Public Libraries, remember them? They came from a magical time in the past when the governments of civilised countries encouraged people to read... books... for free. Well, the American Library Association is still going strong and has seen the value of using video games to encourage youngsters into their hallowed halls.

A recent report quotes Amber McCollom, senior manager for entertainment and trend marketing at Nintendo of America as sounding all astonished and gasted of flabber, "Libraries are coming to Nintendo. This is a trend we didn't create ourselves."

Some librarians are positive about games near publicly available reading kit. Jack Martin of the New York Public Library: "To (kids) it's kind of cool, and they realize they can come not just for recreation but also for reading and information. It's working."

Chicago Public Library's Ruth Lednicer, however, thinks that "video game aspect is not the direction we want to go".

We'd love to see more games in libraries. It would certainly give High Street retailers something to think about when it comes to the whole 'pre-owned' argument.

We also like librarians...

^{Source: Post Bulletin}