The Library as Playground: How Games and Play Are Reshaping Public Culture

Gaming in libraries is not a new concept, and several great books have already been published on how to promote activities ranging from board games to LARPs into modern public library programming. In their second book involving public libraries, Leorke and Wyatt (Public Libraries in the Smart City) aim not to reinvent the wheel but to understand the intersection of play, gaming, and public spaces in the broader context of society, urban planning, and public libraries. This ethnographical study, while citing examples from all over the world, focuses on data collected from case studies through interviews and visits to prominent libraries primarily in Australia, Finland, and Singapore over the course of several years. The book is not U.S.-centric but it does give a nod to the redevelopment of the Boston Public Library and to several U.S.-based gaming librarians (Eli Neiburger; Scott Nicholson; Tom Bruno), as well as to the Let’s Move in Libraries movement founded by Noah Lenstra. Part history book and part philosophical and theoretical exploration, this book will be relevant as public libraries continue to evolve and reinvent spaces in the digital age.