Eaten by a Grue

I'll be speaking as part of a panel at tomorrow's Newbie Librarian unConference at the Southfield (MI) Public Library. My plan for my portion of the panel is to use the Computer & Video Game Archive at the library as an object example, detailing the various skills I have employed in developing the collection: What did I learn back in library school that I never thought I'd have to use, but did? What didn't I learn in school, but had to do? And so on. The unconference runs all day; my panel starts at 2:30.

This is a prototype wordmark for the game archive, designed by our most excellent Library Communications Specialist, Liene Karels. Besides going on promotional materials and the like, we'll also have it stenciled on the new glass wall for the archive room.

Meant to mention this earlier.... We are hiring for the position of the Computer & Video Game Archive Manager at the library. This is a staff position, non-professional, non-technical. Basically it is to manage the day-to-day activities of the archive, including staffing the service desk, troubleshooting basic problems, managing a couple of student employees, etc. For the complete posting, go to Careers at the University of Michigan, select the appropriate job search section, and look for posting #20959. The posting is open until the end of the week.

With this blog I hope to not only talk about our upcoming Computer & Video Game Archive here at the MLibrary, but also document my exploration into the relatively-new-to-me world of games in the academy. First up is The Education Arcade at MIT.

One of the ways we plan on growing the video game archive is through in-kind donations. How many people have old game consoles taking up space in the basement, looking for a good home? Quite a few, we think, and we can offer that good home to them! I have a page up on our Website with details on what we're looking for and who to contact.

I thought it might be interesting to share our collection plan for the video game collection. Below you'll find a large portion of the original collection plan that we wrote last November. A few things have changed since then as far as specifics, but it's still largely what we plan to do.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we're creating a computer & video game archive at the library. This will be a working archive, with the various game systems set up and available for use. We're converting a space for the game room. Previously it was used for photocopiers and as a sorting area for bound journals. Those elements have been moved elsewhere in the library, and now we have a big empty space...

Hi! My name's Dave. I'm a librarian at the University of Michigan, and this is my new blog. The focus of this blog will be on computer and video games in libraries, specifically academic libraries. Often even more specifically, my library. That's because we're preparing to open a Computer and Video Game Archive at my library, the University of Michigan Art, Architecture & Engineering Library, on the second floor of the Duderstadt Center on North Campus.