A comprehensive guide to finding and borrowing video games from our local libraries
A comprehensive guide to finding and borrowing video games from our local libraries
Hi c/Vancouver!
This is a follow-up to my initial post.
I have since checked libraries of Metro Vancouver for video games and made similar lists for those which offer them on loan - afaict there is a total of six:
- Coquitlam Public Library - CPL
- New Westminster Public Library - NWPL
- North Vancouver City Library - NVCL
- North Vancouver District Public Library - NVDPL
- Richmond Public Library - RPL
- Vancouver Public Library - VPL
First, you should know about InterLINK and member libraries.
Second, those six libraries have different borrowing rules / limits w.r.t. video games:
| Library | CPL | NWPL | NVCL | NVDPL | RPL | VPL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How Long? | 2 weeks | 3 weeks | 2 weeks | 3 weeks | 1 week (²) | 1 week |
| Renewals? | 2 | 2 + 3 (¹) | 1 | 2 | 0 (²) | 3 |
| How many games? | 2 | 5 | 5 | 30?(³) | 2 (²) | 5 |
NB: Any renewals are conditional on the games not being on hold for anyone else / the games not being in demand.
(¹) 2 automatic renewals and 3 manual ones
(²) The writing is specific to "Nintendo Switch Games", but you'll see they only have a handful of those listed on the website. This probably applies to other platforms but you might want to double check.
(³) I couldn't find a clear "limit", so this is the maximum number of items which can be requested at a time - I am assuming the actual number of video games that can be checked out is lower, I will attempt to confirm with staff.
Lastly, here are my HowLongToBeat collections for each library:
| Library | CPL | NWPL | NVCL | NVDPL | RPL | VPL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3DS | 17 games | |||||
| PS3 | 62 games | 23 games | 53 games | 9 games | 131 games | |
| PS4 | 224 games | 50 games | 159 games | 49 games | 52 games | 583 games |
| PS5 | 56 games | 28 games | 21 games | 107 games | ||
| Switch | 189 games | 46 games | 78 games | 3 games | 199 games | |
| Wii | 41 games | 35 games | 17 games | 20 games | 82 games | |
| Wii U | 18 games | 23 games | 7 games | 3 games | 76 games | |
| Xbox 360 | 62 games | 6 games | 36 games | 9 games | 119 games | |
| Xbox One (inc. games with Smart Delivery) | 156 games | 36 games | 93 games | 33 games | 34 games | 399 games |
| Xbox Series X (inc. games with Smart Delivery) | 57 games | 30 games | 18 games | 81 games |
A few things that are good-to-know:
- There's strictly no M rated games at VPL or NWPL.
- If you want a blast from the past, there's a single OG Xbox game at CPL, Tom Clancy's Splinter's Cell - and FWIW it is backwards compatible with every Xbox model - with a disc drive - in existence.
- RPL
- I was told by staff that they have another 10 Switch games on a first come, first serve basis, but I haven't heard back yet as to what those might be or where they are (and they're not in the system - that much I've been told). If you come across any of those games, please ping me so I can add them to the list!
- I was also told that they should begin buying new PS4/PS5/Xbox Series games at some point in the near future, budget permitting.
- Lastly, there's technically around 450 games listed on the RPL website, but I've found that they were either impossible to place a hold on or had a due date well in the past (> 6 months ago), thus the far lower number of games I listed above. I'm still checking with staff whether that's correct.
If you see any mistakes or for instance a game that is not actually available but is still listed in the collections, do let me know!
And if any of you is familiar with Chilifresh or the Polaris ILS, please get in touch with me :)
Happy gaming!