Comic Libraries Around The World

You can discover more information about the Serieteket library at this website

I also recommend viewing Jackson Chu's photos on Flickr
of the Tezuka Osamu Manga Museum:

You can view many more inspiring collections of graphic novels, comics, and manga in libraries, museums and bookshops around the world by going to "My Favorites" in Flickr.
(I suppose I should just start a group and invite all these photos to join - a project for another day).

UPDATE, 12/7: I have created the group, titled "Comics Collections" and available on flickr here. I'll leave the link to my favorites above until the group surpasses it in number of great photos. :)

Description: Shonen, Shōjo, and More

by Beth Snow

Bilingual and cross-cultural collections can represent an added challenge when it comes to genre names and search terms. Japanese comics and animation are good examples. Stopping the search terms with the words "manga" or "anime" can have the same effect as not going past the word "fiction" to describe the entire spectrum of novels. In addition, a good portion of our target audience is tuned into the Japanese terms for genres of manga.

To that end, I recommend we incorporate these terms into the cataloging/search descriptors for our collection. The Wikipedia article on manga offers excellent background about the form, but it's definitions are a bit messy. This link on a website devoted to explaining manga and anime to librarians does a more concise job of introducing the terms.

Series Records - Going Beyond the Titles

by Beth Snow

A big consideration when it comes to cataloging and subject headings will be the ability to locate titles in a series.

I'm not refering to actual serials publications such as the DC/Marvel/Cartoon Network subscriptions--Justice League/Fantastic Four/Cartoon Block Party, et al--but to those works with a continuing storyline and actually published in a series of individual volumes that may look like independent editions to the uninitiated. Manga usually falls into this category:

Unlike fiction which may use a separate, distinct title for each book in a series, manga is distinguished by a number; thus, our patrons will be looking for a series title with a number listing--Fruits Basket 14, Bleach 2, etc. Teens will expect to search for a title, examine a list, and choose the volume they want.

To support access and service to patrons, I believe we should include a series search function: have a title search pull up a series name with a list of volumes in numerical order, have a series line in each record listing the name of series and volume number, have a cross-reference link to a spin-off series (Peach Girl, Peach Girl Change of Heart, Peach Girl Sae's Story, etc.). Because the stories in manga series build upon each other--much like soap operas--a series designation in the record is key help for enjoying the format.

Collection - Related Materials

by Emily Barney

While the first part of our collection development plan will focus on a core list of graphic novels, comics, and manga titles, it's worthwhile to remember that there are many related materials that may make the collection more accessible and interesting for library patrons with little experience in this genre.

Reference Books:
There are many, many "reference" books available for these types of materials. This small sample shows encyclopedias of characters, histories of different genres, bibliographies, literary criticism, biographies of artists and authors, and a "how to draw" book:


You can view many more examples by browsing through our Worldcat List:
Reference Books About Comics & Graphic Novels (46 items)

The titles displayed above are:

• Goulart, Ron. 2004. Comic book encyclopedia the ultimate guide to characters, graphic novels, writers, and artists in the comic book universe. New York: HarperEntertainment.
• Gravett, Paul. 2004. Manga sixty years of Japanese comics. London: Laurence King.
• Gravett, Paul. 2005. Graphic novels everything you need to know. New York, NY: Collins Design.
• Kaplan, Arie. 2006. Masters of the comic book universe revealed! Chicago: Chicago Review Press.
• Lehmann, Timothy R. 2005. Manga masters of the art. New York: Collins Design.
• Misiroglu, Gina Renee, and David Roach. 2004. The superhero book the ultimate encyclopedia of comic-book icons and Hollywood heroes. Detroit: Visible Ink Press.
• Nagatomo, Haruno. 2003. Draw Your Own Manga: All the Basics. New York: Kodansha America.
  
• Robbins, Trina. 1999. From girls to grrrlz a history of [women's] comics from teens to zines. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

How to Draw Books:
Don't forget that many fans also want to try their hand at creating their own "serial art" in the style of their favorite genre. There are hundreds of different books, ranging from simple "start with a circle" drawing books to specific guides for Manga transforming robots, cat-girls and villains.

