Audio: NPR Airs Report on Gaming in Public Libraries

This report first aired on Weekend Edition Sunday (August 11, 2013) and includes comments from:

• Baltimore County Library System: Librarian, Liz Slack
• Houston Public Library: Manager of Central Youth Services, Sandy Farmer
• New York Public Library: Director of Library Sites and Services, Kevin Winkler
• Johnson Public Library (Hackensack, N.J): Librarian, Keri Adams
• Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Constance Steinkuehler.

From the Text Version of the Report:

Sandy Farmer is the manager of Central Youth Services for the Houston Public Library, which has four Nintendo Wiis, four Xboxes, several Nintendo DSs, some iPads, seven PlayStations and a few big-screen TVs.
“It’s a primary part of our service that we offer, and it results in a 15- to 20-percent increase in the circulation of books,” Farmer says.
[Clip]
And while many have long looked at video games as a medium with little to no educational value, [Constance] Steinkuehler says that even 10 or 15 years ago, libraries saw games differently. Because librarians encounter a highly diverse range of patrons, and because they pay close attention to how people seek out information, Steinkuehler says, “They kind of understood the medium in an interesting way.”

Filed under: Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries