Chapter 4: A Powerful Draw Beyond Youth Culture

Abstract

While research (and previous “Gaming and Libraries” issues of
LTR
) has documented how to serve both very young and older patrons, there is still another underserved group we could reach by offering targeted gaming programs—people in their twenties and thirties. Gaming isn't just for kids anymore, and the average age of today's gamer is thirty-five. Libraries can reach out to twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings, a traditionally underserved audience itself, using a variety of gaming programs. This chapter of “Gaming in Libraries: Learning Lessons from the Intersections” explores how a library in suburban Chicago made itself much more attractive to this age group through a gaming program.