[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-591872-105":59,"doc-detail-591872-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","public-libraries-as-centers-for-play-a-survey-and-case-examples","Public Libraries as Centers for Play - A Survey and Case Examples","","Examines how public libraries can serve as safe, supportive environments for children’s free play without adult supervision. Synthesizes findings from a survey of libraries’ play opportunities and discusses three highly effective library play programs, including maker spaces for constructive play, early childhood playrooms, and teen social gaming spaces. Connects play deprivation to rising anxiety and psychopathology and argues librarians’ nonintervention policies and caregiver restraint enable autonomy, happiness, peer negotiation, and problem-solving.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/public-libraries-as-centers-for-play-a-survey-and-case-examples/591872/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/public-libraries-as-centers-for-play-a-survey-and-case-examples/591872.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Mabel","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What trend does the article describe regarding children’s free play?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Opportunities for children to play freely with one another without adult control have declined substantially over recent decades, leaving many children housebound or under surveillance.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"According to the authors, why is free play important for children?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Play deprivation is linked to increased anxiety, depression, and suicide risk, and play supports happiness, self-directed learning, peer negotiation, and problem-solving.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What library approaches does the article highlight to enable free play?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Public libraries increasingly create spaces and programs for free play—such as maker spaces, child playrooms, and teen game/social rooms—supported by policies of nonintervention from librarians and careful restraint by caregivers.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591872,1792209474,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},7971474920318,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/74000ee537e6b0ca360?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1788430171632181674","Public Libraries as Centers for Play  \nA Survey and Case Examples  \n•  \nPeter Gray, Autumn Erdahl Solomon, and Leah Tatgenhorst  \nThe authors surveyed public libraries to learn about the opportunities for play they offered and children’s freedom to engage in such play without adult supervision. The authors conclude that, in recent years, public libraries in the United States have increasingly created spaces and programs enabling free play for children and teens. These include “maker spaces”(for constructive play), playrooms with toys and games for young children, and rooms where teens can socialize and play games. The authors describe the survey results and three especially successful library play programs in detail. These results, they conclude, illustrate how librarians have welcomed children and enabled free play in the library through policies of nonintervention and by emphasizing nonintervention by care givers who might otherwise intervene in such play. Key words: free play; maker spaces; play and libraries; public libraries  \nOver the past several decades, opportunities for children to play freely with one another, without adult control, have declined greatly (Chudacoff 2007; Frost 2012; Gray 2011, 2013; Digennaro 2021). The daily neighborhood play that many adults of middle age and older enjoyed when they were children does not exist today for most children. A decline in neighborhood cohesiveness, increased fears of potential dangers to unsupervised children, increased academic pressures on children, and legal constraints that prevent or dissuade parents from allowing their children to roam freely have all combined to keep children housebound or under adult surveillance far more extensively than in the past. When children do come together outside of school, they most often do so for sports or other activities controlled and directed by adults.  \nThis decline in free play has been accompanied by well-documented increases in anxiety, depression, and even suicide among school-aged children, all of which have reached record levels in the past two decades (Centers for Disease Control 2016; Plemmons et al. 2018; Twenge et al. 2010) . There are  \n131  \nAmerican Journal of Play, Volume 14, number 2 © 2022 by The Strong [Contact Peter Gray at grayp@bc.edu](Contact Peter Gray at grayp@bc.edu)  \ngood reasons to believe that play deprivation is a major cause of such increased psychopathology (Gray 2011, 2013; Belknap and Hazler 2014; Digennaro 2021) . As illustrated by one recent study, children’s own conceptions of happiness are intrinsically connected with their conceptions of play (Moore and Lynch 2018) . Take away play, and you take away happiness. Through play children also learn to create their own activities, negotiate with peers, solve their own problems, and generally take charge of their own lives (Frost et al. 2012; Gray 2013). Play deprivation has been described as a form of educational poverty (Digennaro 2021), and it may be the primary form of educational poverty in the United States today.  \nStudies indicate that the primary stimulus for joyful play by children is other children to play with and that the primary inhibitor is adult monitors who intervene and interfere with children’s sense of freedom and self-control (Floyd et al. 2011; Gray 2020). To bring play back to children’s lives, we must create places where children can congregate and play freely but which are sufficiently safe to allay societal and parental fears. Generally, this means places with adults who keep an eye out for real dangers but who otherwise refrain from interfering with children’s activities. This is the approach of Adventure Playgrounds (Almon and Keeler 2018) and a growing number of before-and after-school free-play opportunities at schools recently promoted by the nonprofit Let Grow organization (Parrott and Cohen 2020, 2021). Our purpose in this article is to examine the possibility that public libraries could become places where childre","cbCaiglIbvQbyR9E","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiglIbvQbyR9E","pdf",138203,18,"English","# Public Libraries as Play Centers\n## Decline of Free Play and Its Impacts\n## Why Play Matters for Children\n## Strategies to Restore Free Play\n## Libraries as Self-Directed Education Spaces\n## Evolving Library Roles and Play Opportunities\n## Evidence from Published Studies","[{\"question\":\"What trend does the article describe regarding children’s free play?\",\"answer\":\"Opportunities for children to play freely with one another without adult control have declined substantially over recent decades, leaving many children housebound or under surveillance.\"},{\"question\":\"According to the authors, why is free play important for children?\",\"answer\":\"Play deprivation is linked to increased anxiety, depression, and suicide risk, and play supports happiness, self-directed learning, peer negotiation, and problem-solving.\"},{\"question\":\"What library approaches does the article highlight to enable free play?\",\"answer\":\"Public libraries increasingly create spaces and programs for free play—such as maker spaces, child playrooms, and teen game/social rooms—supported by policies of nonintervention from librarians and careful restraint by caregivers.\"}]","Public Libraries as Centers for Play - A Survey and Case Examples | PDF",1792073377,45]