Guides: UNT Library Game Collection: Tabletop Games

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Go to https://discover.library.unt.edu/
Search genre "tabletop games"
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Games - Duration
Games - Number of Players
Games - Recommended age

Circulation

Faculty and staff can check out ten items for seven days
Students can check out three items for three days.

Faculty and staff are not assessed fines but students are fined $2 a day for each overdue item.

Loss and damage prevention
On return, our games are weighed on a scale (Tree Model HRB10001). If the weight is off by 3 or more grams the pieces are counted.

Interlibrary Loan
We do not lend our tabletop games or accessories through interlibrary loan.

Educational Alignment

The tabletop game collection is aligned to two educational standards, Common Core and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, to encourage future educators to use these items in their classrooms. Adding this type of subject heading allows our students to refine a search beyond educational games. Here are a few examples:

The tabletop game collection began in 2010 with donations from International Games Day. In 2012 we began purchasing board games, card games, roleplaying games, and giant games for outreach and events. In 2015, we opened up the collection for circulation to the campus.

Collection Development

This collection is focused on the use, creation, and impact of gaming. Tabletop games are collected that support student, faculty, and staff interest in recreation and research, which includes the study of mass media and popular culture, creative and educational game development, and student life.

Criteria for purchase include:

Games that support curriculum and collection goals
Top-rated or high popular interest games
Games that are historically relevant to game history
Games that push design boundaries

Roleplaying Guides

The Library offers role-playing handbooks and accessories such as dice, figurines, and battle mats to our patrons.

Tarot Cards

Faculty requests and student interest have led to the creation of a small collection of Tarot cards housed with the game collection.

Tabletop Game Processing

Tabletop games present a different challenge but generally are not that difficult to prepare for circulation. The UNT Library has presented and published on a study conducted to determine best practices for circulating a tabletop game collection. These studies were used to guide the extent of our processing.

Don't just Roll the Dice: Simple Solutions for Circulating Game Collections Effectively (presentation) (article)

Our processing includes:

Cards sleeved
Cloth corners on outer box corners
A single barcode on the outside of the box
Pieces bagged
Box banded with silicon bands
After processing games are weighed and a note is added to the item record with the weight. Our scale is a Tree - HRB 10001.

Cloth Corner Procedure

Supplies

Rounded corner punch tool
PVA glue
Cutting mat
Box cutter / Exacto knife
Ruler
Book binding cloth tape

Cutting Corners

Use a piece of cloth that is 12” long and 1” above top of board game.
Try to match color of cloth with board game being cornered.
Cut pieces are 3 inches wide / about the height of box plus 1" tall
Measure down 1-1/2” in the center and cut to that point
Fold in half and cut the top two and bottom non-fold corner
Use the cornerer on 3 sides of the cut cloth

Glue the cloth down

Add glue to the cloth corner. (Put the paint brush into water between uses.)
PVA glue allows time to get the corner to move until it sets.
Wipe off any excess glue with a damp cloth.
Smooth the edges a few times as the glue dries.

UNT Library Game Collection