Young Adult Librarian, Duxbury Free Library, Duxbury, MA
Interviewed by Julie Hornick
Tell us about yourself. In a nutshell, who are you and what is your role at your library?
I am Meghan Yost the Young Adult Librarian at the Duxbury Free Library. My role here is unique in that I am the YA librarian but I also work in the children’s room and with the adults. I also order all of our unusual items and board games. I moved from MD in 2019 to work in Duxbury and I took a risk moving somewhere where I knew no one and had nothing to fall back on. It was one of the best decisions I have made. I love the library I work at and have made some amazing friends here.
Share a program that you have developed or participated in that you were really proud of or excited by.
I developed a program called Board Game Blind Date. It allowed people to test out 4 different games of 4 different styles. Cooperative, Competitive, Card, and Deceptive games. They did one round with each game and I also gave a list of other good games for each category. That way people could try multiple types of games and see which kind they preferred. This program can be broken down even more if you want and is very versatile. I loved getting different types of games out there that people may not have known about and teaching a gaming vocabulary that they may not have known.
Does your library have a gaming collection? If so, tell us a little bit about it.
When I started here the game collection already existed but was much smaller and older. I am an avid gamer in real life and was excited to add to the collection. It started with just giving suggestions and then the next year they gave me the collection. I have expanded the collection from about 40 games to about 140 games between adults and children in the last two years.
What value do games or gaming bring to you, personally?
Games bring a lot of value to my life. Gaming brought me friends when I moved to a new state six months before the COVID lockdown. We have been running a bi-weekly D&D game for two years now. We also have board game nights when we need a change of pace. Gaming has always brought people together in my life and I am sure it does the same for others.
What would you tell someone who wants to bring game programs or collections to their library?
I love helping other libraries add games to their collection. I have had a few local libraries reach out to me about our unusual items collection. I think games are a great addition to the library. They help bring people and families together, but games can be expensive. The library is the perfect resource to help people have access to games that they may not be able to access any other way. The library is all about bringing people together and teaching. Games accomplish both of those things and so much more. If you can manage it in your budget, I 100% think games should be at as many libraries as possible.
I was really intrigued to learn about the Board Game Blind Date program; I think it would be a lot of fun to try with the students at our college.