Quest-based game app aims to familiarize students with library resources

As a new academic year is underway at Grand Valley, a quest-based game app called Library Quest is aiming to educate students about important library resources and spaces. 

“We do a lot of assessments in University Libraries and in reviewing some of them, I was struck by how often students didn’t seem to know about many of the services we offer, or indicated that they didn’t learn about the services until it was too late in their college careers to take advantage of them,” said Kyle Felker, Digital Initiatives Librarian who developed the app along with a team of University Libraries faculty and staff.

Through completing quests in the game, students can learn about the Knowledge Market, how to use tools like library databases and Document Delivery to request books and articles, how to read call numbers to locate books in the stacks, and much more. Felker said there are about 30 distinct quests tied to specific learning objectives.

Once a player has downloaded the Library Quest 2.0 game app on an Apple or Android device and created an account, they can check quest boards whenever they are in one of Grand Valley’s libraries, which include Mary Idema Pew Library, Steelcase Library and the Frey Foundation Learning Center. 

The app uses GPS to determine which library a student is in so the game can offer quests specific to those locations. There are typically two or three quests available any given week because new quests are loaded into the game every Monday.

Students earn a certain number of points by completing quests depending on how challenging a given quest may be. Points can be traded at each library for certain prizes, which rotate regularly and include items such as sunglasses, water bottles, notebooks, and entry into a drawing to win an iPad.

The first pilot season of Library Quest ran in 2012, and the latest season of the game will run from September 1 through October 31.

“We received a lot of positive feedback from players during the initial pilot saying that they had used some of the skills they’d learned through the quests in their academic work, and that’s really the ultimate goal,” said Felker.