[game_preservation] Acquisition selection

[Andrew Armstrong]

The National Museum of Computing has a Collections Policy that dictates 
mainly a UK focus or of items of importance. It's an internal document 
so I'm not sure I can share it with you.

Mostly it's a consensus between the volunteers who run the museum (and 
thus collections) as to whether it's a good thing to take or not; space 
is a constant issue at the moment, but smaller items if we don't have 
them generally we can find a spot for if we don't have one.

Videogame-related items are rarer in our collection mainly due to 
incomplete listings of what we have (so we don't request items yet; 
we've no specific focus or drive to ask or exhibits to put on or 
replacements needed), and the National Videogame Archive, Retro Computer 
Museum and The Centre For Computing History doing a lot of console and 
game collecting so we send stuff their way sometimes. These three do a 
lot more in the UK exhibition wise, eternally grateful although I hope 
to improve the situation at TNMoC slowly.

You're also talking about software I presume; one problem with the 
preservation of games is some of the mediums are in the stages of 
failing. Currently we're setting up a way to transfer media to more safe 
storage, and have an archive full of many games; progressively being 
sorted now. Software is easier to take since it is easier to dispose of 
if there are duplicates or simply rubbish and is more easily checked if 
it is working.

Andrew

On 06/05/2011 18:43, Henry Borchers wrote:

> Hello everyone,

>

> I'm in the process of writing my master's thesis about video game

> preservation and I was wondering how those of you who work in archives with

> video game collections make your selections in regards to curation and

> acquisition. Is it feasible to simply accept everything for your collection

> or do you have to set limits?  If you do have to set limits, how do you

> decide what to focus on? Certainly, many people would like to know that "the

> classics" are safe and sound. However, as we all know, for every

> extraordinary game there are many ordinary ones.  What role do these

> ordinary games play in your archive?

> Based on my experience with film archives, I know that film archives have to

> be very selective on what they agree to preserve because of the costs and

> the time. They simply cannot preserve and restore every film that comes

> through their door. How does this work for video game archives?

>

> I'm very curious to hear what your thoughts are on this.

>

> Sincerely

> Henry Borchers

> Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Master's Student

> University of Amsterdam

>

>

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