Hello! I work at a small-town public library, and I've been trying to figure out a way to pitch including video games in our budget/circulation plan. I've had several patrons ask about them recently, and I think they might help with our teen numbers (although I understand that getting interest from teens is sort of a pan-library issue).

I can think of several issues off the top of my head, though:

• Our library doesn't take patrons to collections, regardless of how ridiculously huge their fines are. We've had people lose/damage/keep $300 of materials and face no consequences beyond not being able to use our services anymore. Consequently …
• Circulating video games would be nothing but a money pit. We do have DVDs in our collection, but replacing an old DVD is peanuts compared to the cost of replacing a new AAA title.
• And then there's the whole issue of which console(s) to buy for.
• Our teen librarian recently held a Smash Bros. tournament and had a grand total of two attendees. I think the fact that the event was held at 10 AM was more to blame than anything, but I worry the whole thing may have furthered the idea that adding video games to our collection would be pointless.
• There's also the question of "appropriateness" that seems to get applied to video games more so than other media. Only rarely do we have complaints about books and movies in our collection, and to date I don't think we've ever acceded to a demand that we ban a title. But many of our patrons (and members of our board of directors) are older and know bupkis about technology. So I wouldn't be too surprised if there was a small bit of post-Columbine "Video games warp minds! Think of the children!" silliness to contend with.

Most of the articles I've read about video games in public libraries are for larger city libraries, presumably with a proportionally larger budget. So I was wondering if anyone here had first-hand experience and/or advice for making video games feasible for a small library?