Competency #6: Citation Pearl, LexisNexis

Competency # 6 Citation Pearl, LexisNexis

I used the Building Block search that I did in the previous competency: (Teens or young adults) and (Library or high school) and (current or trends). I chose the best hit from that search, "Libraries Hope Games Will Lure Teens". I then built my citation pearl be selecting the Next Steps tool and then from there I chose the More Like This option. I was able to retrieve four more good hits.

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
April 24, 2006 Monday
Libraries hope games will lure teens
BYLINE: BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
SECTION: PASCO TIMES; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 625 words
DATELINE: HUDSON

Just past the reference desk, before the book stacks and periodicals, you'll find screaming roller coasters, souped-up sports cars and a sterilized operating room.
On the computer screens, that is.

The Pasco County Library System now has Games on Demand, an online collection of more than 140 computer games ranging from Roller Coaster Tycoon to City Racer to Operation. The games are available through a private subscription service that normally costs $10 or $15 a month, but the library has made them free for anyone with a Pasco library card.

In fact, Pasco libraries are the first in the country to offer free access to Games on Demand, director Linda Allen said. Patrons must play them on county library computers and wear headphones to keep the sound effects to themselves.

"We were the first library in America to approach (Extent Technologies) and the first library to make it work," Allen said. This month's Library Journal mentioned the coup, and "now we're getting calls from all over the place from other libraries that want to do this."

Faced with the cost of replacing an outdated collection of CD-ROM games, library officials realized an online database might be the way to go. The library pays $10,000 a year - roughly what it pays for other research databases - and doesn't have to worry about replacing damaged CDs or buying new games every time Windows releases a new operating system.

Stocking the games is part of the library system's strategy for drawing in its most elusive demographic: teenagers.

"They're our hardest market," said Leslie Jones, the Pasco collection development librarian who coordinated the Games on Demand deal. "We lose them when they become teens and start driving. Usually we get them back when they go to college or become parents themselves."

Libraries across the country struggle with the same phenomenon. More than half of the teens surveyed last year by the Online Computer Library Center described Internet search engines as a "perfect information source," while only 17 percent described libraries the same way. And nearly 16 percent of the teens polled last year by the Young Adult Library Services Association said they don't visit their school or local libraries at all.

Pasco libraries are battling that trend on several fronts. The system has a teen Web page that includes features like teen magazines and homework resources. The Regency Park and Land O'Lakes libraries, after they're expanded, will each include a teen room with beanbag chairs, cafe-style booths, a collection of comic book-style graphic novels and tables where teens can plug in their laptop computers and use the Internet.

And then, of course, there's Games on Demand.

"If they come to the library to play educational games and they think libraries are a fun place to be, they will come back again and again their whole life," Allen said. "We've generated a lifelong reader and a lifelong library user."

Jones said most of the video games are educational: Scrabble, Sudoku Quest, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, plus dozens of language, typing and math games for younger kids. Others, such as Invaders, Missile Command and Backyard Skateboarding, are just for fun. The library made sure all of the games are rated "E for Everyone," but beyond that couldn't pick and choose among the games in the database.

Allen said the games will be fun for the young, and the young at heart. She tried her hand at the computer version of the classic buzzing board game Operation to master her mouse skills.

"Unfortunately I failed that one," Allen said, chuckling. "It's a lot harder than it sounds


GLOBE NORTH 3; YOUTH BOOM AT THE LIBRARY NEW CHALLENGES COME WITH YOUNG BOOK LOVERS
The Boston Globe, November 3, 2002, Sunday, 1175 words, By Brenda J. Buote, Globe Staff


2 LIBRARIES LURE TEENS WITH PIZZA, MOVIES, The Boston Globe, October 13, 2005, Thursday, 1500 words, BY DENISE TAYLOR


3 GLOBE NORTH 2; LIBRARIES CHALLENGED BY YOUTH YOUNG BOOK LOVERS PROMPT CHANGES
The Boston Globe, November 3, 2002, Sunday, 1202 words, By Brenda J. Buote, Globe Staff


4 GLOBE NORTH 1; YOUTH BOOM AT LIBRARIES
The Boston Globe, November 3, 2002, Sunday, 1147 words, By Brenda J. Buote, Globe Staff