Shhh! We're Making Games in the Library and You Can Too

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
The Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library at the University of Utah partnered with the Center for Medical Innovation and the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program in 2014 to create The GApp Lab, a game development lab housed in the library's basement that connects game developers with medical professionals on healthcare projects.
02
Each semester the GApp Lab averages about twenty-five graduate EAE students, one lab coordinator, three game studies faculty, and a librarian.
03
Libraries offer neutral, university-wide space and services, and game development labs gain access to expert searchers who can quickly locate background literature, market research, data sources, prior art, and discipline-specific knowledge for game projects.
04
Game labs housed in libraries can test games with a more diverse population of library users than a standalone game studies department can reach.
05
Successful library-lab partnerships rely on a nearby designated library liaison, mutual introductions such as presenting at each other's meetings and posting photo directories, and a shared café area that serves as an ad hoc meeting space.
06
Negotiations should frame the lab as a true collaborator rather than just a tenant, and should address security, equipment, scheduling, data networking, and how facility costs will be shared.

Summary

This poster presents a case study of a game development lab housed within a university health sciences library, using the University of Utah's Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library as its example. The core argument is that libraries and game development labs make natural partners: libraries offer neutral, shared physical and intellectual space, while game labs bring creative production and a more diverse testing population than an isolated game studies department could provide. The GApp Lab, established in 2014 through a partnership between the library, the Center for Medical Innovation, and the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program, connects graduate students and game studies faculty with medical professionals to build collaborative healthcare projects.

The authors describe the lab's typical composition as roughly twenty-five graduate students each semester, a lab coordinator, three game studies faculty, and a librarian. They note that librarians add value as expert searchers, locating background literature, market research, data sources, and prior art, and they describe shared interest in documenting and preserving games and their developmental history. Most libraries, by contrast, focus on digital game collections or play events, so this embedded production model is presented as an uncommon alternative.

The poster offers several best practices drawn from the partnership. These include designating a nearby library liaison to route questions, building community through cross-presentations and photo directories, using a shared café area for informal interaction, and respecting differing professional cultures, as game developers have adopted more formal scheduling and security while librarians have grown more flexible. It also recommends jointly exploring open questions, such as how student games can be archived and how evidence can be incorporated into games.

For institutions seeking similar arrangements, the authors advise framing the proposal as a genuine collaboration rather than a tenancy, preparing concrete examples of shared knowledge creation, and addressing practical needs such as security, equipment, scheduling, networking, and cost-sharing.