Here are the responses to the inquiry that I put out about video game collections about a week ago. If you’d still like to respond with your library’s unique take, hit me up off list. Thanks to everyone who did respond!
Kelly Bennett
Head of Circulation, Ferndale Area District Library
269-932-3179
kelly(a)ferndalepubliclibrary.org
Original Questions:
1. What formats do you circulate (Wii, Playstation 4, Xbox, etc.)
2. How long do they circulate for?
3. Do you keep the actual items on the shelves or do you keep the games in a staff-only area to be placed in the cases upon checkout?
4. Do you have age restrictions on games?
5. Do you purchase games that have higher age ratings on them (M for mature, etc.)?
6. How do you package the games?
7. How do you determine which games to purchase?
8. If you are part of a cooperative, do you allow your games to be interloaned or checked out by patrons who don't belong to your library?
9. How much do you charge per item in late fees?
10. How well have the games circulated?
Responses
Kricket Hoekstra <kricket.hoekstra(a)rhpl.org>
1. What formats do you circulate (Wii, Playstation 4, Xbox, etc.) Wii, Wii U, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, PS Vita, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Kinect, Xbox One...even a few Gamecube ones that I keep trying to weed but they're never checked in.
2. How long do they circulate for? 1 week
3. Do you keep the actual items on the shelves or do you keep the games in a staff-only area to be placed in the cases upon checkout? Empty cases on the shelf, the discs/cartridges are behind the circulation desk in numbered CD folders.
4. Do you have age restrictions on games? No.
5. Do you purchase games that have higher age ratings on them (M for mature, etc.)? Yes, we have a teen collection for E, E10, and T and a separate adult collection for M.
6. How do you package the games? In DVD cases. If it's a cartridge game, technical services cuts the cartridge holder out of the original case and glues it into a DVD case.
7. How do you determine which games to purchase? Reviews (places like IGN) and patron requests.
8. If you are part of a cooperative, do you allow your games to be interloaned or checked out by patrons who don't belong to your library? No, we don't.
9. How much do you charge per item in late fees? $1 a day.
10. How well have the games circulated? Extremely extremely well.
Magar, Jonah <magarjon(a)lib.msu.edu>
Hello Ms. Bennett,
I work with a video game collection at Michigan State University Libraries. Please see my responses below each question.
1. What formats do you circulate (Wii, Playstation 4, Xbox, etc.)
We circulate games for the following platforms, but only for use on our equipment, within the library building:
Nintendo N64, GameCube, Wii
Sony PS2, PS3
Microsoft Xbox, Xbox 360
Sega Saturn, Dreamcast
PC, Mac
We plan to add Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One, as well as handhelds (myriad Game Boy models, PSP/Vita, etc.) in the future.
2. How long do they circulate for?
4 hours; renewals are allowed as long as we’re open and nobody else has asked for that particular game.
3. Do you keep the actual items on the shelves or do you keep the games in a staff-only area to be placed in the cases upon checkout?
Game items lie behind a staffed desk; consoles, CRT and LCD TVs and peripherals are in locked, reservable rooms; PCs are in a public space.
4. Do you have age restrictions on games?
No.
5. Do you purchase games that have higher age ratings on them (M for mature, etc.)?
Yes.
6. How do you package the games?
6x9” clasp envelopes contain both the games (inside paper sleeves) and accompanying media (instruction manuals, etc.)
7. How do you determine which games to purchase?
At this time, we do not purchase games. We have an enormous cataloging backlog due to all of the items we own being donated at once.
8. If you are part of a cooperative, do you allow your games to be interloaned or checked out by patrons who don't belong to your library?
At this time, we do not.
9. How much do you charge per item in late fees?
$1/hour
10. How well have the games circulated?
They enjoy relatively consistent use, but we are still getting the word out for recreational use, as well as pushing academic applications while expanding the number of courses that have game-specific assignments in their syllabi. I personally hope that we will eventually allow certain games to check out for longer periods and be taken home by patrons.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any further questions! I also wouldn’t mind being a part of the list you sent this survey to, if that’s something you could direct me to join. The original message from michlib-l(a)mcls.org was forwarded to me by a colleague.
