Libraries Circulating Games

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Library: Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library
Purchased from: Amazon
Ratings: EC-Mature
Contact:

The Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library system consists of 4 libraries, all of which circulate games with ratings EC-M. Currently the system has around 1,900 games dispersed among the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, and Wii-U platforms. There is also a collection of retro Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) games at each location to check out with the Retro-Bit Retro Duo systems we provide. There is a limit enforced of 5 games per card. The libraries loan all games for 2 weeks (14 days). Newer games cannot be renewed, but older games can have the option to be renewed. Late fines are $1.00 per day.

Library: Yorba Linda Public Library
Purchased from: Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, Baker & Taylor, Game Stop
Ratings: Everyone & Teen
Contact:

The Yorba Linda Public Library (CA) offers X-Box 360, PC, PlayStation2, Playstation3 and Nintendo Wii games for free checkout. We carry ratings of "E" for Everyone and "T" for Teen. The games can be checked out for a loan period of 3 weeks and are reservable. A maximum of 10 games can be checked out per card. The library currently has about 300 titles.

Library: Chesapeake Public Library
Purchased from: Amazon, Recorded Books and Ingram
Ratings: All
Platforms: 3DS, DS, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U
Contact:
The Chesapeake Public Library (CPL) has over 340 game titles in circulation and the collection is growing. Following the policy for other library materials residents may check out up to 30 items and place titles on hold. (Nonresidents may check out up to 6 items with an active library card.) Games are borrowed for two weeks and users have the option to renew items up to two times as long as there are no holds on the title. All customers are able to suggest titles for purchase on the library’s website. Donations are accepted and integrated into our circulating collection.

Library: Park Ridge Public Library
Purchased from: Baker & Taylor, WebAMI, Best Buy, Amazon.com
Ratings: E - Mature
Contact:

The Park Ridge Public Library (IL) offers Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, and PS3, and Gamecube games for checkout in the young adult, Children's, and Adult A/V departments. We carry ratings from E - Mature. The games can be checked out by Park Ridge card holders only and have a loan period of 3 weeks. A maximum of 2 games can be checked out per library card. The YA collection was established February 2006. In the summer of 2007, an E-rated children's department collection was established with GameCube, Wii, PS 2, and PS3 games. In February of 2008 we established a Mature game collection that is housed in our A/V collection.

Library: Wilbraham & Monson Academy Library
Donated by parent of student
Contact:

The WMA Library is currently working with the parent of a student to collect and house at least 25 board games. We will house the games in the library and lend them to students for library use. Boarding students may take the games back to their rooms for a 1-night loan. We're trying to figure out how to make sure that students return games with all of their pieces---without asking staff to count pieces every time a game comes back. We've hosted several very popular game nights here at the library as well.

Library: Baltimore County Public Library
Purchased from: Baker & Taylor, Amazon
Ratings: E, E10+, T
Contact:

Baltimore County Public Library (Md.) currently offers over 5000 videogames at 17 branches for 7-day circulation. It was decided to catalog the E and E10+ games in the kids collection, and the T games are in the adult collection. The platforms supported are Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. Portables have been determined to be too unwieldy for circulation at this time. Programming at branches has included Runescape events and XBox 360 and Wii-based tournaments for teens and seniors.

Library: Bloomington Public Library
Purchased from: EB Games (Game Stop), Game Exchange, Best Buy, Amazon and Ingram
Ratings: E & T
Contact:

Bloomington Public Library offers video games for check out. We have current and classic titles for X-Box, Playstation 2, GameCube, X-Box 360, Playstation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP systems. You can take up to two games at a time and keep them for one week. If the game you want is checked out, be sure to place a hold on the title and we will set it aside for you when it comes back. If you want to play the games you have for another whole week, just renew them if no one else has requested them. Consider this your warm-up for Game Fest.

Library: Guilderland Public Library
Purchased from EB Games, Wal Mart, Best Buy. Donations accepted.
Ratings: E - T
Contact:
As of February 2, 2007, the Guilderland Public Library in Guilderland, NY, circulates console games. The library is launching a circulating collection of 102 games for the following platforms: Playstation 2 (PS2), XboX, Xbox 360, Nintendo Gamecube (GCN), and the Nintendo Wii. In the future, I would also like to support handheld platforms and the Playstation 3 (PS3). All games are loaned for free on a first-come, first-served basis for seven days. The library's Teen Advisory Committee will be organizing and planning gaming events after its February 2007 meetings!

