Local kid builds library in Minecraft

It is not every day you get to see something tangible reconstructed in Minecraft, but one resident did just that.

Darcy Gould, 11, participated in the Barrhead Public Library-sponsored summer Creative Technology camp and took the opportunity to create the entire interior of the library using the software.

“I added as many features of the library as I could and it took about three hours to do it,” Gould said, adding while some portions of the library such as the printing station were hard to incorporate, the experience was fun.

Creative Technology camp organizer and Library tech specialist Kyle Hughes said the design was pretty close to scale.

“We didn’t have any actual blueprints to work with but the kids went out and eyeballed the layout. It turned out incredibly well. I’m proud of Darcy and the other kids who participated in the challenge,” Hughes said.

Hughes said the version of Minecraft used by the eight tech camp attendees was different from the regular commercial version of the software.

“This was the more advanced educational version which has only been available to schools for about a year now. It’s owned by Microsoft and the company’s goal with this is to get all school-based programs involved with the software as a way of engaging students more readily than say, using a blackboard and notebooks,” he said, adding while KODU is another program often used at the camp, it has limitations.

“Minecraft is making everything else obselete.”

Hughes said the primary purpose of exposing children to these types of programs is that he believes this is the way of the future.

“Even if these kids aren’t lucky enough to use this program for actual courses in school, they are gaining invaluable experience using it and have a head start on others. It’s incredible to wrap your mind around but there are actual jobs out there already, mainly through Microsoft, in developing curriculum based on it,” he added.