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Geocaching and Gaming Libraries

There’s a nice post over at LibraryTechtonics about geocaching and the problem with associating literacy with just books:

Geocaching teaches problem solving skills, environmental awareness and conservation, health and exercise, treading lightly on the earth, and using the internet and gadgetry (quickly becoming an everyday fixture in people's lives). Geocaching is *information* literacy as much as it is a fun game.

There’s a similar misconception with gaming, that it only provides entertainment and no educational value. The post hits a second point which I think is also very important, which is actually getting people to use the library that otherwise would have likely lived and died without ever visiting it.

If we're going to make that successful transition from an irrelevant institution to a place people care to save, we need to stop just warehousing books and start interacting in the new information economy. Which, heaven's forbid, might include fun.

Worth a read.