By Linda Fields, Richfield Public Library Director
I received a Professional Excellence Grant from the Utah State Library to attend the Association for Rural and Small Libraries Conference in Sacramento in September. I’ve attended the ARSL conference when it was only being held in Columbus, OH and I felt I gained enough from those meetings to make it worthwhile to attend again.
One of the programs I attended was “Video Games in the Library” by Kieran Hixon. I chose to attend this because I thought “Gaming in the Library? No way!” Sometimes I find it wise to learn about something when I have a poor attitude toward it.
The misconception that gaming is done on the internet was the main basis for my attitude. Over the years, children and internet use has proved a challenge to libraries and it was a challenge I didn’t want to tackle. So gaming is not a new activity. If you think about gaming as internet games, board games and card games, gaming has been done in libraries for years. Continue reading ‘Gaming in the Library’
Here are some results from the latest Harris survey:
Almost all Americans (92%) say they view their local library as an important education resource. Seven in ten agreed their local library is a pillar of the community (72%), a community center (71%), a family destination (70%), and a cultural center (69%);
Overall, people are satisfied with their public library. Based on everything they either know or might have heard or read, three in five Americans (59%) are extremely or very satisfied with their public library and an additional one in five (22%) are somewhat satisfied; and,
Among those that have a library card, the satisfaction is even higher — over two-thirds (68%) say they are extremely or very satisfied and an additional one in five (22%) are somewhat satisfied with their public library. Even those who do not have a library card express satisfaction with their libraries as two in five (40%) are extremely or very satisfied while 21 percent are somewhat satisfied.
See the full results: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=949