Videogame Collection Development: Issues and Best Practices
2011 ALA Emerging Leaders Team G (aka Team Gorillaz)
Team G will present information on issues and best practices when developing a video game collection,
including Circulation & Access, Selection & Purchasing, Weeding, and an ideal MARC record. The
team surveyed public, academic, and school libraries across the United States and Canada and spoke
with experts in the field to find out what innovative ideas might change what we know about videogame
collections in libraries.
Sponsored by the Games and Gaming Member Interest Group.
Contacts
Team Members
1. Erik Bobilin, Brooklyn Public Library
2. Abby Johnson, New Albany (IN) Library
3. Kate Kosturski, JSTOR/ITHAKA
4. Jonathan Lu, Bartow County (GA) Public Library
5. Nicole Pagowsky, Dallas County Community College District
Mentors
1. Buffy Hamilton, Creekview (GA) High School
2. Justin Hoenke, Portland (ME) Public Library
3. JP Porcaro, New Jersey City University
Staff Liaison
Jenny Levine
To contact Team G, please visit http://connect.ala.org/node/146085.
For biographical information and individual contact information for the members of Team G, please visit
http://connect.ala.org/node/147609.
Rationale
Library rationales for providing gaming collections vary depending on institution type. After conducting a
preliminary survey with approximately thirty libraries, we were able to draw some generalizations:
● Public libraries offer gaming collections for entertainment purposes, to enrich users through
learning and engagement, and to increase circulation through the collection itself and
auxiliary pieces (e.g. instruction booklets, fan fiction). Creating a true community center,
when programming is offered as well, additionally relates to entertainment and enrichment by
encouraging interaction between patrons.
● School libraries focus on education in their raison d’être, offering supplementary learning
modalities through gaming (see our section on what constitutes a good game). Entertainment is
also a goal for a school library collection. School librarians use it as a tool to help students with
socialization and increase interaction between classmates.
● Academic libraries also strive to provide entertainment offerings, but the main goal of their library
collections is curricular support. Ranging from game design courses, media studies, engineering,
and constructing effective narratives in an English course, these collections supplement course
material and may even serve as focal points in certain programs. Some libraries surveyed
discussed a very specific and unique interest for their collections: preservation of video games
for historical study.
● Special libraries and museums also interested in preserving video game history take up
collections to depict the transformation of gaming technology over time and might also tie in
cultural importance and related nostalgia.
*We do hope to continue our research and obtain better data by creating a more comprehensive
survey for libraries with videogame collections, and plan to make that available in the near future.
Please contact us (http://connect.ala.org/node/147609) if you would be willing to participate.
Issues:
Funding is a major issue for libraries interested in collecting video games. When budgets are considered
in a rationale, libraries differ in reasoning for support of gaming collections. An interesting point of view
from school libraries is the fact that many are required to teach to the test; as videogames diverse from
this linear type of learning, a videogame collection might actually clash with the institutional mission
or current needs. In contrast, as the gaming industry reaches a higher demand for employees and as
videogames find more acceptance as an educational tool, academic libraries find gaming collections
better support the mission of the library and institution at large. Public libraries tend to have tighter
budgets and might be confronted with the argument that the DVD collection is sufficient in providing
entertainment and culture, however other audiovisual materials differ greatly from video games.
