Moreover, adult women represent a greater portion of the video game playing population (33%) than boys under 18 (17%).

“I want there to be more knowledge and training available to librarians so they know how to curate collections in their own libraries,” Baker said. “That’s the biggest thing. There are a lot of training and education opportunities that are already available for libraries to learn how to buy the newest and hottest books, the newest and hottest movies, but those opportunities are sparse for video games.

“I’m hoping to offer as much of this information as I possibly can. I want to be that source for other librarians.”

Librarians adding to their collections should establish relationships with the people who work in video games stores, Baker says in his presentation. Generally, these are the people most passionate about video games in a community, “So why not rely on them?”

Portage started small in its video game collection efforts, Baker said — at first purchasing cheaper, older games to build a large base — but now the library is keeping up with the latest hits for the major consoles of PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Going forward, Baker expects the library to add 50 new titles to the collection per year.