Building Platforms to Collect, Preserve, and Provide Access to Digital Games

If your library has a video game collection, you need to start thinking about how you will adapt to collect, preserve, and provide access to digital-only games. Already, fewer games are released on physical media like discs and cartridges, instead being released as digital-only downloads through online storefronts. Similar to ebooks and digital video, the gaming industry is embracing digital platforms for convenience and efficiency of distribution—as well as the ability to have more control over media through restrictive end-user licenses. Libraries have fought to establish methods for providing access to these other kinds of electronic resources, and now it’s time to do the same for games. This session will present the latest developments in this emerging area of electronic resource management, sharing findings from over 50 research interviews with academic and public librarians, game developers, users of library game collections, and experts on library legal and policy issues. Comparing across the needs and priorities of these different stakeholder groups, the session will outline pathways for libraries of all kinds to develop strategies for collecting, preserving, and providing access to digital games. The session will conclude with a call to action, providing opportunities for librarians to get involved in the next stage of this initiative. Despite significant challenges ahead, the prospect of building digital game collections in libraries is incredibly exciting: digital game storefronts feature innovative games from diverse creators, offering both epic and personal gameplay experiences that will appeal to library users of all ages and backgrounds.