At The Time Of Writing

LibraryCraft was created to convey communities together across Western Australia (WA) in a secure, structured and moderated method so that players may stretch their creativity and imagination. LibraryCraft uses the features of Minecraft that stretch users’ innovation and inventive considering, develops their STEAM abilities and builds social and life expertise corresponding to collaboration, negotiation, economic administration and civic engagement.

Design/methodology/strategy

In late 2019, the Fremantle Library launched a small, local Minecraft server for the area people of young folks. After a number of months of testing and upgrades, LibraryCraft was made available to all gamers aged 7-17 across WA, and WA native governments had been invited to take part.

Findings

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a cancellation of Fremantle Library in-particular person programmes; LibraryCraft, as a purely online programme, was scaled up, and in a few weeks, had greater than tripled its participant base. At the time of writing, LibraryCraft brings collectively 20 WA native councils, reaches over a hundred players from Derby-West Kimberley to Albany and sees a whole lot of play hours logged every week. i'm bonnie and you are have created new friendships across the state and are frequently working collaboratively on challenges and exploration.

Originality/value

While Minecraft servers operated by libraries are removed from new, LibraryCraft is exclusive. No groups of libraries have run Minecraft servers collaboratively in Australia before, and none is obtainable state broad. The programme is highly valued with families in WA, offering a protected social outlet for gamers caught at home in isolation.