The Humber Library has acquired a new collection of video games to enjoy.
These games include titles like Ghost of Yotei, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and others. The collection includes more than 50 games with titles for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
Like the board game collection, it has a lending time limit of 14 days, with the option to renew if not overdue, according to the library's borrowing policies.
Students can currently only pick up at the North campus, but they can drop it off at both Lakeshore and North designated areas. Any student, faculty, or staff member is welcome to borrow these games, but they are not available for alumni and community members.
There are no plans to host a collection at the Lakeshore campus at the moment.
"We always try to take student suggestions. If people are interested," the collection could expand to the Lakeshore campus, Alexandra Ross, director of Humber Libraries, said in the interview. "I feel like I need to see how this collection at North goes first."
The people behind this project have high expectations for it.
The games collection grew from an idea that began with Arvind Kang and Ewan Gibson, two librarians and friends, who had a tradition of playing board games at lunch. It then grew into a gathering with their colleagues.
In those gatherings, they discussed everything from games to other library lending policies. With help from library staff, Usman Malik, Lindsay Bontje and Natasha Armstrong, they took the idea of expanding the leisure collection to include both board games and video games.
"When we started talking about the games and how to bring them in, we started thinking about 'What courses, what programs might these map to as learning tools?'" Kang said.
The library staff wasn't the only ones interested in mixing games with learning. Other faculty members were all in for the idea.
"The same thing was happening at the Arboretum, and they were interested in doing board games, sort of team building exercises, ones that had a nature theme," Gibson said. "So I already knew that there were places out there in the college that were interested in games as a way of learning."
While Kang and Gibson were the key figures to create this collection, they had both emphasized that, like any good board game, you need to play as a team.
"I mean, it's one thing for us to have this dream of a board game collection, but the reality of implementing it and making it workable, like that team really put a huge amount of work into making it possible. And it wouldn't exist without their hard work." Kang said.
Gibson said it's all about connection.
"It's also about giving people access to something that they otherwise might not be able to have access to, or even have the space to house something like that," he said.
