However, from mid-August through mid-May, nearly 11,000 college students swarm the community and the town seems to come alive.
Murray State University is well known for Racer Basketball, a spectacular music program, and an innovative library team. With a door count of more than 580,000 people last year, Waterfield Library is a major hub on campus. Students come for many reasons, to use the computers, check out materials, study, take classes, etc. But on the Sunday before classes begin for the Fall Term, students come just to play at Waterfield Wired!
Waterfield Wired is an event that has been happening in the library at Murray State University for the last six years. It is a chance for students to see the library and the library faculty and staff in a completely different light, that of gamers. This year more than 500 students visited during the 2 hours of gameplay finding Glow Golf happening in the Reference Room, Laser Tag in the Circulating Stacks, and other games set up in nooks and crannies throughout Waterfield Library.
Around the building there was a Lip Sync Battle,
a hilarious competition with Just Dance,
a righteous round’s Glow Golf,
Minute to Win It,
and giant versions of Twister,
Jenga,
and KerPlunk.
With all the pressures of college life, students and faculty both need a way to relieve the stress that grades, assignments, and peers can put on them – so gameplay in this university library does not end at 10 p.m. the night of Waterfield Wired.
And throughout the year you will find students playing games on the computers, faculty incorporating games into their lesson plans and Giant Jenga being played by students in the lobby of the library.
IGD@yl volunteer Rebecca Richardson gives us some inspiring anecdotes about an annual games event at her library, Murray State University. Any one of these activities could be a great addition to your own event, and many are easy enough to organize that you could add more than one. Read on and be amazed at what one academic library team can do – and, hopefully, inspired to make your own IGD@yl playful in even more ways!
Murray, Kentucky is a fairly quiet town, at least during the summer.