Digital Library Center Blog | UF

UF’s Libraries are testing different methods and uses of the library-buildings as third spaces (the not home and not work, where you go for social time and a break from the confines of home&work). This Thursday we’re testing Guitar Hero in Library West (third floor from 12-2pm). We’ve also set up a game section of our website for events like this and for game-like approaches to traditional library services. It’s fun for us to hone our skills and develop new ones through connecting games and the library, and games are an easy way to break traditional assumptions on what should and should not be in a library.

This event is also great because it was requested by a student, who’s now helping with the planning and set up process. He wanted to do it because he felt Guitar Hero was awesome and he wanted to share. This acceptance of the library as-place and as-information-point is an important shift, and the next steps should be only more fun and more exciting. As more information goes online, new approaches to information (access, spaces, connections) will also require a heavy emphasis on ways to play with and rethink information.