Gaming

Well, I do enjoy the Sudoko - it's almost as good as reading to soothe those savage brainwaves before sleep comes. I'd rather do it on paper though - the yahoo site has too many sound effects. I've also convinced myself that it's the process rather than the product - i.e. the brain is exercised in exactly the same way regardless of whether you get the final answer right or not. Seeing things from every angle does come more easily now - we've been reading left to right for so long, it's about time we stretched in a different direction.

Gameplaying for all ages is certainly a reasonable thing for libraries to provide. It's really an extension of social networking. People are connecting to their neighbors, friends and, yes, to strangers, in new ways. The library's role may be to find alternate games that are not all about sniping, killing or stealing cars (all my kids' favorites). We can also use games to teach skills. Teens may have as much fun creating their own games as they do in playing them (and certainly learn a lot more about technology and about themselves).