I am a very big advocate of using video games in libraries and thus I have decided to start discussing that here. For now I just wanted to mention some video game tournaments we have been hosting at my library. Once a month we have been having either a video game tournament or free play night. These are a great opportunity to provide a fun and safe program that appeals to a broad range of audiences but particularly to tweens and teens. It is also a very helpful way to bring them to the library and expose them to the broad range of things we can offer for them.
Hosting a tournament can be very simple or very complicated depending on what you want to make of it. Ann Arbor District Library is an example of a library that has a very complicated and expensive gaming program, which is done exceedingly well. They have a lot of equipment and they make use of it in some interesting ways. These tournaments are well described in an article written by Erin Helmrich and Eli Neiburger, two employees of AADL. The article is entitled “Video Games as a Service: Hosting Tournaments at Your Library” and can be found in the Feb 2005 issue of VOYA.
A smaller library like my own however can easily host a video game night without many resources or finances. We make use of video game consoles owned by our staff. If you have any younger staff at your library, often times this means pages, than you have staff members who likely own videogame systems. Other than a video game system and a game all you would need is a screen to play them on. Our library system owns a projector and a large screen so we use that for our primary game. Often we will also bring in a small TV for more kids to play on. From there we will find a good game to use as the focus of the evening. If the game is competitive then we will make the event a tournament, with some sort of prize, such as a $10 or $20 gift certificate to a game store. Two games that work great for this are Mario Kart Double Dash or Super Smash Brothers Melee. If it is a tournament all that is left is arranging some sort of bracket system to keep track of the winners and losers and you are good to go. If it is not to be a tournament night all you need to do is have the games available for the kids to play. One great game to look into is Dance Dance Revolution, this is a fun and energetic dancing game. The kids will know how to play them, or at least be able to figure it out. You simply need to sit back and make sure everybody is happy. They kids will love it if you play with them, especially if they can beat you at the game, but if you cant or wont play don’t let that stop you from having a game night.
