In the summer of 2005, I was asked by my Department Head to write up a short defense of why video games should be a part of a library collection. It's very short, because I didn't want my director to get bored before she reached the end. I have passed it along to several libraries who have used it to success. It's free to use in its entirety, or just to borrow the quotes or the ideas from the defense. Good luck on getting your collection!
Megan

“Game Cultures promote various types of information literacy, develop information seeking habits and production practices (like writing), and require good, old-fashioned research skills, albeit using a wide spectrum of content. In short, librarians can’t afford to ignore gamers.” Library Journal April 15, 2005.

“In the next five years, Gamers will be the dominant demographic for your libraries.” OCLC Newsletter January/February /March 2005

     Imagine your are given a task to create a city from scratch. You need to plan out residential sectors, commercial sectors, and industrial sectors. You need to decide how your citizens will travel about in their daily lives. How will they get their power and water? And you have to work within a budget. If you put an industrial sector too close to a residential sector, no one will build homes in that residential sector. If you put a nuclear power plant in your city to power the homes, power will be cheaper, and you can power many more homes. However, your citizens will complain, and they will move to another city which in turn, lowers your tax base. The happier your citizens, the more taxes they are willing to pay. The more revenue you have, the bigger the city you can build. The bigger your city, the more interesting it begins to look, with zoos, museums, and libraries.
      I have just described a video game called Sim City. It doesn’t sound like a shoot em’ up because it isn’t. Just like with literature and movies, video games can have different qualities and come in a huge variety of genres.
      Patrons my age and younger have been raised with video games. When we think of entertainment, we think of movies, music, reading and video games. Our parents may go out to see the latest film at the movies, but we stay at home and play the newest video game. Many surveys are finding that almost all forms of entertainment have seen a decline or stagnation in use, but video games are one of the major entertainment gainers.
      Video games are in many cases an interactive story. Major authors write the stories for video games now. Tom Clancy has a very popular video game series called Splinter Cell. The story lines in these video games are complex, and often make you think about greater issues and discuss them with others. There are web forums online devoted entirely to the discussion and debate of video game stories. There are characters of video games that are as beloved to my generation as Scarlet O’Hara is to generations past. Aeris, a completely fictional character in a hugely popular video game, even has her own fan club(and, the evidence that you are truly famous, her own hate club.)
      I believe that it is very important to keep in touch with the younger population. Video games are another form of expression, like music and literature. As they have become such a prominent mode of entertainment and education for our population, I believe they have a place in libraries just like films did when they were a new medium of expression.