Library: Marathon County Public Library (MCPL)
Purchased from various retailers, plus donations of used games.
Ratings: E - M
Contact: MCPL Teen Services
As of March, 2008, the Marathon County Public Library (MCPL) in Wausau, WI, circulates console games and a small number of PC games. As of March, 2010, we have several hundred games for the following platforms: Playstation 2 (PS2), Playstation 3 (PS3),XboX, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Playstation Portable (PSP), Nintendo DS, and personal computer (PC). All games are loaned for free for seven days. We maintain a waiting/request list through our ILS. Games may be renewed once for an additional seven days if it is not requested by someone else. Games are specially displayed/promoted on our website: www.mcpl.us/teenzone/games

Library: Rochester Hills Public Library
Purchased from: Gamestop, GameRush (Blockbuster) Best Buy and Baker & Taylor
Ratings: E - T
Contact:
News about Games at RHPL: Animeted.org

Rochester Hills Public Library offers games for Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, PS3, Gamecube, Wii, PSP, Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS for checkout. The games circulate for 1 week, and can be renewed if no one is waiting for them. You can place holds on the games and the library has more than 1,500 games with more than 850 unique titles in this growing collection. For detailed information about starting your own circulating video game collection including statistics, a sample press release, arguments for starting a collection, teen testimonials and information on security issues go to 4librarians For reviews from teen gamers in the community check out Animeted.org!

Library: Park Forest Public Library
Purchased from: Baker & Taylor, Amazon, and eBay
Ratings: Everyone & Teen
Contact:

The Park Forest Public Library offers games for Xbox, XBox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii, and Gamecube for checkout. As of August 2008, PS2, XBox 360, and Wii games are the most popular platforms checked out. The games circulate for 1 week and cannot be renewed. The library has about 180 titles in this growing collection. We also hold video game tournaments. We started with purchsing a Gamecube and PS2 to use during the tournaments and recently added a Wii. So far, we've had a Guitar Hero Aerosmith and a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournaments. Turnout was great.

Library: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library
Purchased from: EB Games
Ratings: All
Contact:

The University of Illinois Undergraduate Library started collecting video games in Spring 2006. We are looking to support student interests, curricular and teaching needs, as well as the research of many scholars on campus. We are starting with new and best selling games for platforms like Playstation 2, GameCube, XBox, and XBox 360. We also plan to collect portable games (Nintendo DS, PSP, etc.) and vintage games as well.

Library: Mobile Public Library
Purchased from: Ingram
Ratings: E - T
Contact:

I am doing video game selection for the Mobile Public Library system in Mobile Alabama. We are currently putting together a start-up collection of console games (X Box and Playstation 2) for our Main and West Regional libraries. I am hoping librarians who are readers of this wiki might be able to give some guidance in the area of reviews and purchasing.

We are currently using these sources for evaluative reviews: PC Gamer Magazine, Game Informer, Official X Box Magazine, Playstation Magazine, Sound and Vision, Electronic Gaming Monthly. Given their target audience these are all heavily weighted towards titles rated for Teen or Mature with less coverage of E titles for Everyone and very little coverage of materials geared for children. Are there websites that are authoritative for reviews that we might use to supplement these print magazines? Also, do you know of print or web-based sources that review games for children (console, not PC)? Are there any review sources (for either children or adult games) which review in advance of release?

As regards purchasing, which vendor(s)are you using? In your experience, which provide the best discount and fill rate?

All suggestions / recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Library: McCracken County Public Library
Purchased from: GameStop, WalMart, Sam's Club, and Best Buy
Ratings: E - T
Contact:

We are circulating Nintendo Gamecube, Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation2. Playstation2 is by far our most popular platform. These games are setup to circulate just as DVDs. They check out for one week and are not renewable. We also have been circulating PC games for a long time now. They are setup to circulate just as CDs which checkout for three weeks and are renewable.

We select titles from Xbox Platinum Hits, PS2 Greatest Hits, and Gamecube Player's Choice. We also buy games based on user ratings that are within our price guideline of basically under $25.00 per title. New releases are available for in-house play at our Young Adult Media Bar.

Since console game circulation is new for us, we consider it a demonstration project and thus have a limited budget until it is a proven success. We are evaluating customer response and request, overdue and billed items, as well as how often items are damaged or needing repair. Since the beginning this project in December, 2005, our customer response has been fantastic. We have doubled our collection twice during that time.

We currently hold about 300 games for circulation.

Library: Oakland Public Library
Purchased From: Baker & Taylor, Best Buy, and EB Games
Ratings: E-T
Contact:
We are currently circulating Sony PlayStation 2 games. We decided on PS2 as it is the most popular platform with our teen patrons. Xbox is a close second and some branches of Oakland Public Library (OPL) plan to purchase Xbox games for their collections soon. The games check out for one week only without renewals or holds. Fines are $1 a day. We have been circulating games since Summer 2006. We choose which games to buy through patron requests and reviews online and in print review sources. We do plan to purchase consoles for gaming programs in the future. We currently circulate a little over 100 games at 14 branches.

Library: West Palm Beach Public Library
Purchased from: Amazon
Ratings: E-T
Contact:

We're an urban public library. We circulate games for the PS2, Xbox, PSP and Nintendo DS. The games are shelved in the teen collection. The games checkout for one week, renewals are allowed if holds are not present. We're a municipal library with no branches. We currently circulate over 90 games.

Library: Ada Community Library
Purchased From: Hastings, Wal-Mart, and Amazon.com
Ratings: EC, E, E10+, T
Contact:
We are circulating Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 2 and Sony PSP games. Games rated "E" are shelved with our juvenile collection, while games rated "T" are shelved with our young adult collection. The games checkout for one week (limit of five per card).

