Pokémon GO has been available for less than week, yet you can’t go anywhere without seeing someone playing. The players have to go to specified locations to find rare and wild Pokémon. The more places they go, the faster they level up and participate in battles, which are also location based. Libraries and parks are focal point for “gyms” where the battles take place. The Rochester Hills Public Library has five stops on its property and the game is attracting a lot of potential patrons to its grounds.
Pokémon GO at the Rochester Hills Public Library
With so many players outside its doors, the library decided to join in on the fun, it created the player “RHPLibraryPuff” and the librarians have been busy leveling up, collecting rare creatures and dropping lures around the library.
“The librarians love being a part of the game and we’re seeing a lot of increased traffic to our library because of it,” said Library Director Christine Lind Hage.
Pokémon Go, Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m., Rochester Hills Public Library
To keep the traffic coming, Rochester Hills Public Library is raffling off five plush toys of different characters including a Pikachu and an Eevee. Anyone with a library card who likes the RHPL Facebook page and shares a photo playing Pokemon GO to the page will be entered into a raffle automatically. All participants can redeem an RHPL Pokemon button just for playing, while supplies last.
The Rochester Hills Public Library is also hosting a meetup group on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. The first meetup group, hosted July 13, attracted over 50 people and now more than 100 are coming out once per week. The more people playing in the same location increases the odds of leveling up and finding more characters. The groups meet in the teen area of the library, from there they make several other stops on the property and eventually end with a battle at Rotary Park.
“We see hundreds of people every hour walking by the library. We hope that by offering prizes and events it’ll encourage people to come in and see what else we have to offer,” said Jessica Parij the Adult Services manager.
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