Uniqueness:
There are a number of reasons why videogame collection development policies should be unique from
audiovisual collection development policies. Major differences include: videogames are software, are not
linear, and are active rather than passive entertainment. In his chapter, Why old school is "cool": A brief
analysis of classic video game nostalgia, Sean Fenty offers an intriguing comparison of innovation in
technology-driven entertainment industries:
All media of course, are affected by technological advances. The written word, for instance, was changed
radically by the invention of the printing press. But new media, tied as they are to quickly developing
technologies, change more rapidly. Film, for instance, in just over a hundred years, has developed from
its silent, low frame-rate, black-and-white roots to the vivid colors of computer-rendered animations and
surround sound explosions that make our insides vibrate. Television has also changed tremendously in
form and content in the past fifty years. In the last couple of decades in particular, both film and television
have been enormously changed by the computer revolution that continues to push the boundaries of what
is visually possible in new media to fantastical heights. Video games, however, were born in the circuitry
of this everything machine that is the computer. It was born and bred in an acceleration engine where
rapid change is a constant. Not only do games and technology change rapidly in the personal computer
and arcade sectors, but in the video game industry's primary arena -- home and portable gaming devices
-- the technology of production and consumption undergoes radical changes every half decade when new
consoles and handhelds make old models obsolete. It is an industry fueled by the promise of tomorrow of
more -- more visual detail, more immersion, and more interactive freedom (Fenty, 2008, pp. 19-20).
These “radical changes” in such short periods of time can greatly affect a collection development policy.
It’s likely that audiovisual technology for film collections will change over time, but not at the intense rate
of the videogaming industry. Keeping this in mind when developing a policy would require separating
these media. Creating the separate policy enables a library to adapt to the changing industry environment
and patron needs. If the videogame collection development policy is tied to the audiovisual collection, it
would be more difficult to enact changes and to get as specific as necessary to support the needs of the
collections.
Likewise, collections in academic libraries might serve a variety of purposes that would be detrimental to
lump together with other collection policies.
This kind of core collection is especially difficult to put together because game design is interdisciplinary:
Students learn about anatomy to be able to replicate human and animal forms; they learn about physics
and how characters interact and move within their virtual worlds; they learn about physical space and
level design; and they learn how to create a story. In addition, games can teach game-design students
about graphic design and marketing and can present business models that will help them create
sustainable products (Mastel & Huston, 2009).
Students are also able to learn from films, but there are more facets to what videogames teach because
they are so interactive. Likewise, with the increase need for employees in the gaming industry, there is a
very meta aspect to learning through gaming as well.
Every library will have different purposes and needs for videogame collections, and the mission of the
library, and the uniqueness of the collection,, should be a driving force behind creating a collection
development policy.
References
Fenty, S. (2008). Why old school is “cool”: A brief analysis of classic video game nostalgia. In Z. Whalen
& L. N. Taylor (Eds.), Playing the past : history and nostalgia in video games (pp. 19-31). Nashville, TN:
Vanderbilt University Press.
Mastel, K., & Huston, D. (2009, March). Using video games to teach game design: A gaming collection for
libraries. Computers in Libraries, 29(3), 41-44.
What Makes a Good Game
Regardless of genre, there are qualities common to all games that makes them a “good game.” James
Paul Gee gives several guidelines in his work,Good Games and Good Learning (2007):
1. Identity: "Good video games capture players through identity.” Users see this best Nintendo’s
Wii system, which allows players to make a “Mii,” a highly customizable avatar that physically
resembles the player.
2. Interaction: "In a good game, words and deeds are all placed in the context of an interactive
relationship between the player and the world.” Users see this best in role playing games (RPGs)
and adventure games.
3. Production: Closely related to interaction, a good game will allow the consumer (the player) to
act as producer, developing the story- and the player’s story within that narrative - on their own.
A good print parallel is the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books popular in the 1980s (which,
incidentally, are making a comeback).
4. Risk taking: "Good video games lower the consequences of failure... players are thereby
encouraged to take risks." A good game is challenging and keeps the player intrigued, but not so
difficult that the player feels ineffective against the game, thereby losing interest.
5. Customization: Can select/experiment with different learning styles/playing styles. Good games
have different levels based on the player’s skill level - beginner, intermediate and advanced.
6. Well-ordered problems: "In good video games, the problems players face are ordered so that
the earlier ones are well built to lead players to form hypotheses that work well for later, harder
problems." Here lies the best example of videogames as a learning tool. A good game will
strengthen a player’s problem solving skills, allowing them to apply logic in new ways to advance
levels.