Library: Simon Fraser University
Purchased From: Amazon.ca and various other retailers
Ratings: all
Contact:
The Games Collection and Room at the SFU-Surrey Library are to support teaching, learning, and research by SFU faculty, staff and students. The collection currently holds about 350 titles.

Any current SFU student, faculty, or staff member may borrow console (not PC) games for 3 days. PC games are loaned out just for the day (not overnight).

The Games Room is equiped with Arcade Legends, Nintendo GameCube, Playstation 2, Super Nintendo, XBox and XBox 360 consoles, and controllers can be borrowed from the Loans Desk. GameBoy Advanced and Nintendo DS consoles can be borrowed from the Loans Desk. Wii console coming soon. More information here.

Library: University of Oregon
Purchased From: UO Bookstore - computer section, Amazon.com, local Game Crazy store and others as needed
Ratings: all
Contact:
We have a circulating collection with the following hardware: 360, Nintendo DS (2), Playstation3, Xbox, and Wii (2). More information is available on our institutional digital repository. [1]

Library: Decatur Public Library
Purchased from: Baker and Taylor
Ratings: Everyone through Teen
Contact:

The Decatur Public Library (IL) presently circulates GameCube, Wii, Playstation2, Playstation 3, Xbox, and Xbox 360 games, which are shelved in the young adult area. Since the collectioon is relatively new, patrons are restricted to checking out one game per card for two weeks. We do not fill requests for our games from other libraries in our consortium, which is in line with the reciprocal borrowing agreement since other libraries in the system to not carry this format.

Initial software will include popular titles. Check back for more information.

Library: Greater Victoria Public Library
Purchased from: a major Canadian library vendor
Ratings: E, E10+, T, M
Contact:

The Greater Victoria Public Library is a 10-branch system serving over 300,000 residents in 10 municipalities and five First Nations in the Greater Victoria region in British Columbia, Canada. Our pilot circulating collection in 2007 had about 100 games, including PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360 and wii. Games are now a part of our regular acquisitions and we collect for new platforms as they are released. The loan period is 7 days, 2 per card, holds permitted, no renewals, $1.50/day if overdue. We also have a parallel collection of "Fast Plays", which are added copies that cannot be put on hold. This ensures a browsing collection for walk-in patrons.

Library: [2]
Purchased from: GameZone
Ratings: E, T
Contact:

The Hillsdale Public Library currently owns approximately 130 games. They include PS2, XBox, XBox360, DS, and Wii. Games have the same loan policy as DVDs - 1 week at no charge, $1 per day overdue. We have hosted a number of DDR and Guitar Hero tournaments. We just purchased a Wii and hope to use that for more programs soon.

Library: Iowa City Public Library
Purchased from: Amazon, Ingram
Ratings: T and below
Contact:

The Iowa City Public Library currently checks out PS3, Wii, Wii U and Xbox 360 video games. The loan period is 7 days, 2 per card, holds permitted, no renewals, $1.00/day if overdue. We have hosted a number of gaming events for Grades 4-6 and teens. We have a PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 for inhouse use. We have Wii consoles for one-week checkout, holds permitted, no renewals, $5.00/day if overdue. We also have computers with pre-loaded PC games in the Children's Room.

Library: Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library's video game collection includes titles for the Wii, Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3. Most games are located in the YA room on the central branch in Copley Square, but certain titles are floaters that travel from library to library. Games circulate for 7 days and only three games can be checked out at once. The fine for lost games is $55. A complete list of games (in PDF format can be found here.

Library Watertown Free Public Library

The Watertown Public Library's collection includes titles for the Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and PSP. For a complete list of titles click here.

Library Lincoln Public Library
Purchased from: Amazon, AVCafe
Ratings: Everyone through teen Contact:
The Lincoln Public Library has a small (and growing collection) of games for Wii, XBox 360 and PS3. The games can be requested by Lincoln resident's only. The can be checked out by all members of the Minuteman Library Network. The games circulate for 7 days .

Library: Westmont Public Library
Purchased from: Best Buy, Amazon, Baker & Taylor, Game Stop
Ratings: Early Childhood, Everyone, Everyone 10+, Teen, Mature
Contact:

The Westmont Public Library (IL) offers PlayStation2, PlayStation3, PlayStation Portable Xbox360 Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS games for free checkout. The games can be checked out for a loan period of 2 weeks, are reservable and renewable up to 2 times as long as no one has placed a hold on the game. There is no maximum Checkout. Any items not currently on loan to patrons can be sent by inter library loan to any library. The library currently has over 300 titles.

Library: Seeley G. Mudd Library at Lawrence University
Purchased from: Amazon, Toys "R" Us
Ratings: Everyone through Teen
Contact:

The Seeley G. Mudd Library has a small collection of Nintendo Wii video games to support library and campus-wide programming, as well as the growing field of research surrounding video games. The games and the Wii system are available to all Lawrence University faculty, staff, and students. The games circulate for 3 days and can be reserved. The Wii system must be checked out by a circulation supervisor, who will discuss with the patron how long the system will be needed. We plan to add more Wii games and games for other systems as demand grows. We are also considering adding retro games and systems.