GAMERT (Gaming) Round Table

 View Only
last person joined: 2 days ago 

The mission of the Games and Gaming Round Table is to provide the following:
  • A forum for the exchange of ideas and concerns surrounding games in libraries;
  • Resources to the library community to support the building and maintaining of library game collections;
  • A force for initiating and supporting game programming in libraries;
  • Create an awareness of, and need for, the support of the value of gaming and play in libraries, schools, and related learning communities.
  • Create an awareness of the value of games and gaming in library outreach and community engagement plans.
  • A professional and social forum for networking among librarians and non-librarians interested in games and gaming.

  • 1.  Questions about Steam/Steamworks PC Game Cafe

    Posted Sep 27, 2024 02:02 PM

    Hi everyone!

    My department is interested in developing a fully digital video games collection at our academic library, specifically using the Steam/Steamworks PC Cafe platform (https://partner.steamgames.com/pccafe). We would be interested in implementing the version of the cafe where our users would bring their own computers/devices and connect to the collection via our wi-fi network. I can see a handful of threads already here on GameRT briefly mentioning Steam, so I was hoping I could ask a few questions about anyone's experience with the platform in their libraries.

    Some of our questions are as follows:

    1) How does your library implement loan periods for Steam games, if any? Does the PC Cafe platform specifically provide for this functionality?

    2) Do you maintain records for your Steam games in your library catalog/search? Including links to the Steam platform itself?

    3) Do your staff provide technical support to your users? If so, what kinds of questions or problems are common?

    4) If users bring their own devices/computers to use, do they have to re-install games or lose progress between play sessions?

    Thank you for taking the time to consider these questions, and any other advice or ideas are certainly welcome! 

    Thanks again,



    ------------------------------
    Joshua Gladieux
    Reference Library Assistant & Student Supervisor
    University of California, Irvine
    joshua.gladieux@uci.edu
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Questions about Steam/Steamworks PC Game Cafe

    Posted Oct 04, 2024 09:50 AM

    Hello,

    I replied to this a couple days ago via email, but I don't think that went through. Apologies if this is a repeat!

    I'm actually working on a research project right now targeting this very issue: Digital Games in Libraries (DGIL). Check out this site for more information on that project: https://go.uncg.edu/dgil. The project is just getting underway, but we're hoping to start bigger conversations across librarians and game developers to develop approaches for collecting and providing access to digital games.

    In terms of PC Cafe specifically, I've heard from folks mostly in academic libraries that they've explored this option and it doesn't really work well for their situation. PC Cafe offers a limited array of games, it's expensive, and it doesn't give the institution much control over the games on the platform. I've seen a couple libraries advertise that they provide access to PC Cafe (here's an example), and I'm curious to hear directly from folks that have successfully implemented the platform at their library.

    I hope this helps some!

    Colin



    ------------------------------
    Colin Post
    University of North Carolina - Greensboro
    He/Him/His
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Questions about Steam/Steamworks PC Game Cafe

    Posted Oct 07, 2024 02:05 PM

    I've been working on this kind of issue with gaming PC's at my library in Northern California and I am also interested in Steam Cafe and if it really can work "seamlessly" for a public gaming experience on a library-owned PC. I recently put together a teen gaming area which includes for Xbox Series S consoles that all have a separate library owned game-pass account on them, and this seems to be working fairly well as users can have more freedom with an Xbox console than a PC as I don't have to lock down what software can be installed or force users to reinstall software on each login (while allowing software installs generally) through software like deep freeze.



    ------------------------------
    Ian Boalt
    Librarian
    Nevada County Library
    ------------------------------

    Original Message