Written by Michał Kucharski and Marek Cichoń
When we think about places where we can spend a long time playing together along with our families and friends, we rarely think about… libraries. Associated mainly with such duties and pleasures executed in a solitary and quiet atmosphere, as reading and revising for lectures, libraries are not fun. And yet, as one of the greatest Polish artists of 19th century once said “nothing characterizes a person more than the kind of fun they are looking for”. Being aware of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer’s famous quote, as well as being inspired by Toy Library and Ludobus projects, the municipality of Katowice has decided to change the current image of city libraries. We had no idea where that new concept would take us in a few months...
From the very beginning of the project, the idea of creating a Ludobus or a Toy Library has seemed very attractive to us. However, despite a fascinating idea, there have been two main problems related to this enterprise i.e. high cost of its implementation and the lack of clear political will. Unfortunately, at the stage of joining the Playful Paradigm programme, the city's main representatives were not convinced enough to launch a large project of that kind. The chances of creating Katowice’s own Ludobus or Toy Library, as was the case with Udine – the main project initiator, were quite low.
On the other hand, creating a social space dedicated to enjoy games and activities solely in one place of such a large city as Katowice, would imply that municipality is rewarding a specific district. We wanted to avoid that. Therefore, following the example of Toy Libraries and the Ludobus project, the city of Katowice decided to change the way libraries were perceived as unattractive spaces and offered the possibility to use and borrow games in those places, rather than bet on one location.
But let's start from the beginning. We focused on implementing all of the other good practice modules, such as involving schools in fun activities or the annual programme of games and events. These events, just to mention board games meetings being held at the municipal public library, questing (Skarbek's Secret) or game exchanges (Pass your board game on) were, however, short-term activities. Almost all of them were discontinued due to the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. As the planning and implementation of large-scale public actions and events being part of the “Playful Paradigm” project were impossible to carry out for almost a year, we were forced to create a new strategy that would allow the implementation of the project assumptions in new conditions.
And there we were… faced with the first major problem last year. Pandemic restrictions effectively thwarted the city's plans for the events, resulting in postponement of the interschool tournament of the “Virus” card game, which was scheduled for last March, for an indefinite period. The lack of active measures also forced the individual members of URBACT Local Group to stagnate, and the constantly changing situation made preparation and planning impossible. Thus, the first barrier we had to overcome was the personal barrier, resulting from COVID stagnation. Being confined to their homes, people suffered from a lack of entertainment. All streaming television series were watched, many of the books and games were finished.
With the questions that we all asked ourselves - what should we do now, we began to reflect on the matter of aid and solution to this state. This brings us back to the idea of the Toy Library, implemented by the municipality of Udine.
For this purpose the city of Katowice decided to use the idea of residents' access to board and computer games, which developed since 2019. Initially on their own, and then with the help of the URBACT Local Group, the new sections of board games began to function within the several facilities of the Municipal Public Library in Katowice.
As we have already mentioned - we did not want to focus on the specific area of the city, there were also economic and political problems we had to face. If that was not enough… the pandemic started. One thing after another. But we focused on the potential solution. We examined our resources and in October of 2020, the so-called Board Games Library was opened, which currently functions in nine facilities of the Municipal Public Library. Thanks to an electronic system, similar to the book borrowing system known to readers, the
inhabitants of Katowice can use hundreds of card and board game titles on the spot or simply borrow them.
Amazingly enough, the existing obstacles let us get closer to the citizens. Games available for borrowing from the neighbourhood's library brought the project closer to people. Citizens do not have to travel to a distant part of the city during a pandemic period, but they can borrow their favourite game quickly with the help of modern technology and use it at home!
…but there is a solution:
The inspiration to re-model the idea with a single games library came from the good practices of the Cork city in the early pandemic period. That aspect had the most powerful impact on ULG members encouraging them to take action. We were very impressed with the 'Keep Active with Cork Sports Partnership' document presented by the City of Cork, which was addressed to the specific age and social groups. The guide included a set of exercises and health-promoting behaviours which were to be useful during a pandemic period. The whole idea was extremely motivating, but it was the real action i.e. getting the residents involved in the project that stimulated the local group. The Guide brought fun into residents' homes - we wanted to follow the same approach. We expanded the Board Library project and its promotion. And in a further step...
We created our own board game. Over the next few weeks, as part of the “Playful Paradigm” project, copies of the crime game called “The Last Trial” will be distributed to the libraries and the residents willing to get involved. The game was created by the founder of the Ludiversum board cafe and partner of ULG, Łukasz Piechaczek. In this way, we could attractively promote the new game rental initiative and support the local business during the pandemic!
So what have we learned
The lack of commitment to transfer good practices related to Ludobus or the toy library implementation has shown that it is possible to act on these ideas, without necessarily implementing them all. Thanks to such projects as the Board Library, the city of Katowice focuses on creating a network of smaller initiatives that bring together the inhabitants of different districts.
In addition, we are pleased that the whole project has achieved a certain synergy - where one implementation strengthens our action in another area. By creating the game and delivering it as close as possible to the inhabitants, we have saved a wonderful place in the heart of our city from bankruptcy.
Thanks to this idea, after the pandemic our residents will have a place to return to... and spend their time in a playful way!
