Nebraska Auditor Cries Foul on Gaming in Libraries
A 10-minute YouTube video posted by the Nebraska Library Commission on January 18, 2008, to announce the Commission’s purchase of Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution has resulted—roughly a year later—in an audit (PDF file) issued February 24. In it, Nebraska Auditor of Public Accounts Mike Foley concluded that “the purchase of gaming equipment is a questionable use of public funds,” and that “using social websites and gaming equipment on State time and with State computers . . . appears to be an inappropriate use of public funds.”
The audit, initiated when an unidentified taxpayer expressed concern after seeing the video on YouTube, concluded that the NLC’s Network Services staff spent $447.17 to purchase a PlayStation 2 and the two games, $29.26 of which was sales tax that the nonprofit state agency did not need to pay. The report further notes that the commission paid $100 to “lease” virtual real estate in Second Life and a total of $73 over three years to purchase Flickr pro-account membership.
A week before the audit was made public, NLC Director Rod Wagner issued a response (PDF file) in defense of the purchase, stating, “These technologies are becoming more common in use and represent new, innovative, and effective ways to communicate, inform and educate.”
With an eye toward expanding its services, NLC had proposed at the 2007 joint conference of the Nebraska Library Association and the Nebraska Educational Media Association to make the one-time gaming-equipment purchase to use in training members of the Nebraska library community who wish to integrate gaming into their programming. Wagner told American Libraries that until NLC made the purchase, state library staff members had been bringing their own personal videogame consoles to conferences in response to requests for demonstrations. “Because we were getting these requests,” said Wagner, “we decided to spend a little bit of money.”
Foley’s audit asserts: “It is common knowledge that children enjoy games and toys, so there appears to have been little need to purchase the games.” Wagner spoke directly to that point, telling AL that educating children was never the intent of the purchase. “Our purpose was to teach librarians,” he said.
Characterizing NLC’s posting to YouTube as “questionable uses of public funds,” the audit goes on to say that “State equipment and time should only be used for official Commission business. Employees playing games or accessing virtual websites on State time appears to be inappropriate.”
“It was a marketing piece,” Wagner countered. He told AL the video that raised the taxpayer’s concern was hosted on YouTube and also embedded in the NLC’s blog not only for the purpose of advertising the purchase but also to show librarian viewers a simple, economical way to share and distribute media.
One grateful attendee of a gaming demonstration, Scottsbluff Public Library staffer Kathy Powers, told AL that without the session, she “wouldn’t have a clue” how to use the video games. “I don’t have kids at home to show me or to give me advice on which games to purchase,” she added.
Scottsbluff Public Library recently received an NLC grant to purchase its own Wii, which Director Bev Russell plans to put to use as early as April and throughout the summer for SPL’s “Be Creative @ your library” summer program. “To know how to communicate, you gotta be cool,” Russell told AL. Otherwise, she said, “we’re going to be left in the horse and buggy era.”
Posted on February 27, 2009. Discuss.