Skip to Main Content
Libraries Indiana University Bloomington

Games & Gaming @ IUB

One-stop guide to all things games, gaming, and game studies at IU Libraries and the Bloomington campus

About Us

Established in 2011, the IUB Libraries gaming collection was created to support the teaching, learning, leisure, and research needs of the Bloomington community. Over time, the collection has grown from a handful of games to include consoles, legacy formats, book-based role-playing games, collectible card games, and more. It supports a wide variety of campus interdisciplinary programs such as psychology, speech communications, computer science, information science, literature, and others which are investigating the technology, game world structure, narratives, and social interactions generated by the video game phenomenon. "Games have emerged from the relative obscurity of interactive tutorials to study real-world systems such as economics, diplomacy and politics; and as full-fledged interventions designed to alter human behavior." -- Dr. Lee Sheldon, visiting lecturer at Indiana University (2009).

The collection also supports the needs of students interested in gaming for classwork and other activities, including many registered student organizations dedicated specifically to gaming. Related article: IU Professor Initiates Gaming Archive (IDS, March 22, 2017)

Blog posts from Media Services:

Collection Goals

The collection goals include creating an area to shelve contemporary games; collecting secondary and supplementary research materials to facilitate investigation of gaming; and investigating ways to capture the output of campus gaming initiatives, such as games created by IUB faculty and corresponding research.

Types of Materials Collected

The collection will eventually include examples of games from all platforms available, current, future, and historical. Examples include:

  • Contemporary Games (XBox, XBox 360, Playstation 2, 3, 4, Nintendo WII, WII U, and future formats as they become commercially available at a reasonable cost.)
  • PC Games (Restrictions for purchase:  must be commercially available for purchase, and can be used to support class instruction and leisure activities.)
  • Vintage Games (Atari 2600, NES, Sega Genesis, others.  Restrictions for purchase:  must be commercially available for purchase, and can be used to support class instruction and leisure activities.)
  • Board Games & Cards in IUCAT at Wells.
  • Video Games in IUCAT at Wells.
  • Game Consoles in Wells include: 3DS XL, Atari Classic, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, PS, PS4, PSP-1001, Pong, Retron 5, Sega Genesis, Xbox, Xbox360, XboxOne, Wii and Wii U.
  • The Libraries will accept donated games & consoles in good to excellent condition.

Collection Use Policies

Current Games:

  • Most video and board games are shelved in the Media Browsing Collection in Media Services.
  • Patrons can check out a total of three items for 7 days, items can be renewed once via My Account.
  • Board games and consoles do not circulate outside of Media Services.  However, faculty may request to check out board games and consoles from Media Services for classroom use. 
  • Late fee of $1/day.