Mimi Herrington <mherring(a)badaxelibrary.org>
1. What formats do you circulate (Wii, Playstation 4, Xbox, etc.) PLAYSTATION, PLAYSTATION 2, WII, NINTENTO GAME CUBE, X-BOX, X-BOX 360, AND NINTENDO 64.
2. How long do they circulate for? 3 DAYS
3. Do you keep the actual items on the shelves or do you keep the games in a staff-only area to be placed in the cases upon checkout? THE LATTER
4. Do you have age restrictions on games? NO
5. Do you purchase games that have higher age ratings on them (M for mature, etc.)? WE BUY UP TO MATURE. WE DON’T BUY MATURE.
6. How do you package the games? WE PUT THEM IN JEWEL CASES
7. How do you determine which games to purchase? GOOD QUESTION. I TOOK 2 KIDS TO THE STORE WITH ME ON MY LAST BIG PURCHASE. I HAVEN’T KEPT THINGS AS UP TO DATE AS I WOULD LIKE LATELY, BECAUSE I’M NOT SURE WHICH SYSTEM TO BUY FOR.
8. If you are part of a cooperative, do you allow your games to be interloaned or checked out by patrons who don't belong to your library? WE ARE NOT MAPPED WITH OUR MICHIGAN SYSTEM TO ALLOW INTERLOAN. THAT WOULD REQUIRE UPDATING OUR MARC RECORDS SO THAT THEY ARE ACCEPTABLE TO THE STATE SYSTEM.
9. How much do you charge per item in late fees? $1 PER DAY
10. How well have the games circulated? THEY USED TO CIRCULATE WELL BUT THAT HAS GONE DOWN IN THE LAST FEW YEARS.
Tera Telaska <aldirector(a)pidl.org>
1. What formats do you circulate (Wii, Playstation 4, Xbox, etc.) We circulate Wii, Wii U, PS3, Xbox, and Game cube. They are pricey and we only purchase a few a year. I will probably start getting more PS4 games within the year or so. I try not to buy to many of a brand new system because not everyone has that system yet.
2. How long do they circulate for? 1 week
3. Do you keep the actual items on the shelves or do you keep the games in a staff-only area to be placed in the cases upon checkout? We keep them behind the circulation desk.
4. Do you have age restrictions on games? No age restrictions
5. Do you purchase games that have higher age ratings on them (M for mature, etc.)? We do have a few M games but don’t make a habit of buying them.
6. How do you package the games? We leave them in their original case but take out the instructions (if they have helpful info), make a copy and leave the original at the library.
7. How do you determine which games to purchase? I personally have a 10 and 12 year old and try to get their input on what is in when I make my purchases. Lego and Mario games are always a hit. You could ask your teens, pre-teen and older kids what they would like to see purchased.
8. If you are part of a cooperative, do you allow your games to be interloaned or checked out by patrons who don't belong to your library? We are part of a consortium, and do not let our games leave the county. We have 5 branches within Presque Isle County and share them between the branches. We leave the items on reference and do a special check out date when they are being taken out.
9. How much do you charge per item in late fees? $1 a day after the due date with a $5 maximum fine.
10. How well have the games circulated? Very well! Kids and parents love them and they all get good checkouts. We also have a video store that resurfaces our discs when they are scratched and will not play. They charge a few dollars each disc cleaned.
Judith McIntosh
Hi Kelly,
1. Wii, Wii U, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Nintendo DS and a few Switch games.
2. Games go out for 7 days. Two renewals allowed if there are no holds. Limit of 5.
3. Only the cases are kept on the shelf. All discs (or cartridges) are kept behind the circ desk until item is checked out
4. No age restrictions
5. We do purchase the games for everyone as well as games for mature players. We have created a system whereby the everyone games have a small green dot sticker on the spines and the mature games have a yellow dot sticker. We separate the 2 levels when shelving and put the yellow dots on the higher shelves so the little ones can't reach the yellow dot games without some kind of supervision. (Not sure if that does any good or not.)
6. All but the DS games are just in DVD-size cases. DS games are in smaller boxes.
7. I believe the librarian follows trends and predictions on which games will be popular and goes from that.
8. We are part of TLN and, no, we do not allow games to be interloaned. However, if a person comes in to checkout, we don't limit it by residence in any way.
