Of course students go to the library to locate classic literature such as the works of William Faulkner or Shakespeare. But where do they go to find classic video games?

At DePaul University, they go to the library.

DePaul is one of a growing number of university libraries housing video game collections for student research into game design, said James Galbraith, associate director of collections at DePaul’s library. Other university libraries with video game collections include Stanford University, University of Michigan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carleton University.

The collection was first proposed by Jose Zagal, an assistant professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM), who authored the book, “Ludoliteracy: Designing, Understanding and Supporting Games Education” (2010).

Zagal helped assemble the list of titles for the library, which include “Little Big Planet 2,” “Halo: Reach,” “Madden NFL 11” and “God of War III.” DePaul’s collection can be played on the three major gaming platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.

“I saw an opportunity to better serve our students,” Zagal said. “I believe video games are a form of culture just like books and songs, so it makes sense for us to have them available in our library.”

Zagal and other faculty in CDM’s computer game development program require students to research video games as part of the curriculum. While CDM has two gaming labs, its hours are limited and games cannot be checked out, Zagal said. Students are allowed to check out video games from the library’s new collection, which debuted May 9.

The video game collection is available at DePaul’s Loop Campus library media room, located in the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd. The library plans to officially launch the collection by hosting a game night in the fall, he said. Galbraith said they hope to make a video game collection available at the Richardson Library on DePaul’s Lincoln Park Campus as well.

M Ryan Hess, coordinator of Web Services at DePaul, helped create the video game collection. “The library’s video game collection is intended to support CDM’s game development program. The titles we selected were influenced largely by a list Jose Zagal provided, which he drew up from usage statistics and feedback received in the CDM labs where they have some game consoles and games for CDM students to play.”

“There was interest in acquiring some older games, such as old Atari games, but at this time the library is unable to also purchase the consoles,” Hess said.

Galbraith said library officials are hoping the video game collection will be as popular as a graphic novel collection launched at the library in January 2011. “The graphic novel collection has a 100 percent circulation rate,” Galbraith said. “Every graphic novel has circulated at least once, and many have multiple times.”

About DePaul

With more than 25,000 students, DePaul University is the largest Catholic university in the United States and the largest private, non-profit university in the Midwest. The university offers approximately 275 graduate and undergraduate programs of study at two Chicago campuses, four suburban campuses and several international locations. Founded in 1898, DePaul remains committed to providing a quality education through personal attention to students from a wide range of backgrounds. For more information, visit www.depaul.edu.