Library has Guitar Hero rocking the stacks

Those looking to find a little rock in their local libraries would ordinarily be directed to the Geology stacks (551 for those keeping score with the Dewey Decimal System). But at the Humboldt Public Library in Humboldt, Iowa, the rock is just as likely to be found in the library's copy of Guitar Hero.

As part of a Teen Advisory Board program (the subject of a recent article in Fort Dodge, Iowa's The Messenger), the library sets up a Guitar Hero game for patrons to play after school on certain days. One librarian told GameSpot the ongoing program has been a regular fixture at the library for months. The game serves as a hook to get teens into the library, where their fellow students on the advisory board can offer recommended reading while they wait for a turn.

The theory behind the advisory board is that a recommendation from a peer is likely to carry more weight for a student than one from a librarian. Among the books suggested by board members are Patricia McCormick's Cut, Dia Calhoun's Avielle of Rhia, D.J. MacHale's Pendragon Book Seven: The Quillan Games, Catherine Jinks' Pagan's Crusade, and R.A. Nelson's Teach Me.

This is not the first bit of government-encouraged gaming to surface. Last year, West Virginia unveiled its plan to incorporate Konami's rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution into all public schools' physical education or health-related curricula within two years.