It would probably be best to look at several examples once you know what your population skill level /interest level is. There are so many, but things like the quality of the explanations and how detailed the steps are will matter a lot in how useful your users find them. Books that just show pretty pictures and say "copy this!" are frustrating for beginners!

We have a couple lists of these on our Worldcat Lists page:
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/GothamFreeLibrary/lists

• How to Draw - Comics
• How to Draw - Manga

If you have a lot of kids interested in creating their own work, perhaps a contest to have their work displayed in the library would help create even more interest in the collection. Here's an example of graphic art on display in the Serieteket Library in Stockholm, Sweden:

Serieteket, the library for comics and graphic literature

Originally uploaded by Michael Casey Used by permission.

Using a unified format and color scheme, like this one, can make any collection of drawings look great on a wall! Having their own art in the library will also encourage kids to bring in friends and family to see their work and build a sense of community ownership in the library.

Movies & Television - see this post

Describing Multi-Format Titles

by Beth Snow

Many teens search intuitively by format, so including format descriptions in the subject headings may make the collections more accessible than relying only on publication data in the descriptions.

Manga, comic strip collections, subscription/serial comics, and graphic novels each have distinguishable features. Teens easily recognize this and often search based upon these characteristics--why not "meet them where they are"? If they are looking for a title or character, let's be up front and indicate the format using a teen's lexicon: manga (for both traditional and Americanized front-to-back versions), comic strips (collections of comic strips appearing originally in paper or electronic format), graphic novels (fiction or non-fiction subject matter bound in book form--could put superhero compilations here perhaps--definitely includes illustrated classics).

But don't forget that a title can appear in more than one format and a person who's interested in one version will probably be interested in another. For example, here's a volume of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor comics and the movie American Splendor, both based on his life:

In this case the title is exactly the same - what role should description information and subject headings play in connecting both of these when you're searching?

Websites

by Emily Barney and Maura McKee

These websites are great resources for collection development, for finding the best ways to describe the materials, and for finding reviews and other information that can be used to share the resources with our patrons. If you're aware of other good websites, feel free to leave more addresses in the comments!

No Flying No Tights
http://www.noflyingnotights.com/index2.html
This popular website is perfect because it reviews Graphic Novels for teens.They even have a “core lists” section for librarians and teachers that want to start developing a collection.

Columbia University's Graphic Novels Page
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eguides/graphic_novels/index.html
This website includes information about their own collection, including their collection development policy, and links to many more resources and guides. Their website provides both general-level information that would be interesting to fans and more specific information useful to librarians or anyone doing academic research in this field.

Gilles Poitras' http://www.koyagi.com
Includes a great "Librarian's Guide to Anime and Manga" and list of "Recommended Manga" as well.

Wikipedia
Wikipedia can be a wonderful source of information about these materials, often very well organized and documented with links to publishers, awards, and other relevant websites. Of course it would be wise to verify information from a more authoritative source, but the breadt h and depth of information available through these pages makes it a wonderful place to start. Here are a few of the applicable category pages where you can browse the sorts of information you can find on individual pages:

• USA Comic Books - there are separate categories by publisher, with amazingly detailed pages giving much more information about characters and history than you'll find even in the reference books. Here's are the top ones:
  
• DC Comics
• Marvel Comics

• Comic Strips (this category is primarily for "funnies" style comics)
  
• Artists
• Awards
• Genres

• Graphic Novels - less useful than the Comic Book categories, but may grow in the future
• Artists & Authors

• Manga
  
• Artists
  
• Awards
• Magazines
• Publishers
• Websites

• Webcomics - This is a hard category to quantify or review, since it is constantly changing, but the Wikipedia entry is as good a place as any to begin to familiarize yourself with them.

Awards

by Maura McKee and Emily Barney

Graphic novels have won awards in many categories, including a Pulitzer Prize for Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, a memoir of his father’s survival of the holocaust.¹ There are also many awards dedicated just to comic books by genre or for achievement in specific fields.

