Libraries check out gaming

Just as nontraditional audiences are increasingly coming to gaming as a new hobby, so too are games beginning to show up in nontraditional venues. Public libraries are one such venue, and though games have surfaced in branches from Iowa to Kentucky in recent years, gaming-equipped book lenders have been an exception.

That might change soon, given that the American Library Association this weekend used its annual conference in Anaheim, California, to launch a seven-digit gaming initiative. With $1 million in funding from a Verizon Foundation grant, the ALA wants to build a model for library gaming that will help improve literacy and learning skills.

"Through the Verizon Foundation's gift, ALA's gaming for learning project will provide the library community with vital information and resources that will model and help sustain effective gaming programs and services," ALA President Loriene Roy said in a statement.

A dozen "gaming experts" from public libraries around the country will work with the ALA to run the program and use the results to build "The Librarians' Guide to Gaming," an online literacy and gaming resource that will be put through its paces by fellow librarians.

The ALA is the oldest library association in the world, boasts more than 64,000 members, and has a stated goal "to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all."