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.

As a Reuters story notes, there is big business in history for the game industry. One of this year’s most anticipated titles, Assassin’s Creed II, sees the game’s hero interact with a young Leonardo da Vinci and use his design for a flying machine.

The first Assassin’s Creed was set during the Crusades and, of course, there are probably more World War II games on shelves than there were actual battles in the war.

Upcoming game The Saboteur is loosely based on the real life story of Wiliam Grover-Williams, who worked with the British Special Operations Executive in the hopes of liberating France. Grover-Williams was executed for his undercover work but, in the game, your character lives to help free France from the Nazis.

In the Los Angeles Times, writer Alex Pham reports that the San Fernando Library encourages youth to play video games and even invites them to be as loud as they like.

“It lets teens be more comfortable with the library and become familiar with librarians,” San Fernando librarian Lydia Harlan told Pham. “And it’s what kids are into these days.”

In the article, Pham reports that more libraries are turning to video games to connect with technologically savvy youth who might be losing interest in books and stories. In New York, the New York Public Library has even added a collection of books, films, music and maps about video games.

Click through for the full article and a list of recommended books…

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…