9. Late fees are $1.00/day to a max of $10.00
10. As with any part of the collection, it seems some titles are extremely popular while others sit there. Our librarian is keeping an eye on what circs and what doesn't for future purchasing guidelines.
COO Jackie Endres <cooje(a)llcoop.org>
Hi Kelly,
Coopersville Library has a video game collection.
1. What formats do you circulate (Wii, Playstation 4, Xbox, etc.)
We actually just weeded our old games. We got rid of our PS2 and GameCube games and some of our older PC games (we don't have many PC games). Otherwise we have XBOX One, XBOX 360, 3DS, Wii, WiiU, PS3, and PS4. The games we weeded were ones that had been re-released on newer systems. We haven't acquired an Switch games yet, but that's mostly due to the fact that there aren't many Switch-only games yet.
2. How long do they circulate for?
We charge for our video game (and movie) rentals. It costs $1/week to check out a video game, and you can have it for up to 3 weeks at ta time.
3. Do you keep the actual items on the shelves or do you keep the games in a staff-only area to be placed in the cases upon checkout?
We used to keep the discs behind the desk, but recently,we've switched to keeping them in the same locked cases we use for our dvds.
4. Do you have age restrictions on games?
We treat our videogames very similarly to our movies. You have to be 18+ to get a mature rated game, but other than that, we don't police.
5. Do you purchase games that have higher age ratings on them (M for mature, etc.)?
We do purchase some M rated games, although most of our games are younger rated. It mostly boils down to our audience. Our hottest games are Cabela hunting games. Although we do circ a ton of lego games as well.
6. How do you package the games?
We pull the manuals. They're mostly unnecessary and too easy to lose. Then we take the insert for the game, put it in the cover of the lockable dvd case. We barcode and sticker the case; sticker the disc and write the barcode on it.
7. How do you determine which games to purchase?
I (the youth librarian) am "in charge" of our video game collection. I use that term very loosely because we're small enough that if someone else felt we needed a video game, they would feel comfortable purchasing it; I got the job because I am most familiar with videogames. I try to snag new, popular games. ones that have been reviewed or rated really high, or ones you see a lot in walkthroughs on youtube. Otherwise, like I said, it's all about what your patrons want. We have a group of kids who make regular requests and hunting games always go over well.
8. If you are part of a cooperative, do you allow your games to be interloaned or checked out by patrons who don't belong to your library?
We are part of the lakeland library cooperative. Right now, the cooperative only circulates books and audiobooks, but I know that in the fall, we're going to start circulating movies. I don't THINK we'll circulate our video games because we pretty much use our proceeds from our video games to buy our video games, and we would lose that if we interloaned them.
9. How much do you charge per item in late fees?
We charge our book overdues which is $0.15/day overdue.
10. How well have the games circulated?
We have some that go out like crazy (see Cabelas) and we have some that aren't so popular. For the most part though, feel like the majority of our collection circulates with decent regularity.
Hope that helps!
Anne Keller <akeller(a)tecumsehlibrary.org>
Hi Kelly,
I saw your request on Mich-lib and thought I'd respond. I remember years ago at a conference a librarian was shocked that our library would have "video games...in a library?" I wonder if people were ever "DVDs....in a library?"
Well, here are my answers....
1. We circulate PS3 & PS4, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U and Nintendo Switch.
2. Our video games circulate for 3 weeks, limit 5 per card. They are renewable.
3. We keep the games on the shelves, just moved to the teen section in locking cases that have to be unlocked at the circulation desk.
4. We have no age restrictions on games.
5. Our video games are rated T or below. We do not purchase Mature games.
6. We put them in locking cases similar to DVD size.
7. I order the games on Amazon. I try to get new releases and the sports ones are very popular.
8. We don't inter loan video games. Only our cardholders may check them out.
9. 10 cents a day for late fees.
10. The games circulate well and are popular. The Wii U are not very popular. The new Nintendo Switch games are very expensive, they only have released a limited amount so far, I just purchased them and they are not processed yet but will be soon.
We use to circulate PS2 and Xbox 360 but we weeded those as newer formats became available and they didn't circulate as often.
Hope that helps. Having video games has sure helped lure teens into the Library so then we can show them all the other cool stuff we offer.