7. Challenge & consolidation: "Good games offer players a set of challenging problems and then let
them solve these problems until their solutions are virtually automatic." Often called the "cycle of
expertise," this is another good argument for videogames as a learning tool. Through challenge,
players build logical reasoning and comprehension skills until the challenge becomes next to
automatic.
8. Just-in-time & on demand: Unlike textbooks, where all the information is presented at one time,
games unfurl their information needs when they are necessary. For example, a player in an RPG
does not find out he needs a special key for the stone door in Level 5 until he gets to Level 5 not at the start of Level 1. The knowledge about this key may build throughout the game in a
methodical manner (remember, another quality of a good game is well-ordered problem solving)
but it is not presented at the start of the game.
What ultimately makes a game "good" for the library is how well that game fulfills the library's mission for
its gaming program.
Reference:
Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games + good learning : Collected essays on video games, learning, and
literacy. New York: P. Lang.
Selection & Purchasing
Selection
When selecting video games for a library collection, consider the following criteria:
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Type of collection (e.g. circulating vs. non-circulating or programming collection).
Audience for collection (Is the collection for entertainment purposes or academic study? Will
games be collected for children, teens, adults, or a combination of these?).
Curriculum support.
Game ratings. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) gives each game a rating
based on age appropriateness. Ratings include EC (Early Childhood), E (Everyone), E10+
(Everyone Ten and Older), T (Teen), and M (Mature). More information can be found on the
ESRB website:http://www.esrb.org.
Game platforms. Games are available on many different platforms (e.g. Wii, PlayStation, etc.).
Librarians will need to consider patron needs and budget constraints when considering which
platform(s) to purchase for. As newer platforms are developed, consider whether to collect
for these new platforms and whether it is necessary to keep games that are playable on older
platforms. Conversely, platforms affect collection weeding; the Collection Maintenance section
provides further details.
Collection of gaming items in addition to actual games (e.g. game consoles and accessories,
game guides, gaming periodicals, and texts on the subject of games and gaming).
Reviews and recommendations for which games to purchase.
Qualities that make a game culturally significant. (See What Makes a Good Game.)
The following resources provide reviews and information that may be helpful in selecting video games for
any kind of collection:
1up.com: http://www.1up.com/
8-Bit Library Reviews: http://blog.8bitlibrary.com/reviews/
Children’s Technology Review: http://childrenstech.com/
The Escapist: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/
G4TV.com: http://www.g4tv.com/
Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/
Game Informer magazine and online reviews: http://www.gameinformer.com/
GamePro magazine and online reviews: http://www.gamepro.com/
GameRankings.com: http://www.gamerankings.com/
Gamerdad Presents... Gaming With Children: http://www.gamingwithchildren.com/
GAMES magazine (particularly the Games 100 feature in the holiday review issue): http://
www.gamesmagazine-online.com/
Gamespot.com: http://www.gamespot.com/
Giant Bomb: http://www.giantbomb.com/
IGN.com: http://www.ign.com/
Joystiq: http://www.joystiq.com/
Metacritic game reviews: http://www.metacritic.com/
Nintendo Power magazine
Official X Box Magazine: http://oxmonline.com/
PC Gamer: http://www.pcgamer.com/ (for PC games, not console games)
Playstation: The Official Magazine: http://playstationthemagazine.com/
XBox Live's Major Nelson Radio podcasts: http://majornelson.com
What They Play: The Family Guide to Video Games: http://www.whattheyplay.com/
A Teen Advisory Group and/or library staff members with gaming expertise may provide valuable input.
Purchasing
The Librarians’ Guide to Gaming: An Online Toolkit for Building Gaming @ Your Library has a list of
vendors and retailers that will accept purchase orders from libraries.
http://www.librarygamingtoolkit.org/vendors.html
In addition to the vendors on this list, the following vendors and retailers carry video games:
Recorded Books - http://www.recordedbooks.com/
SQR Solutions - http://www.sqrsolutions.com
Gifts & Donations
Gifts and donations of video games and equipment are a feasible way to start or grow a library's video
game collection. Consider the following when thinking about gifts and donations for your video game
collection:
● Cataloging & processing costs. Since most video games require original cataloging, library staff
will invest their time in processing donated video games. In addition, staff time may be needed
to test equipment and/or games (which requires the library to have appropriate equipment)
before adding them to the collection. The time required to complete these tasks could negate any
potential savings from the donation.
● Audience for collection. Donated games may be more useful where games are being used for
patron entertainment versus an academic setting where games are being selected for curriculum
support or for their cultural significance.
Donated materials considered for addition to the collection should be vetted according to the guidelines
offered in the "Weeding" section of the policy. Particular attention should be paid to the "age/currency"
of the item and potential issues of "versioning". The circulation statistics of similar versions or gaming
experiences in the collection should be consulted to gauge demand.
Core Genres to Collect
The fluid nature of the videogame industry renders any core genre list outdated very quickly, thus making
any list extremely difficult to compile. As a result, we concentrate on offering a genre-level list of core
games, with the caution to always remain flexible in offerings. We focus on the following five genres:
Social, Narrative, Action, Knowledge, and Strategy.
Social : Games that require some degree of socialization.
o Party games: Games that require two or more players.
● Wii: Mario Party, Super Monkey Balls, Rayman Raving Ribbids
● PS3: Little Big Planet, Lemmings,
● XBOX 360: Portal
o Strategy games: Games with an emphasis on problem solving.
● Wii: Battalion Wars 2, Pikmin 2
● PS3: Record of Agarest War
● XBOX 360: Command and Conquer, Civilization Revolution
Narrative: Games that have a storyline and requires a player to embody a character in context.
o Role-Playing Games (RPGs): Games that uses character development as the main part of the game.
It can be turned based or real-time action based combat. A key part of the RPG is for the character to
increase the inventory, wealth, or statistics of the character during the progression of the game.
● Wii: Tales of Symphonia
● PS3: Final Fantasy, Fallout, Dragon Age, Elder Scroll
● XBOX 360: Fable III, Dungeon Siege, Mass Effect
Action: Games that require movement, quick thinking, and reflexes.
o Rhythm games: Game play uses music as timing.
● Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution
o Wii, Kinect, Move games: Games that are especially designed to use the new system.
● Wii: Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Sports Resort
● PS3: Sports Champions
● XBOX 360: Kinect Sports, Forza Motorsports 4
o Sports games: Any game involving sports.
● Any EA Sports title
o Fighting games: Classic hand to hand combat games.
● Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, Marvel vs. Capcom
o Shooter games: These can be from a 1st person or 3rd person perspective.
● Call of Duty, Halo, Medal of Honor
o Adventure: Games that feature a story, usually driven by the character and the game environment.
Wii: Lego, Broken Sword, Sonic, Mario, Zelda
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● PS3: Grand Theft Auto, Uncharted
● XBOX 360: LA Noire, Transformers, Lara Croft
Knowledge: Games that make knowledge fun (i.e. trivia, game shows, etc.)
● Mario Party, Sim City, Family Feud
Strategy: Games that require a player to make decisions (e.g. area control, trading, role selection, worker
placement, tile placement, route planning, etc.) to affect the outcome of the game.
● Yugi-Oh, Pokemon, Command and Conquer, Civilizations, Poker
Circulation & Access
Due to the comparatively high cost of videogames in terms of both material cost and staff time for
processing, a circulating videogame collection warrants its own circulation policy. Consider an individual
library’s need to secure materials against theft versus the need to ensure accessibility to patrons. The
following graphic illustrates this relationship and proposes a middle ground.
Storage and Display
When determining how patrons will access videogames, consider the importance of patron accessibility
versus the importance of theft prevention. Generally, as the level of patron accessibility goes up, the
potential for theft also increases. When setting policies intended to reduce theft (e.g. keeping games
behind a staffed desk), consider the additional staff time involved to enforce policies.
If the goal of the institution is to utilize the popularity of videogames to increase overall circulation of the
institution, then care should be taken to monitor whether limitations placed on access for theft prevention
are negatively impacting that goal. The most effective advertisement for a videogame collection may
be the collection itself. Some procedures undertaken to prevent theft (e.g. remote storage or CAGED
storage) will result in diminished visibility of the collection, thereby potentially reducing circulation.
Consider whether reduced circulation due to loss of advertising may exceed reduced circulation due to
theft.
Loan Period & Penalties
When setting a loan period for videogames, consider the amount of time required to attain the “gaming
experience” versus the demand for the individual item. Users may require a longer loan period to
complete a videogame as compared to the time needed to watch a DVD. However, the longer the loan
period, the longer the ensuing wait time for other unique checkouts. This has direct bearing on overall
circulation insofar as the material cost of videogames, as compared to other media items, may restrict
the number of copies purchased. Consider these points when determining whether to allow renewals
and/or hold queues for materials. Also consider the “currency” of videogames. Certain materials may
have a shorter period of relevancy, as with sports titles (i.e. titles with roster changes every year) or titles
connected to the releases of popular books or films. Consider creating a “quick plays” subsection of
the videogame collection as an option to manage the demand for such materials and ensure maximum
availability during their period of highest social relevance.
When considering penalties such as late fees, consider both patron accessibility and the cost of
videogames and accessories, which may be higher than other media items. If the goal of the institution
is to utilize the popularity of videogames to increase the circulation of other non-game materials and/or
attendance at library programs, then procedures should be developed towards requiring targeted user
groups to physically enter the library as often as possible.
Holds
While determining availability and limitations on placing holds on videogames, consider how patrons are
likely to browse for videogames in the collection. When allowing patrons to place holds on videogames,
there may be an increase in online browsing for videogames through an OPAC or other online resource.
If a holds list builds on a videogame, patrons may not see that game on the shelves for a significant
period of time.
By disallowing patrons to place holds on videogames, there may be an increase in physical browsing as
more games will be available on the library’s shelves at any one time. Also consider that patrons may
desire additional time with a videogame, particularly a game that takes a longer amount of time to play.
Weeding & Collection Maintenance
For many libraries, weeding their video game collections is nonexistent for various reasons:
1. Collection is still very new
2. Weeding is counter to the collection's goals and objectives
3. Older games are still popular with patrons.
Those libraries that weed video games do so for various reasons. Note that many of these are the same
factors that influence weeding of books and other nonprint materials. Libraries can look to the existing
weeding component of the overall collection development policy for guidance.
1. Versioning - replacing an older version of a game with a newer one, unless there is still demand
for the previous version.
2. Condition/damage beyond general repair.
3. Circulation Statistics/Popularity. Older games might still be very popular with patrons.
4. Attrition. This might be best described as indirect weeding, meaning games lost to damage
beyond general repair, loss or theft.
5. Value to the collection
6. Storage/Space. Do you have enough room for the entire collection.
7. Ease/Feasibility of Circulation
8. Changes in the gaming landscape. Is the game you bought six months or a year ago now out of
date?
Some ways to prolong the life of your library's video game collections:
1. Purchase an in-house resurfacer or CD/DVD cleaner
2. Use volunteers/interns to help clean and repair video games
3. Charge patrons for damage to video game discs or cases. Steep fees might prove a deterrent to
damage.
As with print and other non-print collections, weeding is a highly individual matter. There is no one
size fits all solution. Project management (weeding on a system level vs. weeding on a branch level),
frequency, procedures and even justification for the practice of weeding itself will vary from library to
library, and even branch to branch in multi-branch systems.
Cataloging
Due to the relative recent entry of videogames in libraries, there’s no real standard on the amount of
information required in the catalog record. Records range from a simple place entry to a full OCLC
standard entry. This extreme difference of standards reflects the size of the collections, the size of
the library, and the recent entry of the medium. An OCLC standard MARC entry is dependent on the
popularity of the game. A popular, newly released game will generally have a standard catalog record
available for copy cataloging within 2 to 3 weeks. However, an old, out of print, or obscure game would
require original cataloging.
While many library vendors provide cataloging and processing for books, these services are not yet
available for videogames, as few vendors provide videogames. As this changes and vendors add
videogames to their product offerings, processing and cataloging will be part of basic services.
At minimum, a videogame catalog entry should contain the following information:
● Title of the video game
● What gaming system does the game belong to?
● Publish year/publisher
● Rating
● How many players?
● Does it have online multiplayer capability?
● Synopsis of the game
● Any special equipment needed. (ie. Kinect, Wii Motion Plus)
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Product descriptions
Price
Many game developers have valid concerns that cataloging records for their games remain incomplete,
particularly with the omission of the developer studio (entity that programs/writes the game). Essentially,
this is the “author” of the game and often not one of the gaming community’s “Big Three” (Sony,
Nintendo, Microsoft). These third party developers often do not get credit in the cataloging record; often
just the publisher and the writer receive mention. It often takes a village to create a video game, and
those that handle back-end work may one day become famous in their own right (thus necessitating the
need for their names to be metadata for the game). When official descriptors for video games are not
available, computer gaming descriptors will suffice.
In addition to the game developer studio, other secondary fields that should be on the record are:
● Director
● Art Director
● Program Director
● Voice Actors
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) offers guidance on their website (http://
www.igda.org/credit-statement) for proper crediting of personnel. Often, this information is not on the site.
Catalogers can consult Moby Games (http://www.mobygames.com), the Internet Movie Database of the
gaming industry, for missing information.
Other schemas catalogers can use include Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) (often
used for online and downloadable games), and Dublin Core (used in board games along with MARC).
Some public and academic libraries also catalog their video gaming consoles for circulation. At minimum,
a console catalog entry should contain the following:
● The video game system
● Items within the bundle that would be checked out (i.e. controllers, cords, etc.)
● Price
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Acknowledgments
Our sincerest thanks to the following people who offered advice and help with this project:
Jefferson Bailey
Amber Billey
Buffy Hamilton
Nicholas Hasty
Justin Hoenke
Jihae Hong
Louis Johnson
Raphael Koster
Jenny Levine
Jerome McDonough
JP Porcaro
David Henry Ward
Jill Wolf
Special thanks to the staff of the following libraries:
Ada Community Library (ID)
Baltimore County Public Library (MD)
Barrington Area Library (IL)
Chestatee Regional Library (GA)
George Brown College (Toronto, ON)
Guilderland Public Library (NY)
Hall County Library (GA)
Hillsdale Public Library (NJ)
Iowa City Public Library
Johnson County Public Library (KS)
La Crosse Public Library (WI)
Marathon Public Library (WI)
McCracken County Public Library (KY)
Mobile Public Library (AL)
Mount Prospect Public Library (IL)
New York Public Library
Park Forest Public Library (IL)
Park Ridge Public Library (IL)
Pueblo City-County Library District (CO)
Rochester Hills Public Library (MI)
Saratoga Springs Public Library (NY)
Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, BC)
Southern New Hampshire University
Tinley Park Public Library (IL)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
University of Oregon
University of Southern California
Victoria Public Library (BC)
West Palm Beach Public Library (FL)
Westmont Public Library (IL)
For periodic updates on this project or if your library has a videogame collection and you would
be willing to share information with us as this project continues, please fill out our contact form at
http://connect.ala.org/node/146085. Thank you!