Gaming draws families together - at libraries, too with National Gaming Day 2009

There seems to be a surging renewed interest in board, card, and video games these days. Maybe it's the recession. Maybe it's due to our innate desire to be around people. We are social creatures, after all.

Personally, I have many pleasant childhood memories and great moments with my own (now semi-adult) kids playing games. Mario Cart (Wii) is a standard activity these days and we can connect this over the Internet to include family members who live 3,000 miles away. Still, we pile the old stand-by board and card games in the closet and on top of the refrigerator and grab these for a change of pace once in a while. Sometimes it's just nice to sit together at the dining table clutching UNO or Apple-to-Apple card and talk about everything and anything while we play.

The American Library Association's National Game Day is on Saturday, November 14th. Many libraries around the country participate in this fun event with creative and energetic programs, and the interest is not limited to children or teens. According to a Pew report from December 2008, more than half of the U.S.'s adults play video games, and about 1 in 5 play everyday or almost everyday (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1048/video-games-adults-are-players-too).

This is exciting news, since the adults are the ones who own and drive the cars (mostly) and set the family's daily agenda. The library can really embrace the family's inter-generational interest in gaming! It's good for anyone, any age since gaming also stimulates brain activity, helps with social skills, and having fun is just plain good for our health. And when gamers come to the library, they are more likely to explore the shelves and options around them. For this librarian, it's a win-win situation.

For more about National Gaming Day, see I Love Libraries at: http://ilovelibraries.org/gaming/index.cfm

Game on!