Library List Part 1: What’s the Deal?
Just what’s in your library?
For the past three to four years, my own library has developed an ever-expanded graphic novels section.
Over the next couple of days, I’m going to be studying just how the library setting has impacted the comic book industry.
Consider this first part just a survey - a brief outline of the state of graphic novels in my local library - as well as anyone who cares to answer.
But not all libraries are created equal, so understanding just what kind of library helps us visualize where the graphic novel section fits in here.
Here’s my round of questions:
1) Is there a specific place for graphic novels in the library?
Yes - it’s actually located in the section of the non-fiction half of the library, around all the various superhero encyclopedias and comic collector books. There’s a sign on this column that reads “graphic novels” and shows a manga girl reading a book.
2) Just what kind of library is it?
Its a small town local library. Its very nice for a small town library - two floors, not including a basement/meeting area, as well as internet access and inter-library loan connections to other regional collections.
3) How would you rate the library itself?
8 out of 10. It doesn’t have the biggest CD collection, but the staff is helpful and the library is generally well-kept.
4) How would you rate the graphic novel section, if there is one?
Also 8 out of 10. It started out small, but its grown by at least several new titles per year. It can be pretty messy - don’t evn touch the Star Wars books, as kids have gone through them so much they verge on the brink of disintergration. But when you’ve worked children sections in a library like me, you learn to accept some rugrat messes here and there; on the plus side, some of the stacks are probably unreachable for kids at least until they hit middle-to-late middle school.
Well, those are my answers. What’s your take? Are graphic novels a rising force in the stacks or is mine just the exception to a very dull rule?
July 13th, 2007 at 11:10 am
I’ve actually had remarkable luck with graphic novel sections in libraries - with one caveat. Don’t expect to find a specific title there. I’ve come across some gems, or comics that I’d wanted to read but never gotten around to, but anytime I went looking for a specific title, it was never there - even if the catalog thought it was.