In this chapter, the authors elaborate on serious games and playful interactions
in modern scientific practices, and on the way they can engender
mutual scientific growth. They use a research-through-design approach, in
which three possible scenarios and prototypes are studied to envisage the
new role of the public library in practicing science in a changing society.
Their conclusion is that the public library of the future should employ
citizen science projects that are fun, accessible, malleable, and participatory,
so that its new role can focus on offering meaningful information
at the right time in the right place, contextualizing information using
playful solutions, bringing together communities to share information,
and enabling new scientific practices in unexplored fields.