A public
library in the Park Ridge area of Chicago has revealed that it will soon be trialling a video game lending service,
representing similar schemes taking place across the world. Starting with a collection 50 games purchased with a
requested $3,000 worth of funding, the pilot program will last two year during which time "circulation and patron comments will be measured". The library is hoping to focus on "high demand" games for PlayStation and Xbox systems in order to draw in a younger demographic. We certainly can't think of a strategy more effective at increasing the number of younger visitors than lending games for free. To deter older gamers that may get word of this scheme, they'll be limiting the collection to "games that are rated E for all ages or T for teens" although there's no strict age limit for lending the games.
So how do you get your local library to start lending games ? Simple, just ask. According to a librarian working at the library, "kids throughout Park Ridge kept coming up to me and asking why we didn't have video games for circulation." We feel very cynical for suggesting it, but we wouldn't be surprised to find that a large percentage of those kids were bribed by gaming moms, dads and older siblings. We'll hold off from judging them, because there aren't many things we wouldn't do for free games!
[Via digg]
