Location
KIPJ Room D
Session Type
40-minute concurrent session
Start Date
29-4-2024 1:00 PM
End Date
29-4-2024 1:40 PM
Keywords
Copyright, Libraries, Video Games, Digital Preservation
Abstract
In 2020, the University of Toronto Mississauga campus library acquired the largest collection of video games in Canada from prolific collector Syd Bolton, whose vision was for it to not only be preserved but also playable and publicly accessible. Over the past three years, the collections team has been processing the collection to facilitate access onsite, and in 2024 aims to begin the next step of digitally preserving the collection. In the summer of 2023, the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network co-authored a report on the dire state of availability of classic games, with the goal of securing expanded exemptions under US Copyright for libraries doing preservation work with this medium. Using the frame of that historic report, this talk will cover planned workflows and considerations for facilitating access and preservation for a video game collection in the context of the Canadian Copyright Act and how copyright serves as a barrier to game preservation in both Canada and the United States.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Included in
Archival Science Commons, Collection Development and Management Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Higher Education Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons
“87% Missing”: Preserving Video Game History in a Canadian Copyright Context
KIPJ Room D
In 2020, the University of Toronto Mississauga campus library acquired the largest collection of video games in Canada from prolific collector Syd Bolton, whose vision was for it to not only be preserved but also playable and publicly accessible. Over the past three years, the collections team has been processing the collection to facilitate access onsite, and in 2024 aims to begin the next step of digitally preserving the collection. In the summer of 2023, the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network co-authored a report on the dire state of availability of classic games, with the goal of securing expanded exemptions under US Copyright for libraries doing preservation work with this medium. Using the frame of that historic report, this talk will cover planned workflows and considerations for facilitating access and preservation for a video game collection in the context of the Canadian Copyright Act and how copyright serves as a barrier to game preservation in both Canada and the United States.