This month’s topic is gaming. I don’t claim to be an expert, but a few months ago two of my coworkers and myself were charged with creating an internal report about gaming in libraries. When we started the research I knew very little about gaming and now I own an XBox360, so a lot has changed in my life since then, lol. Why did my husband and I get an XBox360? Well, after doing the library research I decided there were more positives associated with gaming than negatives–and I wanted in on the fun. Now that we’ve had our XBox360 for two months, I can say I use a lot more brainpower when playing a game than I do while watching TV (my favorite game is Skate2).

So, what does the literature say about gaming?

• An article by Neiburger (2007) insists that video games teach information literacy as gamers must continually read text, interpret it, decode information, etc. Neiburger (2007) also believes that video games help develop spatial reasoning, something that is necessary in today’s jobs. A study cited in his article found that surgeons who played video games for at least 3 hours a week performed 27% faster and made 37% fewer mistakes than surgeons who didn’t play video games. In addition, Neiburger’s research (2007) points out that simulation games are particularly useful education tools as they offer models of the real world that are far more “complex and of a grander scale” than can be offered in a lab or classroom setting.

• According to Branston (2006) “The power of video games to teach cannot be denied. Scholars in the field of game studies are well aware of the peripheral and accidental learning that goes on behind the scenes as a child, teenager, or adult engages in an interactive video game.”

• In a 2005 study 81% of online teen internet users (17 million teens) played online video games (Gibbons, 2007, p. 23).

• Despite the perception that videogames keep students from reading, some researchers such as James Paul Gee, note that video-gamers do a lot of reading while playing games. Gee writes that “when people learn to play video games, they are learning a new literacy, as well” (Gee, 2003, p. 13).

• The stereotype of the gamer as an anti-social teen male has proven to be untrue in extensive studies conducted by Nick Yee, a doctoral student at Stanford. Yee found the average age of MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) players is 31.7 years for women and 25.7 years for men and only about 25% of players of MMORPGs are teens (Gibbons, 2007, p. 25).

I am an academic librarian. Our library has not started collecting and circulating video games. However, since purchasing an XBox360 for personal use my husband and I have checked out many video games from our local public library. The Benton County library has a large video collection (thanks Andrew!) which means that we’ve been visiting more frequently and while we’re there we browse the shelves and check out more books!

I’m not sure if most/all public libraries collect video games, but I think they should! I can tell you that only a small handful of academic libraries collect video games: Art Institute of Washington, Franklin PIerce University, Indiana University, Indiana State University, Savannah College of Art & Design, Simon Frasier University, Stanford University, University of Illinois, University of Washington, and the University of Oregon. I believe more academic libraries will be adding video games to their collections as academic departments add gaming courses to their curriculum.

Thoughts?