# Should libraries offer movies, music CDs and video games? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 23, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-libraries-offer-movies-music-cds-and-video-games/478450 "2008-12-23T22:27:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 41
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-libraries-offer-movies-music-cds-and-video-games/478450/41 "2008-12-26T15:59:36Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I don’t think you know what “cheaply” means, to be honest. What isn’t cheap about Blockbuster? I can rent a movie for a week for a couple of pounds. I suspect that the only definition of cheap you recognize is “free”, correct? > [@](#): > > And your position is extremely controversial, as the vast majority of libraries carry movies and CDs. The position that “governments should not spend money on things businesses are already doing” isn’t particularly controversial. It just hasn’t got through to the librarians, yet. > [@](#): > > As for games, the percent of the budget that is put towards is so small as to be pointless. It’s likely some libraries spend more on toner. I’m not interested in how much it costs. > [@](#): > > I’ve said it before, but libraries try to house information/entertainment options over a wide variety of formats and genres. No one is inherently better than the other. Nobody is claiming otherwise; it isn’t a question about relative worth of media, it’s a question about what the free market is already supplying, and where it is appropriate for government to step in and provide a service. I’ll repeat: Book lending: OK. Videos and games: not OK. > [@](#): > > I have already pointed out that even if a game console was purchased with library funds, it is roughly equal to the amount of money that would be spent on a visiting performer. No one questions the value of visiting performers, even though their fee only covers one performance. Having a game console day can be used dozens of times a year and can be open to a variety of ages (Google “wii bowling seniors” if you don’t believe me). Performances like this should be charged for, too. > [@](#): > > Also, you keep throwing out this 75/25 split as if it were gospel. It’s not. It’s my best guess based on discussions with colleagues across the country and by reading articles about the games in libraries movement. No one has the actual percentages because no one cares beyond the individual library level. I’m not throwing out anything as if it’s gospel, and it’s rather bemusing you’d throw that accusation at me, seeing you’re the one that’s pulling numbers out of your ass, and I’m merely working with what you’re telling me. So, let’s suppose some unknown percentage of libraries, X, receive donated consoles. For the purposes of this thread, we’re talking about the 100-X% of libraries who purchase their consoles. Is that clear enough for you? (I think we can both take it as given that X =/= 100, can’t we?) --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-libraries-offer-movies-music-cds-and-video-games/478450)._