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If someone walked into the Menlo Park Library in the Civic Center on the afternoon of July 16, they wouldn’t just see librarians and people reading books, but Wookiees, Jedi and stormtroopers on an adventure around the 20,000-square-foot facility.
The facility has hosted a library adventure several times, each with a theme and goal to inspire patrons and encourage them to use the library more often. The July 16 event’s theme was “retro space.”
“We love the library adventure. It’s not our first time doing it — I think we’ve attended more than twice,” Menlo Park parent Risava Panavija said.
“We brought in the library adventure series of programs endeavoring to get our community aware about the library in a fun way,” Rose Waldman, Menlo Park library and community services supervisor, said.
“We’re always wanting to introduce our community to the wonderful free services the library offers. Many people associate the library with books and DVDs, things they can check out for free, which is great. People also know that the library is a ‘third space,’ one of the few places people can go which is not work or home,” Waldman said. “But there’s all sorts of stuff that people don’t know about: our e-resources, the kinds of collections we have, the programs we bring in.”
The adventure is a series of scavenger hunts and themed crafts hosted by the library. There are typically four scavenger hunts, called “missions” by the staff: the children’s mission, the teen mission, the adult mission and, most difficult, the event horizon.
If you’re looking for facts, you’re in the right place. These books just moved to give them more space! The clue that you need is hidden among that stars. When you see 523, you’ll know you’ve landed on mars.
A clue from the children’s mission during the Menlo Park Library’s Library Adventure on July 16.
While the missions may be geared towards certain ages, everyone can participate. The missions have a series of riddles that are used to solve a passphrase adventurers need to tell library staff to win a prize. Prizes include stuffed animals, key chains, toys and even San Francisco Giants tickets.
Aside from the missions, the library also hosted a photo booth and costumed members of Endor Base, the Bay Area chapter of the Rebel Legion, a costuming “Star Wars” fan club.
“The event has been awesome. The kids are running around and they’re so happy to be here. I think we’re going to want to go to the library more now,” Menlo Park parent Angela Daul said. “This is great at kind of making you more engaged with the library. The clues have been really hard for both kids and adults. We’re working on the adult mission right now.”
“Our kids are avid readers. I wish I knew about it sooner. I just ran into another parent who told me about it and we came right over. It’s great to have a fun scavenger hunt that’s different from other events,” Menlo Park parent Chris Kundinger said.
The riddles lead people around the library and teach them about resources and events such as the Teen Book Group and books in other languages.
“The event is really fun and engaging. We got to familiarize ourselves with so many sections of the library. I think the teen mission’s puzzles were my favorite,” said participant Qian Ma.
The event is popular with locals, averaging over 200 attendees per event; the July 16 event drew 239 attendees.
“It’s a super fun summer event. I’m so glad (my kids can) do stuff like this. I only have one kid who can really participate, so it was a lot of carrying the others along but it’s fun to see my kids participating in something that’s from our own home neighborhood and feeling like they’re getting some civic pride out of events like this,” Menlo Park parent Hissan Bajwa said.
In addition to introducing some services, Waldman also hopes the event encourages people to ask for help.
“A big part of using libraries is knowing that the library staff is available to answer questions. And so part of this quest, part of this program, is to encourage people to ask for help when they need it,” Waldman said.
Creation of the event
“We wanted to come up with something that would let kids kind use the Dewey Decimal System (the system for numbering books in a library) and learn how to find things on the shelf. When we brought it to the group (of library staff), it morphed from there to make it an all ages event,” children’s librarian Desiree Wong, the mastermind of library adventure, said.
While brainstorming the original concept, Wong wanted to make it interactive and fun.
“We know other libraries have done passive scavenger hunts that get put out and patrons can do on their own time but we wanted it to be fully integrated,” Wong said.
While Waldman was hesitant to say the Menlo Park Library came up with the concept, she said the library staff was not aware of other libraries doing the same thing.
“This really came out of conversations around, like, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if we built a puzzle about the library.’ We always have conversations about how to engage the community and thought it would be a fun thing to do,” Waldman said.
While many library staff members were excited to help come up with the riddles and puzzles, it was still a lot of effort to put on — before the first event, librarians did not know if people would come.
“I remember when we did the first event, my direct supervisor Nick Szegda, assistant director of library services, also got involved and the staff was having a really fun time planning it,” Waldman said. “Right before we opened it, (Szegda and I) were standing sort of at the entrance and we had no idea how it would go. We really hoped that we would get some people to come but were very aware that we may have just poured a tremendous amount of energy into creating a thing that no one would attend.”
“I just remember him saying, ‘Well, at least the staff will have had fun,’” Waldman said.
Since the first event, the library adventure has been a “hit.”
The clues and puzzles are unique to each time it is hosted and based on the event’s theme. Previous themes include fantasy, “The Hobbit” and “Peter Pan.” The event was also hosted at the Belle Haven Library for the first time in January.
“The thing I notice about the library users is that they love to use the library but there are people who don’t really know about library services. So we have services that get used by people who already know about them and a sort of closed loop exists,” Waldman said.
The Menlo Park Library has many free services available like audiobooks, educational speakers, online video streaming, exercise videos, databases, science journals, magazines, newspaper articles and online tutoring.
“We want to sort of break people out of their patterns and help teach them what else is there. But also, by creating this event that’s, you know, ‘go put on a costume and run around the library,’ it makes the whole library experience more accessible,” she added.
“We aren’t a ‘shush library,’” Waldman said.
“Libraries expand to fill the container they’re given. Books are wonderful and access to books is so important, and the library is also a space where the community can gather and have fun, learn and be accepted. We want this to be an event that’s silly and fun,” Wong said.
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