Grant means game time for Maricopa Library

Grab your goggles. A new grant will allow the Maricopa Public Library to get into 3D gaming.

The Maricopa library will receive $9,450 from the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. The division has awarded more than half a million dollars to library projects around the state this year.

Maricopa Library Manager Erik Surber said the funds will go toward developing a virtual reality gaming program.

“There is an educational aspect that’s pretty obvious,” Surber said. “But it’s also a lot of fun.”

The available games are new and still in a beta-testing mode. Surber said he hopes by early next year there will be a viable program. Besides new games, existing games like Minecraft could be adapted.

He said the library would like to have its virtual reality gaming program in place by September, even if it is just an early version.

Already, people can take virtual trips to Paris, Surber said. He hopes Maricopa kids and adults can take a virtual trip to outer space — or into a haunted house.

The State Library is a division of the Secretary of State’s Office. Secretary of State Michele Reagan said the uses of the grant funds were a sign of the changing times at Arizona libraries. She said they are becoming technology centers.

Besides traditional services, libraries are using the funding for literacy programs, engineering, 3D printers, math spaces, arts, tutoring for teens and more.