Pokemon Go has become one of the most popular mobile apps of all time, so it’s not surprising that the American Library Association is making it a big part of this year’s International Games Day @ Your Library.

Over at the ALA’s International Games Day @ Your Library Blog, they’ve created a Pokemon Go Battle Map for Libraries, so librarians can report which of the game’s three teams (Mystic, Valor, or Instinct) currently control the Gym closest to their library:

As part of the fun activities of this year’s IGD, we are hosting a Library Pokemon Battle Map which shows team leadership at gyms at libraries all over the world. Librarians can report which Pokemon Team is in control of their library’s Pokemon Gym using the Pokemon battle form. Once you have entered your library’s information, you will have the option to edit the form to update the information as it changes each day or as often as you would like.

It’s a fun idea to add a little bit more competition to the game, especially on this year’s International Games Day @ Your Library, which will be held on Saturday, November 19. Continue reading →

It’s obvious that Pokemon Go has absolutely entranced a huge portion of the world, but can you turn all of those avid players into potential library patrons?

Melanie Lyttle and Shawn Walsh recently pondered this question for Public Libraries Online:

There is an elusive group of people sitting in their cars in your library’s parking lot making use of your library being a PokeStop or Gym. They could be teenagers but more than likely they are somewhere in their twenties, thirties, or forties. You haven’t seen them in the library for years, if ever. Can you get them into the building to see how awesome your library is?

Lyttle and Walsh offer up several interesting ideas, and most of them sound pretty simple to implement. But I think the best one is right there in the title of their post… “Strike While the Iron Is Hot!” Continue reading →

While many libraries are listed as PokeStops or Gyms in Pokemon Go, not every one is. However, if you want to add your library to the game, developer Niantic has set up a simple procedure to make the request…

1. Go to the Pokemon Go Support page on Niantic’s website.

2. Select “How do I create a new PokeStop or Gym” under the “Submit a Request” drop-down.

3. Fill out the rest of the form with your library’s information.

Due to the overwhelming number of requests that Niantic receives from this form, the option to add a PokeStop or Gym won’t always be available on the Pokemon Go Support page. But keep checking back and eventually you’ll get your chance.

If you want to remove your library as a PokeStop or Gym from the game, or there’s a problem with a PokeStop or Gym near your library, Niantic has set up a separate form on the Pokemon Go Support page. Continue reading →