The University of Guelph-Humber and Humber Polytechnic Library is expanding its collection this summer with a playful new addition – board games.
Students and staff can now borrow from a collection of over 80 board games, which are available on the fourth floor of the Learning Resource Commons (LRC) at the campus Library. The board game collection is housed on the shelves by the main entrance of the library, right by the stairs.
“[Playing board games] is an activity to stretch your brain in different ways. You're not sitting down and memorizing course content; you're developing strategy, you're working with teammates or in competition with others. It also gets you away from screens,” Collections Librarian Lindsay Bontje said, who helped bring this initiative to life.
The idea to introduce board games into circulation was initially sparked by Liaison Librarian, Arvind Kang and Guelph-Humber Liaison Librarian for Business, Kinesiology, and Psychology Usman Malik (fact: each program at U of GH has its own librarian). Once the idea was approved, it was all-hands on deck; several library team members played a role in preparing the collection, and Bontje said the Library is “excited” to grow the collection over time, too.
The purpose of the board game collection is twofold: to support curriculum and to provide students and staff with leisurely activities.
To foster learning in creative ways, some instructors use board games as a teaching tool in class as a fun way for students to absorb new concepts. For example, Bontje noted that “The Last Straw!” (which is part of the collection) is a board game about social determinants of health, which encourages players to discuss this topic, build empathy for marginalized groups, and gain a deeper awareness of the very-real problems health care systems face.
But the board games are also intended to promote mental wellness through enjoying time with friends and peers, time to decompress, and be a low-cost way to have fun. Not only are board games entertaining, but unwinding can help students feel refreshed when returning to their academics.
“The library has already had a leisure reads collection of popular novels for many years. It’s just for fun. So, we saw [the board game collection] as being in line with this,” Bontje said. “You can get together with your friends and maybe get some chips and some drinks, and that's not very much money…Tuition is expensive, living is expensive. It’s something fun and cheap.”
Games in the collection span across multiple genres, with titles in the collection including Monopoly, Risk, Catan, Ticket to Ride, Wingspan, Bananagrams, Anomia, Codenames, and so much more.
To learn more about the Library and the wealth of resources it offers, visit the website.
