Oh, Call of Duty, hardly a day goes by without you being involved in some sort of controversy.

The Sacramento Bee brings us a story about a Sacramento, CA, public library holding a Call of Duty: Black Ops tournament. There’s a good amount of local outcry from those who think library should be getting kids into books, not games.

With console games costing $40 or more, rental services are becoming a popular option for gamers. While rental services, such as Gamefly and Blockbuster, are reliable options, many people also can’t afford monthly services fees (dern gas prices). This is where public libraries can come in quite handy.

On a whim, after purchasing a new console, I decided to check the online library search engine for my local library. After all, free is always the way to go. To my surprise, I found 78 Wii games, 53 Xbox 360 games and 35 PS3 games. Among the games were recent titles including Order Up (Wii), Soul Calibur IV (PS3) and Zoids Assault (Xbox 360). After checking out a title, I learned the lending period was 14 days, allowing enough time to really enjoy the game.

So with many libraries now catering to gamers, it is worth finding out the best way to search for and find games. You never know what kind of treasure you’ll find…

People who call themselves gamers already understand how playing videogames can contribute to life in a positive way. Some games require a very detailed strategical approach that encourages deep analysis of situations before making a move. Maggie Hommel thought it would be a good idea to have a videogame section in her library to attract more teenagers. As fate would have it, she was right.

Hommel is a librarian in Chicago, IL, who understands how videogames can encourage people to become more social. Her plan was to first get teens into the library using videogames, then encourage them to take up game programming and…