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Video games are vital part of any educational environment

July 25, 2008

This is in response to "Quiet in the library? Shhh!" (Editorial, July 24), which posed the following question to our readers: "Should libraries stock video games—or ban them?"

As a teen librarian, I supported both the creation of a video-game collection and development of gaming programming at my library for the very reason you mentioned: getting teens into the library.

After witnessing the positive social interactions and educational opportunities video games create, I realized that attracting teens was just the tip of the iceberg. Since we began offering video games two years ago, young-adult book circulation has increased by about 60 percent, programming participation is up and we have nearly 450 teens participating in this year's summer reading program (up from 230 in 2006 and 280 in 2007).

Interaction with our gaming teens has led to the development of more "educational" offerings, such as game design, animation and programming classes, in which students utilize writing and literacy skills; geometric principles; graphing; coding; logic puzzles; coordinate systems; and more.

To me, the answer is clear: Video games are a vital part of any educational environment, and we need to shift our thinking about how children can benefit from games. I hope, in fact, that the use of games can spread from libraries into schools, where the educational benefits of game play and game design can be even more widely felt.

—Maggie Hommel

Park Ridge