Digital games are major part of popular culture. They are also an important part of the history of play and as such they deserve to take their rightful place in our cultural legacy. However, they have received little attention in the academic literature on preservation. Despite this lack of interest, some institutions have recognized the significance of preventing the loss of these valuable materials but to what extent is their longevity ensured? What is the current status of game preservation? What are the challenges facing institutions as they ‘‘play games with cultural heritage?’’ This article provides an overview of the current state of play and, using a comparative case study analysis, provides an insight into the issues, which lie ahead.

The aim of legal deposit is to ensure the preservation of and access to a nation's intellectual and cultural heritage over time. There is a global trend towards extending legal deposit to cover digital publications in order to maintain comprehensive national archives. However, including digital publications in legal deposit regulations is not enough to ensure the long-term preservation of these publications. Indeed, there are many practical difficulties associated with the entire deposit process. Concepts, principles and practices that are accepted and understood in the print environment, such as publication, publisher, place of publication and edition, may have new meanings or no longer be appropriate in a networked environment. Mechanisms for identifying, selecting and depositing digital material either do not exist or are inappropriate for some kinds of digital publication. There is a great deal of work on developing digital preservation strategies; this is at an early stage. National and other deposit libraries are at the forefront of research and development in this area, often in partnership with other libraries, publishers and technology vendors. Most of this activity is of a technical nature. There is some work on developing policies and strategies for managing digital resources. However, not all management issues or users' needs are being addressed.

The disaster plan is promoted as a central part of disaster management. Six case studies of UK libraries and archives were used to investigate the development and use of disaster plans. During a disaster, the key in any response is leadership, an experienced team of staff with knowledge of the collections and on‐site conservation expertise. The most useful part of the plan for disaster response is its contact lists. However, the plan is an important policy and training document. It requires continued managerial commitment and should be supported by an organisational culture of disaster awareness and prevention. Organisational issues are the major constraint on the effectiveness of disaster planning and response. There is a need to investigate current levels of planning in the UK in order to determine what still needs to be done in terms of awareness raising. Methods of testing the disaster plan and co‐operation in disaster management also require further research.

This article examines the relationship between access and preservation in digitization projects conducted by public libraries and archives in the UK. The main issues discussed are the impact of selection on access, the preservation of original material and digital objects, and the financial issues surrounding digitization projects. The article does not deal with the technical aspects of digitization. A questionnaire survey was conducted of 20 UK public libraries and archives to determine their experiences related to the above issues. It was found that few digitization projects realized their full potential in terms of preserving original material, and so little has been done to ensure the preservation of the digitized material. Although access is significantly increased, the range of material that has been digitized is very narrow and is driven largely by copyright restrictions rather than user demand. The survey also highlighted the disparity between funding for access to a very small portion of library holdings through digitization, and the funding of traditional preservation for the remainder of collections.

A study carried out for the UK Joint Information Systems Committee examined models for the provision of access to material in institutional and subject‐based archives and in open access journals. Their relative merits were considered, addressing not only technical concerns but also how e‐print provision (by authors) can be achieved – an essential factor for an effective e‐print delivery service (for users). A ‘harvesting’ model is recommended, where the metadata of articles deposited in distributed archives are harvested, stored and enhanced by a national service. This model has major advantages over the alternatives of a national centralized service or a completely decentralized one. Options for the implementation of a service based on the harvesting model are presented.