Recreational Computers

Revised August 2012

General Comments

This collection consists of educational and recreational computer programs for children in pre-school through sixth grade. The programs cover such areas as reading skills, math, geography, history, problem solving, spelling, science, rhyming, matching of shapes and sizes, and computer skills. Many games are now accessed on the Internet.

Development Plan

The primary goal of this collection is to meet the informational, educational, and recreational needs of young people by providing a balanced collection of programs. In order to meet this goal, the Library:

• strives to provide a broad range of programs to meet the variety of likes and needs of all children.
• strives to provide a collection of high quality programs that meet the needs of pre-school through sixth grade patrons. (Nintendo-type games are not purchased.)
• purchases for library use only.
• purchases programs where commercialism is minimal, not distracting from theme or content.

Influencing Factors

Purchases and buying patterns are determined in large part by:

• system requirements.
• current popular demand.
• patron requests.
• availability of new programs or updated versions.
• budget constraints.

Retention/Weeding

• The thin client system has allowed purchased programs to be loaded once and archived. There is no longer damage from use. Programs are updated if they change significantly.