The Hahnl Library's Comic Book Awards Almanac includes a glossary that explains the differences between these awards, from festival awards to nominations, polls and special selection awards.

You can find more information about the different awards on specific pages on Wikipedia including "Comic Book Awards," "Anime and Manga Awards" and "Award-Winning Graphic Novels"

Examples of awards given in this field:

• Eisner Award - FAQ on comic-con international website
  
• Given for creative achievement in American comic books; named in honor of comic book writer and artist Will Eisner

• Harvey Awards - http://www.harveyawards.org/
  
• This series, named after writer artist Harvey Kurtzman, includes awards for achievement in writing, art, humor, letterer, colorist, new talent, etc. with comic books.
  

• Ignatz Awards - http://www.spxpo.com/ignatz.shtml
  
• Named for the character in the classic comic strip Krazy Kat by George Herriman this is a festival prize that recognizes outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning with special prizes in ten different categories.
  

Examples of other award winning graphic novels:

American Born Chinese, a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang won the 2007 Michael L. Prinz Award for literary excellence in young adult literature. The novel interweaves three different stories:

one is a folk tale of "The Monkey King", another is the story of a second-generation immigrant named Jin Wang, and the third is about Danny, a boy with a Chinese cousin named Chin-Kee. The book's climax merges all of these stories together.

More information about the author and the series is available at:
http://www.humblecomics.com/

Jeff Smith's Bone is the longest-running self-published series so far and has won more awards than any other comic in history. It began with the whimsical adventures of Phone Bone and developed into an intricate world with monsters and dragons waging war against the forest creatures under the leadership of a cow-racing grandmother. It was released between 1991 and 2004, as 55 irregularly-released issues that were printed in 9 individual volumes and eventually gathered into one major volume, pictured here. This series has won 44 awards in America and around the world, including 10 Eisner Awards and 11 Harvey Awards.²

More information about the artist and series is available at http://www.boneville.com/

Harvey Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner wrote Our Cancer Year as he dealt with the discovery of his lymphoma and its treatment. The book was illustrated by Frank Stark, an award-winning professor of art at the University of Missouri. This volume won the 1995 best graphic album Harvey Award. Pekar had already won the American Book Award in 1987 for his American Splendor series. Pekar's life story -- including how he met and married Joyce Brabner, and how he experienced cancer and its treatment -- was made into an excellent film, American Splendor (2003).³

More information about the author and other graphic novels by him and his wife are available at http://www.harveypekar.com/

Linda Medley's Castle Waiting was in YALSA's 2007 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and Booklist's Top 10 Graphic Novels for Youth. It has also won 2 Harvey Awards and 7 Eisner awards, including the 1998 Best New Series Eisner Award. Medley began the series in 1996 and volume one was published in 2006. The series begins with a short retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, but once she has left for her happily ever after the castle becomes a refuge for marginal fairy tale creatures and characters, telling stories of unconventional convents and enterprising uses of the goose who laid the golden egg.

More information about the author and her book is available here: http://www.fantagraphics.com/artist/medley/medley.html

Don Rosa's Life and Times of $crooge McDuck explains how the "richest duck in the world" won his fortune between 1877 and 1947. This historical fiction follows his adventures from Scotland to America and beyond to the African Transvaal, Australia, and the Klondike, encountering figures like Theodore Roosevelt. Published from April 1994 to February 1996, it won the 1995 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story and the 1995 Comic Buyers Guide Fan Awards for Favorite Comic Book

More information is available about the series on Don Rosa's "The IntroDUCKtion to the Life and Times of $crooge McDuck"

¹ Kakutani, Michiko. "Books of The Times; Rethinking the Holocaust With a Comic Book." New York Times. October 29, 1991
² "The History of BONE & Jeff Smith" http://www.boneville.com/bone/bone-history/
³ Kohn, Martin "Brabner, Joyce and Pekar, Harvey: Our Cancer Year" