Designing and Applying Librarygame Website Software and Investigating its Impact on Self-determination Factors of Library Users

Nowadays, libraries face the “engagement crisis” according to the development of nformation and communication technologies as well as the presence of electronic information providers in digital environments. Accordingly, one of the most new presence concepts in this field is “gamifying the library services”. Gamification has been defined as a process of enhancing services with motivational affordances in order to invoke gameful experiences and behavioral outcomes. So, this research aims to design the librarygame website and investigate the effect of its implementation on self-determination dimensions among the users of central library of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. This is an applied study which has been done by a “pretest-posttest design” approach. The population included all medical library and information science students of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences (N=45). First, the librarygame website named “Ketabdan” designed based on gathered data by systematic review. Then, the pretest-posttest design was applied to study the effect of Ketabdan software on the participants using “Player (User) Experience of Need atisfaction Scale” questionnaire. SPSS 22.0 was used to analyze data. The results showed that the original library website had a low adaptability level with self-determination dimensions of the users; conversely, the librarygame website had been shown a high adaptability level with self-determination dimensions of the users. Also, the rate of the effectiveness of Ketabdan software on four dimensions of self-determination was high, while the original library website was low. According to the importance and necessity of gamifying cademic library ebsites, library managers should design websites based on game dynamics, mechanics, and lements as well as basic psychological needs of users. This may result in the users’ engagement nd loyalty.