The public institution announces that it will equip the video game with other cultural products such as literature to preserve them.
The videogames produced by the Spanish industry will be kept in the National Library, according to our colleagues in EL PAÍS. From this moment on, the video game will have the same treatment as books and other cultural products. The decision was made after the BNE met with some representatives of the video game industry. “We have about 600 titles in deposit, but the novelty of this support and the fact that the Law on Legal Deposit, of 2011, did not name them, have motivated us not to have all the information. The National Library of France has about 18,000, ”explains Ana Santos, director of the institution, in a telephone conversation with the PRISA media.
According to his words, they have proposed to the Ministry of Culture a reform of the legislation that will allow the videogame producers to deposit their works in the BNE. These measures have been promoted together with the Spanish Association of Video Games (AEVI), the Association of Users of Classical Computing (AUIC) and the Spanish Association of Companies Producing and Developing Video Games and Entertainment Software (DEV). A representative of the Ministry of Culture has also been present. All of them have committed themselves to deposit the videogames in the National Library, after the heading of an agreement.
"The associations have shown their support for this initiative as well as their interest in collaborating in order to facilitate the work of the BNE and join efforts in this task. This collaboration will seek to articulate formally through a collaboration agreement, although they have planned some initial actions in order to move forward in those priority aspects and that it is possible to address, "highlights the statement published by the BNE.
Research reference works
The next step is to identify which products are already part of the BNE archive and which have been left out. The associations will be responsible for offering the necessary data to the agency. "Many are digital formats, not just physical, and both need different console models to access them," says Santos. In order to solve this problem, equipment will be acquired to reproduce the titles. "They will be available, like the rest of the collections, for your inquiry or investigation", which does not mean that they can be used for personal enjoyment. "There are many theses about what the videogame means, especially in terms of sociological impact."
Santos wanted to close the debate about whether video games are culture or not. “We are aware that it is a cultural heritage. The video game generates creation and culture and the National Library must preserve all those supports that generate it ”. The director has pointed out that everything they receive "does not discriminate", regardless of the content, "because it is what is published." That kind of materials "can be a subject of study for researchers," ditch.
