Utah: Provo City Library Removes Itself as a Pokemon Go Pokestop, What Happened?

From the AP:

Library officials said Thursday in a blog post that the four Pokestops at the library at first brought a great sense of energy and community to the library as people gathered at all hours on the front lawn.

From the Provo City Library Blog Post Cited in AP Article:

Earlier last month, we were surprised to discover that the Provo City Library had 4 Pokéstops in the new Pokémon GO mobile game. We watched as players started gathering on our front lawn during all hours of the day and night catching Pokémon, trading stories and coming together as a community. The game and its players brought an incredible amount of energy to the library.
However, because of the unexpected costs and increased problems we experienced, we requested the Pokémon stops be removed from the library. We were notified on August 2 that our request had been approved. The Pokéstops were then removed more quickly than we expected and we regret that we were not able to inform our publics in advance.
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Some of our concerns were minor: increased wear on our grass; an increase in our building’s power consumption; a dramatic increase in the amount of trash brought to the property. Other behaviors were more concerning: we witnessed people selling food and other items—like our electricity—without a permit; we witnessed many players frustrated when their cars were locked in our underground parking overnight; we’ve had complaints about noise levels and activity from surrounding properties. Parking for library events and activities became difficult as event attendees had to park blocks away from the library. Alcohol consumption on the library grounds was also reported. Most concerning were the injuries that occurred on property while playing Pokémon Go that could not be ignored by the library.

Direct to Complete Blog Post
See Also:  Pokémon Go’ attracts crowd at Provo library (July 11, 2016 via Daily Herald)

Filed under: Libraries, News