This article is from the original batch of Video Game Librarian articles I wrote for Gaming Target between 2005 and 2007. It was originally written on June 24, 2005.

It has been six months since PlayStation 2 games were added to the collection of the library I work at. In those six months the collection has grown from the meager six titles originally offered on that first day to a healthy collection of 40. Best of all, not a single game has been lost or damaged (although several are on the extended overdue list). Not that I don’t cringe everytime someone brings back a disc that looks like they used it as a dinner plate.

Circulation numbers have been brisk. With two week loan periods and late charges of only 25 cents a day, people are jumping at the chance to check out games, any game. I don’t know why it’s surprising, but people (adults and children, but mostly children) will pull stuff off the shelf and check it out without even looking at what game it is they’re getting out. I asked one frequent game borrower (an adult) about this and he replied “Well I wouldn’t check out Harry Potter, but pretty much anything else, yeah.” Almost every game also has a reserve list of some size, WWE Smackdown VS Raw has been on hold since it was added. And not surprisingly for a library, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the most popular game in the collection. Even the processing department downtown has begun adding games to the county database quicker than ever. However, that’s not to say there still aren’t speedbumps. Continue reading →