University of Calgary opening game library

As gaming has established itself alongside film and popular music as a creative medium, it has drawn international attention from academic circles interested in both examining and preserving it. The United States has the University of Texas at Austin's Videogame Archive, while the UK government funds the National Media Museum and Nottingham Trust University's National Videogame Archive.

Such efforts are also afoot in Canada, as the Calgary Herald today reported that the University of Calgary will be expanding its library with a gaming collection in March 2011. The paper said games are expected to account for less than half of 1 percent of the library's $9 million annual collections budget, or under $45,000. It's unclear how that compares to the Texas and UK archives, but the University of Calgary aims to have a collection that will "rival that of any other academic institution," according to the report.

Covering games of yesteryear and today on consoles and PCs, the collection will function much like any of the institution's other media. Students will be able to sign out games, professors can reserve them for class use, and isolated rooms will be made available for those who need to study the finer points of titles like Rock Band without disturbing other library patrons.

University librarian Jerremie Clyde told the paper that adding games to the library collection could go a long way toward legitimizing the medium in the eyes of the academic community. While he acknowledged that some people have expressed concerns about how students will use their access to the games, Clyde said they were much the same as when libraries began adding film or fiction to their catalogs.

"Video games are a fairly sophisticated media form, so…people will be treating them the same as books or film documentaries," Clyde said. "I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner."