The American Library Association is giving games its stamp of approval this year. The group designated Friday the first National Gaming @ Your Library Day. “It lets teens be more comfortable with the library and become familiar with librarians,” San Fernando librarian Lydia Harlan said. “And it’s what kids are into these days.” That doesn’t mean libraries will turn into arcades, said Loriene Roy, the association’s president and a professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information. Roy said libraries established themselves as places for both education and entertainment more than a century ago when they created controversy by beginning to lend fiction books. Now libraries circulate all manner of items other than books, including music albums, tools, toys, cake pans, even animals. “Libraries are about providing public access to resources, in whatever format,” she said. “It goes back to what people want.”
Los Angeles Times
In Some L.A. County Libraries, Video Games — and Noise — are Welcome
(April 17)
