Week 10: PLAY -- Gamification Idea for Libraries

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Gamification is the idea of using game elements and mechanics to enhance an activity and have users further engage. There have been plenty of situations where gamifying activities have resulted in success. Take for example, RunKeeper for working on fitness, Valve Corporation for gamifying game ownership, Ingress for seeing landmarks, and even FourSquare for going outside.
Libraries would be best fit to keep people reading. I believe this would be best achieved through using a platform similar to Goodreads, a social network for readers. The Goodreads Reading Challenge is a great system of keeping people reading. However, instead of people setting their own milestones, a library could set milestones and release achievements like the Xbox gamerscore for reaching them (of course, libraries would not monetise, but the point system is an interesting idea). Indeed, this could extend to different genres, types of books, or even depending on how difficult a book is.

Doing various community activities put on by the library could net you further achievements. Integration with Facebook could mean these achievements would appear as an ‘app’ on the person’s profile. Libraries should be working where possible on capitalising on the established services of their user base. Twitter, Facebook and Google+ integration for gamification of information service would be an excellent way to bring people to the library, and perhaps even get people who would have otherwise spent their time on a video game. As games take the spot for most bought and used electronic entertainment product, libraries should cater to these changing times.

There would be a further sense of people being brought together, and the idea of achievements for accomplishing reading and other library activities would revitalise people to come to the library more often. The competitive factor of these achievements would be great too, and have been shown to be of addictive nature.

Keeping people addicted to books is the name of the game! 

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