Page 161 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

and in readers’ communities to gain visibility and establish new channels of communication between members.
We will return to these spaces for meeting and socialisation through reading in the last section, which reflects on good practice in relation to digital reading.
Platforms and communities of readers...
Digital reading is prompting the emergence of spaces where people are encouraged to share reading experiences, discuss them and even create from them, to write, and to express themselves through images or other forms of expression. Reading platforms and communities of readers are based on the common aim of providing spaces and moments for creating and sharing reading.
These platforms are therefore a sort of “third place” that Ray Oldenburg defines as a public and informal meeting place which creates a community, a gateway and means of becoming integrated into it, of congregation based on interests, of association with others, support between peers, debating, mutual benefits, entertainment and friendship.
As José Antonio Vázquez states,165
The recommendations of booksellers or librarians, reviews in cultural supplements on paper, and all kinds of tools for promoting the world of books are being complemented by recommendations made in digital space: social media, blogs, apps and communities of readers are the new places where readers find what they are going to read next.
Examples similar to these initiatives can be found in platforms and social media that are open to dialogue between readers and invite them to exchange opinions and literary tastes, such as Lecturalia,166 Entrelectores,167 El Placer de la
Lectura,168 Librotea,169 Qué Libro Leo170 and Tú Qué Lees,171 general communities of readers; others geared to children and teenagers such as Leoteca;172 and those focused on schools, such as Leemos.173
There are also newcomers that explore different approaches to reading and readers, such as Komilibro174 and Oh! Libro,175 which make rec- ommendations based on readers’ emotions. We will examine these mediators in greater detail in due course.
Gamification applied to reading and its promotion in educational and cultural environments
The gaming factor has long been called for in educational and cultural environments and it is not new to educational and cultural animation practice. Creating a symbolic framework gives meaning to many proposals developed around reading and writing, provides motivation and encourages participants to join in the activity in question.
Nor is it a stranger to programmes for informa- tion literacy and educating library users, which are often designed as projects developed around a plot that guides and stimulates participants, particularly in activities geared to children and teens, though this gaming perspective is also found in products aimed at adult audiences.
Play as a framework for activities and projects is an appeal and stimulus, but it is much more than a simple lure, as it has a symbolic dimension that boosts involvement in, and the impact caused by, the action.
Julián Marquina mentions this effect when he uses the term gamification applied to the library environment, referring to it as a
group of game techniques and dynamics applied in organisations, services and products, which
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Readers in the digital age