at the level of the early silent films).
Media centers provide access and instructions for accessing media, some of which contains valuable knowledge but most of which is garbage, kind of like the world wide web and the meat-space civilization it stands for.
Libraries are becoming increasingly less relevant to the generations who grew up with the internet at their disposal. I personally only made the trips back to the library when they started offering DVD's/ Blurays.
Its a great idea. Here in Vancouver BC there is a "fast track" library and they only carrying new titles, new magazines, xbox, ps3, wii games. One of each consol is installed at the library. You can use free wireless internet, and have laptops to lend 2 hours, you can take them to the coffee shop just outside the library enterence. once the titles are no longer "first run" they get transfered to main libraries in the city. it is the first of its kind, I am sure there will be more.