For the entire month of October, LSU Libraries hosted its annual Frankenfaire Open House virtually for the first time. Attendees participated in a Digital Escape Room, and those who completed the game were entered into a drawing to win three prizes: Beats headphones, a Kindle Fire 8, and an Amazon gift card. Overall, the event was a success, despite having to be held virtually because of the pandemic.

The LSU Libraries Programming Committee organized the event as part of their mission to foster community among LSU students, faculty and staff through educational, informational, and recreational programming. "Open House is traditionally one of the biggest events LSU Libraries hosts, and while we are sad it wasn’t safe to host the event in person this year, the Digital Escape Room allowed us the opportunity to engage students in a new fun way that we haven’t been able to do before," Randa Lopez Morgan, Events and Programming Librarian and Chair of the LSU Libraries Programming Committee, said. "We hope to continue in the future with a Digital Escape Room even after we go back to in-person events. We are thrilled that so many people participated in it and that we had so many positive comments about the game."

Of 403 participants, 288 completed the game and filled out the survey, which gave the event a 71% completion rate. Many participants left comments suggesting that the Libraries host more virtual events, such as other escape rooms and trivia. Some encouraging comments included:

“I love how you incorporate holidays into your activities for learning more about the library! Not sure what else I would like to see from you guys but keep up the fun stuff!”

“This was great. It was really nice to have something fun to do for Halloween. If there were other fun things we could do for the holidays, that would be great.”

“I really liked that this test your knowledge on resources at LSU, and help you learn while playing it. So hopefully more games like this.”

The prize winners were as follows: Brianna Buras, a pre-med kinesiology sophomore, won the Beats headphones; Jyriah Reaux, a biochemistry freshman, won the Kindle Fire 8; and Megan Mahler, a graduate student in LSU's Advanced Standing Master of Social Work Program, won the Amazon gift card.

"We want to thank all of the participants for playing and for everyone who helped to promote the event. We also want to thank our vendors, Wiley, Springer Nature, and Gale Cengage for donating prizes for the event. Keep an eye out on the library's event calendar for future programming events!," continued Lopez Morgan.

The escape room is still active for anyone who would like to participate. Click here to find out more and access the Digital Escape Room and to read more about the work of the committee.