Ludolio brings digital game lending into university single sign-on with OpenAthens

University and school libraries can now give students access to commercial digital games using the same institutional credentials used for journals, ebooks and databases

Ludolio has joined OpenAthens, allowing participating libraries to provide access to commercial digital games through institutional single sign-on

Ludolio has integrated with OpenAthens, giving university and school libraries a way to provide students and staff with access to commercial digital games through their existing institutional single sign-on systems.

The platform, developed by researchers and educators from the University of Sydney’s Sydney Games and Play Lab, is built specifically for library lending of digital games. Joining the OpenAthens Federation means students can now access games through Ludolio without setting up consumer gaming accounts or buying titles themselves.

More than 1,000 students are already using the platform across institutions including the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, according to Ludolio. Stanford University and the University of Utah are among its first international adopters.

OpenAthens provides authentication technology used by libraries and other organizations to manage access to digital resources. More than 3,500 organizations worldwide use its products, which allow people to sign in to subscribed content using institutional credentials.

For Ludolio, the integration puts games into the same access infrastructure already used for resources such as academic journals, databases and ebooks.

Professor Marcus Carter, Chief Executive Officer of Ludolio, says: “Games are one of the defining cultural forms of the twenty-first century, but libraries have lacked practical ways to provide access to them.”

He adds: “Joining OpenAthens allows libraries to integrate game collections into their existing digital services in a way that is secure, scalable and familiar. Students can log in with the same credentials they already use to access journals, ebooks and databases, while librarians can offer an entirely new category of collection.”

Bringing games into academic collections

Ludolio was created to address the technical and administrative barriers institutions face when trying to lend commercial digital games.

Games are increasingly used and studied across subjects including education, media studies, design, engineering and the humanities. Ludolio’s catalogue includes titles intended to support different forms of teaching and research, from systems thinking and physics-based problem solving to storytelling and cultural studies.

The company also positions library lending as an access issue. Where a course requires students to use a commercial game, individual purchasing can create an additional cost for participation. Institutional collections allow libraries to provide access instead.

Associate Professor Jen Scott Curwood, Chief Learning Officer of Ludolio, says games should sit alongside other cultural resources in academic libraries.

“If you're studying literature, libraries provide access to books. If you're studying film, they offer access to films. Games deserve the same place in our collections. They are creative works and cultural artefacts that have a valuable place in the curriculum, and students deserve opportunities to experience them directly.”

The platform was co-designed with librarians, educators, ICT teams and game developers, with Ludolio saying privacy, accessibility and institutional requirements were built into its development.

Dan Mayers, Head of Product at OpenAthens, says the partnership extends the organization’s work on reducing barriers to digital resources.

“Having spent part of my career creating digital games, I've seen first-hand the power games have to engage, inspire and educate. OpenAthens exists to remove barriers to knowledge, and this partnership with Ludolio extends that commitment to an emerging and increasingly important category of learning resources.”

Ludolio says the integration is available to libraries using OpenAthens, allowing participating institutions to provide remote access to curated digital game collections through their existing authentication systems.