Celebrate International Games Week at Lau

International Games Week is November 4 - 10 and you can celebrate by checking out our free gaming resources offered at Lauinger Library. We have a variety of video games and gaming consoles (from Playstation, Xbox, Wii or Nintendo) at the Gelardin New Media Center, available to borrow for up to 72 hours at a time to anyone with a Georgetown ID. You can even check out our new Elgato HD 60 S to record and share your gameplay with others. Did you know that we also have a dedicated gaming station AND a virtual reality station (make a request to get authorized to use VR station and equipment) on the 1st floor of the Library?

Amanda Phillips, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Film and Media Studies at Georgetown says:

"Gelardin provides an essential service to the university community by offering games and gaming equipment for student use, free of charge. Video games are highly significant to society in terms of financial and cultural influence, and making them available through the library is just as important as other media like books and films. In fact, given the disparities in access and use of games and gaming equipment due to financial burden, familiarity with technology, or socialization, it is even more important for institutions like libraries to help a broader swath of the public encounter this kind of media. In most cases, it is fairly cheap and easy to buy a book or a film. Video games, however, often require specialized equipment and expertise to run.

The library's games holdings enable me to teach what I need to in my class without regard to expense or accessibility to students. Gelardin works with me every semester to ensure that everything on my syllabus is available to students. This gives me a huge pedagogical advantage compared to other universities without such programs, and I am grateful for the opportunities it presents for myself, my students, and my research."

International Games Week is an initiative of the American Library Association to reconnect communities through their libraries around the educational, recreational, and social value of all types of games.