New Directions for Academic Video Game Collections: Strategies for Acquiring, Supporting, and Managing Online Materials Original Research Article

The work of collection development in academic video game collections is at a crucial point of transformation—gaming librarians are ready to expand beyond console games collected in disc and cartridge format to the world of Internet games. At the same time, forms and genres of video games such as serious and independent games are increasingly important to university instruction and curricula, and the move to online gaming allows university and college libraries to give campus communities access to them. This essay reviews the most significant LIS literature on academic gaming collections and identifies new directions in gaming collection development. The authors then present specific resources and strategies they relied upon in their recent initiative to transform gaming collection development policies at the University of North Texas, a large, public, research university. Establishing a five-year plan to create a cutting-edge video game collection, the authors concentrated especially on adding new types of games to the collection, working through the logistics of providing online access, and providing opportunities for research and student learning within the university library through the creation of a gaming lab. The essay outlines in concrete terms the next steps academic gaming librarians can take to ensure the continuing relevance of their collections to campus communities, exploring how innovations in collection development can shape the future of this rapidly-transforming field.