A Gameplay Model for a Serious Game to Reduce Library Anxiety

Gamification in the field of cultural heritage offers an innovative and engaging opportunity to explore cultural heritage, leveraging the creation of learning experiences and promotional strategies through digital media. This paper presents a gameplay model for a serious game, planned for a future development, which focuses on libraries, and takes into account their specific features as cultural institutions. In the last decades, libraries had to reevaluate their role due to the widespread availability of knowledge from alternative sources. In addition to collecting books and providing information, public libraries' function as social spaces is recognized as a valuable asset, which makes them unique. “Library anxiety” however, a widely recognized and researched phenomenon, is a hindrance to the successful accomplishment of libraries' social function. It is characterized by a state of uneasiness and intimidation experienced by patrons toward the institution, caused by the lack of knowledge of the library, its space and how it operates. The serious game proposed in this paper offers a solution to this problem and to provide knowledge of libraries' functioning and to advocate for them as welcoming and inclusive spaces for social interactions, while also enlightening players about the extensive cultural heritage they provide.