Gamification in e-library services

Abstract

Gamification is crucial in this digital era since the world is becoming a global village. As a result, libraries need to adjust to this shift and evolve to survive and continue to thrive. Gamification refers to "the use of a pedagogical system developed within the game design but implemented within a non-game context" (Johnson, Adams,, Cummins, & Estrada, 2014). Gamification, as a concept, is defined as the techniques used in non-game settings (Detreding, Dixon,, Khaled,, & Nacke,, 2011). Gamification has gained popularity during the last decade. It has cut across every aspect of human endeavor. Gamification applied to all fields, such as; health, education, commerce, government, industry, and a few. Gamification is highly applicable in the library that houses all the resources used in all fields of human endeavors. E-library is a type of library that can access anytime and anywhere globally; it has no opening or closing time; instead, it works round the clock. It can also be used by multiple users simultaneously around the world. Despite the benefits of e-library, there are still challenges facing the e-library that are causing the users not to access the e-library, such as maintenance problems, lack of awareness of e-library services of the user, copyright issues, e.t.c. Based on the above challenges, there is a need for the adoption of gamification in e-library services.