Petition: Close the Belk Library Game Room at App State

First, does every launch announcement or newly acquired resource need a Behrent-approved list of academic purposes? The article your entire argument is based on simply announced that the game systems were now available. You could certainly argue that the announcement was poorly written, but insisting that every library resource be publicly defended is simply foolish. Second, your examples are petty. Should the fermentation department request loanable equipment, I'm sure the library would oblige to its fullest capabilities. You are mistaken about television availability, though. http://library.appstate.edu/services/spaces/internationaltv Please also take a quick turn through the DVD section on the first floor to see what television shows are available to borrow. I wonder, Michael, if you are holding to an outdated model of libraries and librarianship. No one could blame you; it's not uncommon. People are comfortable with the idea of libraries as sacred, silent, musty halls of venerated scholarship. Why can not that scholarship be dynamic? Why exclude a major media source that arcs across many disciplines because it doesn't work with the cat-eyed, cardigan-clutching, child-shushing librarian in your world? Your reluctance to consider the academic value of gaming resources does not necessarily invalidate their scholarly worth to others in the campus community.

Thank you for your response and for helping me to understand your perspective. The problem is, first, that nothing in the way this was launched indicates it was for academic purposes. If that was the case, why was this not mentioned in the article announcing its creation? Supporters of this program seem to indicate that it doesn’t matter what the article said, but I find it indicative of how this project is conceived that it was very explicitly presented as a room to “play games,” not to study gaming as a technology or emerging industry. Second, I am not convinced that a room in the library will fulfill this purpose. The fact that gaming is an emerging industry doesn’t imply that gaming needs to be practiced in a library. It seems reasonable to ask if this is consistent with the ultimate goal and purpose of a library. How does having this room in the library achieve your goal in the way that having it in the student union would not? We have a well-established Communications Department, but don’t have TV-watching rooms in the library. We have exercise science programs, but don’t have a squash court in the library. We have a fermentation science program, but don’t have a wine bar in the library. Why is the criterion of whether or not we’re keeping up with this industry the presence or non-presence of a game room in the library? To suggest those signing this petition are opposed to gaming or the study of gaming because we object to a game room in the library is a fallacy, since the end you favor could very plausibly be achieved by other means. It’s a question of the appropriate place on a university campus for such a room.

You mention a "significant departure from the traditional understanding of what a library is." Do you truly believe we should turn a blind eye to advancements in technology in favor of preserving, as you put it, a "traditional library"? Library patrons have had access to 3D printing technology and a fully equipped audio recording room for some time now. I feel that these and other technologies made available to students at Belk makes our library much greater than a "traditional" one. Hint: It's called the Belk Library and /Information Commons/ for a reason.

That article might have come across glib and rubbed people the wrong way, which is a shame, but there is more to the game room than just wasted space.

Lacy: I think devoting library resources to a game represents a significant departure from the traditional understanding of what a library is. I think if you're going to try to cover such a decision on the dubious grounds that a/ this room is fundamentally an academic endeavor and b/ that it is supported by academic units then some evidence should be provided for it. My concern is--and I believe that this is shared by students who have signed this petition and with whom I have spoken--that the issue here as much more to do with the corporate model of higher education that most top administrators have uncritically embraced, and which is based on seeing students as consumers. Perhaps I am basing it on a single article. But it was an article about the library published by a library affiliated website--"http://technews.library.appstate.edu/." I apologize if I should have been more critical about a story concerning the library that the library published. Again, the article opens with the line "Who says the library is only for reading and studying?" It says: "you will be able to check out and play video games." There is no mention made at all--not even passing, not even indirectly--to the departments you mention or the academic outcomes you allude to. What I'm reacting to is the game room, but also the way in which the library is presenting itself: as a place to play. It's the very fact that those who run the library would choose to present this room in this way that is the core of the problem.

Michael, the librarians at ASU are highly educated professionals who excel in their fields. You believe that they should consult faculty in every department on this campus before making a decision? By that logic, you should seek global campus approval for every paper you assign, every opinion you express in publication, and every resource you ask the library to procure for you. You seem to have a lot of concerns, but they're all based on one article. Despite your assertion that a library is exclusively a place for study and research, you have failed to do your own. Your entire petition and every argument you make is based solely on a 250-word article announcing the installation of equipment. I see no evidence that you actually spoke with Dean Ogburn, to whom your petition is addressed, or anyone else connected to the project.

The library provides a vast amount of audio recordings--both in physical and electronic media--and corresponding listening spaces. Do you have a similar beef with those?

NC State has offered a Computer Science degree with a concentration in Game Design since 2011, and operated a “game lab” at their James B. Hunt Jr. Library since September of 2013 (I have to wonder whether someone had the nerve to draft a petition when they proposed the idea). As of writing, ASU does not offer any sort of degree or concentration related to game design. As a Computer Science student interested in developing video games as a career, a library space dedicated to gaming seems like an obvious step in the right direction for Appalachian. This space has the potential to become a catalyst for Appalachian’s long-overdue introduction of a game design program. A program that would prepare students to compete in the rapidly growing, multi-billion dollar games industry. Pending this eventuality, I plan to use Room 218 to study game design simply as an extracurricular activity and to present my own independently produced games to colleagues. To those of you who elected to sign this petition: Would you really have us fall even further behind other schools in this field?

You're right.. this petition *is* silly!

You mention the importance of "allowing rooms and resources for students to study computer technology, math, physics, sustainable development, and so on". You do realize Room 218 still functions as a group study room, right? The only difference is that the room now has the added bonus of three game consoles (which are notably unusable unless a student elects to check out a bundle of games, controllers, and a cabinet key from the downstairs tech desk). The room itself is available to reserve as a study space just as it always has been through the library's website.

The point you obviously fail to grasp is that the gaming room is not a class. It is a tool. Just like all the books and journals in the library, it is being made available for the faculty and students of ASU to use as they see fit. We can no more restrict or monitor what the gaming room is used for than we can censor a published work for what negative effects it may or may not cause. Using your logic, we should get rid of all popular fiction and feature films since they have no obvious academic value and aren't being monitored for what impact it has on the reader. Seriously, the library is a place to get the tools you need to excel and flourish as both a student and as a human being. It is the job of the librarians to make those tools available. A job they do extremely well, I might add. Do we monitor a hammer to see what impact it has on the nail? No, we just hope we can find the hammer when it comes time to hang the picture on the wall.

But we *do* have an audio recording studio in the library. I must have missed your petition for that one..!

Good. Then let's consult faculty in technology & development, graphic arts, music, psychology, education, sociology, and gender studies on this issue. And let's see if this room monitors its impact on those fields. Will this room, for example, be subject to assessment and measurement of student learning outcomes the way classes in those fields are? The article announcing it asked: "Who said the library is only for reading and studying?" It did not make the connection you make to those academic fields.

No one said they're bad for you. They said they're not the same thing as studying. To my knowledge, we don't hold concerts in library rooms, either.

yes

Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock and roll.

Stop. The interwebs is serious.

Another shameful. No more wire hangers!

What's with the quotes? Are you referring to something? Shameful is a bit dramatic.

79 people who want all these damn kids to get off their lawns and turn down that rap music.