Video Games in Museums

I went to see the new Body Works exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry on Tuesday because I mistakenly thought it was a free day. TIP! There are no free days at the Museum of Science and Industry. Anyway, I was wandering around after the Body Works exhibit, when me and my friend spotted a small room with an arcade-style racing game.
We got kind of excited, and went to the racing chairs and started the game, but much to our dismay these were old racing games from the mid 90s and it wasn't fun at all. Well, maybe a little.
The point is that I'd already played this version of arcade racing in hotel lobbies all across the Midwest, and I was surprised that the Museum of Science and Industry would have them in one of their own exhibits. The purpose for the exhibit was to show how simulations work, but it was a very poor (and outdated) example of video game simulation.
Then again, museums aren't known for their up-to-date technology, in fact that is what museums mainly showcase; out-dated technology in all its ancient glory. Maybe I expected more from the Museum of Science and Industry, but I was very disappointed with that lame exhibit.

For my final project, I'd like to concentrate on the use of video games within libraries and other public places where people can game together without having to invest in game consoles and overpriced games.
For the past 15 years, most public libraries have been lending PC games to kids, and educational interactive PC programs to adults, but the video game itself has generally been scoffed at by public librarians as a poor way to spend your time. However, more demand by patrons is what's allowing the video game stigma to slowly disappear within libraries. Personally, most librarians I know play video games, so even if the demand were to stay low, video games would eventually be integrated into libraries simply because the people who run them are the ones who decide what the library is going to offer its patrons.
The same goes for museums. The curator of a museum is the one who decides out of all the materials the museum owns, which are to be the ones on display. The Field Museum has an enormous collection of artifacts from New Guinea, but none of that material is on display because the current curator prefers to showcase the artifacts from the Native American collection. Plus, that curator may have a feeling that artifacts from New Guinea wouldn't be as popular and thus the patronage will fall if he removes the actually popular Native American displays.
The Head Librarian has to make these same choices when determining what he or she will offer to the public. Perhaps in fifty years libraries across America will lend video games as often as they lend books, but that all depends on the patron demand and who is in charge. Until that day comes, museums need to stop showcasing "new" technology in their exhibits, because within 5 years it's already old and nobody cares. You would think though, that the Museum of Science and Industry could afford to update their exhibits every five years or so to reflect the current "new" technology especially considering that they never have a free day.

I just checked The Museum of Science and Industry's website for a clue as to why they have an old racing arcade game in their exhibit space and I found and old exhibit in their archives list that is all about the history of video games. http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/gameon2/index.html
CLick on tour and you'll get the list of different games and genres featured in the old exhibit. The latest games listed were from 2002, or 2003. Like most things you'll find in museums, this exhibit was designed with kids in mind and there's not much to it. The website's kind of cute though.