Libraries

A QR scavenger hunt through the stacks
Swap it out each term.

Codes on the shelf ends, a story that runs between them, and a board that says who is winning. Mount them once for summer reading and change the story when the term does.

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Free — one trail, 10 players, no card.

  • No app, no library card
  • Nothing collected from a child
  • New story, same shelf marks
  • Every reader who walks in

Why a trail suits a library

Summer reading, with a scoreboard

The trail runs the length of the programme. A family comes in week one, plays, and comes back in week four to find the story has moved on. The board keeps their team on it all summer.

The catalogue is the puzzle

An answer card cannot be guessed from a phone. To move on, a reader has to find the shelf, the display or the book and read what is on it — which is the thing you wanted them doing anyway.

No card, no account, no email

A child types a team name and plays. There is no sign-up, no address, and no parental consent form, because there is nothing to consent to. Your branch collects nothing it would then have to store.

One mounting, every term

The holders stay on the shelf ends. Each term is a new story with a new sheet to print — you change the labels, not the furniture.

Runs across branches

A story is written once and built into as many trails as you have buildings, each with its own codes and its own board.

You see the dead codes

A staff page lists every code by when it was last scanned, so a label a toddler peeled off in week two shows up in week two.

What setting one up looks like

1

About an hour, on your own

You describe the branch, the collection and what you want readers noticing to the AI assistant you already use. The story drafts while you talk.

2

Print and mount

The pack is a PDF of codes and a plan of where each goes. Shelf ends, display tops, the desk, the window.

3

Readers scan and play

They point a camera at a code. No app, no card. You watch the board from the staff page.

What librarians ask

Neither. They type a team name and start playing. No email, no password, no date of birth — and nothing that identifies a child is stored, so there is no record for your branch to hold or hand over.

That is the case it fits best. One trail runs the whole programme, every family who walks in plays it, and the board resets daily so the family who came in June is not ranked against all of July.

Starting is free — one trail, ten readers, no card. A paid subscription is for the whole organization: a single-branch library is usually $300–1,000 a year whatever the footfall, because nothing here is priced per reader. It goes on a card here, or on an invoice if your finance office needs one.

Only phone signal where the codes are. If a basement or a corner has none, the trail goes elsewhere in the building.

Yes. A trail runs in English or Spanish and the story is written in whichever you choose.

You decide what is in it and your AI assistant does the typing, drafting as you talk. You are not handed a blank form and a weekend, and there is no call to book either.

Put a story in the stacks

Start free — one trail, ten readers, no card. Writing a story of your own comes with a term.

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