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Libraries try catering to gamers

Pasco's system is the first in the nation to offer free Games on Demand access, but Pinellas librarians aren't ready to spend $10,000 a year yet.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET and NICOLE JOHNSON
Published April 25, 2006

Just past the reference desk, before the book stacks and periodicals, you'll find screaming roller coasters, souped-up sports cars and a sterilized operating room.

On the computer screens, that is.

The Pasco County Library System now has Games on Demand, an online collection of more than 140 computer games ranging from Roller Coaster Tycoon to City Racer to Operation. The games are available through a private subscription service that normally costs $10 or $15 a month, but the library has made them free to anyone with a Pasco library card.

Pasco's library system is the first in the country to offer free access to Games on Demand, director Linda Allen said.

The idea of providing the games also has caught the attention of some Pinellas County library directors who haven't ruled out providing the same service.

But for some, the cost of the games database - about $10,000 a year for Pasco's libraries - remains an obstacle.

"We're thinking about it," said Gene Coppola, Palm Harbor library director. "But right now, more than ever, we've got to be very careful on how we spend our money."

Palm Harbor's library administrators sought a tax increase at a referendum in March that would have doubled Coppola's operating budget.

The measure failed.

For now, the library offers Internet access to card holders. It also allows users to play online games at their own cost. The library, at 2330 Nebraska Ave., has a teen room with two computers that are often used by gamers.

In Clearwater, the library allows gamers to play online games at their own cost. But they limit game-playing to 30 minutes.

Library director Barbara Pickell said the library may look at offering a subscriber service like Pasco's, but that it wouldn't happen any time soon.

"It's partly a financial issue," said Pickell, who oversees the city's five-library system. "And partly, it's a service issue. . . . We'd need to weigh it against other services that are now a priority."

When it comes to a library's services, the patrons give direction, Pickell said. In Clearwater's case it hasn't been online games.

"We feel that we are the public's library," Pickell said. "So we try to provide the services the public tells us they want, (in Pasco) there's probably a high demand for games that's been voiced."

Largo library director Casey McPhee doesn't see a problem with offering free online games to patrons but said her library needs to focus on their latest technology initiative before rolling out free online gaming.

The Largo library, at 120 Central Park Drive, recently made audio book downloading available and hopes to expand to video, McPhee said.

"It's (offering online games) something I'd consider if I had enough patron interest or if I thought it was of educational value," she said. "But we like to hold aside some computers just for homework and databases, so it could hold up a lot of computers in the building and use a lot of bandwidth - those would be my only fears."

Meanwhile, Pasco patrons using the new service must play the games on library computers and wear headphones to keep the sound effects to themselves.

"We were the first library in America to approach (Extent Technologies) and the first library to make it work," Allen said. This month's Library Journal mentioned the coup, and "now we're getting calls from all over the place from other libraries that want to do this."

Faced with the cost of replacing an outdated collection of CD-ROM games, library officials realized an online database might be the way to go. The library pays $10,000 a year - roughly what it pays for other research databases - and doesn't have to worry about replacing damaged CDs or buying new games every time Windows releases a new operating system.

Stocking the games is part of the Pasco library system's strategy for drawing in its most elusive demographic: teenagers.

"They're our hardest market," said Leslie Jones, the Pasco collection development librarian who coordinated the Games on Demand deal. "We lose them when they become teens and start driving. Usually we get them back when they go to college or become parents themselves."

Libraries across the country struggle with the same phenomenon. More than half of the teens surveyed last year by the Online Computer Library Center described Internet search engines as a "perfect information source," while only 17 percent described libraries the same way. And nearly 16 percent of the teens polled last year by the Young Adult Library Services Association said they don't visit their school or local libraries at all.

"If they come to the library to play educational games and they think libraries are a fun place to be, they will come back again and again their whole life," Allen said. "We've generated a lifelong reader and a lifelong library user."

Jones said most of the video games are educational: Scrabble, Sudoku Quest, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, plus dozens of language, typing and math games for younger kids. Others, such as Invaders, Missile Command and Backyard Skateboarding, are just for fun. The library made sure all of the games are rated "E for Everyone," but beyond that couldn't pick and choose among the games in the database.

Allen said the games will be fun for the young and the young at heart. She tried her hand at the computer version of the classic buzzing board game Operation to master her mouse skills.

"Unfortunately I failed that one," Allen said, chuckling. "It's a lot harder than it sounds!"

[Last modified April 25, 2006, 01:08:16]