Imagine, if you will, that you have entered a library. Imagine further that a librarian approaches and, upon meeting you, asks, "Would you like to play Rock Band?" Would you think that this librarian was A) the greatest librarian in the history of librarians or B) wasting taxpayer money? If you chose B, you appear to agree with Omaha, Nebraska's Action 3 News, which recently filed a report about a group of local librarians using state funds to purchase Rock Bandfor its gaming workshops. Worse still, the librarians even had the audacity to film themselves assembling and playing the game -- during work hours -- and then uploaded the results to YouTube.
Indeed, the offense was so egregious that Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley launched an investigation into the matter, the results of which will be looked over by a group appointed by Governor Dave Heineman. To think that a library would purchase video games in order to attract more young people -- something manylibraries are starting to do -- and then promote it via YouTube, where plenty of young people are likely to see it, boggles the mind. It's practically unconscionable.
Check out the incriminating YouTube video after the break (which also includes a little DDR action).
I'm not even sure how to respond to that. I'd say the majority of people excited by the concept of playing video games for 'free' at the library are not the people who are paying the taxes that go to libraries.
That, and not only am I not republician, the republicians are not exactally the proponents of smaller government.
I don't want to start turning the discussion political, but the state has MUCH bigger problems with government waste. They have a whole fleet of taxpayer-funded cars that they can't account for, find, or use. If you're on the welfare system here, they will BUY you a late-model used car to get you to work. A few hundred dollars of "wasteful" spending on games is the least of their worries. Incompetent clods.
For some reason, the Action 3 News story choose to not include the response from the agency that the auditors investigated. This wasn't a library, It was the Nebraska Library Commission, the state agency for libraries. Check out the response to know the full story so that you can make an informed comment: http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/epubs/L4000/B050-2009.pdf
My local library recently held a Rock Band tournament for grades 5 - 12. Me and my friends are high school seniors and when we showed up to find that every other contestant was in 5th grade we were a little uncomfortable...
My library has monthly gaming and anime nights.... They have several Wii's, GameCubes, and PS2's for these, not to mention several Guitar Hero guitars and a Rock band set. Either my library seriously rocks, or someone in Nebraska is seriously over-reacting.
