Atlantic Provinces Library Association 2021 Conference

In the Fall of 2019, our Outreach and Engagement Team tried a new approach to library orientation. With just a backpack’s worth of materials, ordinary library study rooms were transformed into escape rooms. Advertised as a Welcome Week activity, the Escape Room required groups of 4-6 students to solve a series of puzzles based on five learning objectives. Students had only 20 minutes to work through a scenario: find the missing USB containing their assignment in order to Escape the Library and get to class on time. And they had fun!
Simple enough to put into a backpack and carry across campus, and for a budget of less than $150, this game has strengthened the Library’s connection to our colleagues in Student Services; our Language Centre students, faculty and staff; and our new and returning students. Designed to be a learning tool and not just an event, this library instruction game is easily adaptable based on user needs, opening up new possibilities for collaboration and Library engagement across a diverse university community.
Participants will learn how a student engagement activity has grown into an in-class library instruction tool, and how they can create their own portable Escape Room for their own libraries.