The South Central Regional Library is beefing up its catalogue with something new this winter.
Staff were recently able to use some excess funds to purchase a couple dozen brand new board games that can be taken out by patrons.
“We previously had a few games in Winkler and Morden in the past, but those were mainly for in-library use,” says Raina Teigrob, office manager for the Winkler branch and branch administrator in Miami.
“In Miami, we had a patron come in and donate a bunch of old board games that she’d had, and that got me thinking about the fact that we could do board games … it’s something you do see in other libraries.”
The pandemic pushed the idea back a few years, but when funds became available recently, cataloguing technician Joanna Dueck says they jumped at the opportunity.
“It seemed like a really good thing to add to the collection for people to borrow so they don’t have to spend money to try a new game out,” she said.
The stack of games runs the gamut from classics like Clue to a range of modern hits, including Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Dixit, Mysterium, Carcassonne, 7 Wonders, Codenames, Cascadia, and many more.
“We got some more popular names that people would recognize, but also some that you might have never heard of,” Teigrob said, noting they also have a few kid versions of games like Ticket to Ride. “We even have a few one-player games that you can play solo, which is really cool.”
You can search the full list of available games by heading to scrl.mb.libraries.coop and searching for “board games” under the “toys, puzzles, and equipment” category.
Teigrob said they plan to continue to grow the collection, both with future purchases of new games and, hopefully, donations of gently used games from the community.
“We’re hoping to get a lot more of the classic games, standard games by donation and then we can really focus on putting the money into newer, unique type of games,” she said.
“Right now I think we’re at 34 games to start with, and this is just our first purchase of games,” Teigrob said. “In the new year we’ll be buying more.”
If you’d like to make a game donation, reach out to your local SCRL branch.
As far borrowing the games go, it works the same as any other library loan.
“It will be a three-week checkout, like a book would be,” Teigrob explained. “So it’s enough time for people to really get into it.”
While most people think books when they think of their local library, the modern SCRL catalogue is quite a bit more extensive, Teigrob said, and they’re always looking for new things to add.
“I think there’s a lot of education we could still do on what libraries all offer,” she said, noting SCRL also has a huge puzzle collection, not to mention DVDs, audiobooks, CDs, and more.
“I think catering to a different crowd is always a good thing,” she said. “Not everyone wants to read or enjoys it even, so this helps us bring in people that want something different.”
Teigrob said they’re hoping the various branches can start hosting board game nights to give people a chance to come in and try out a few of the titles.
“So there’s that element as well of bringing in new people and put forward new programming too.”
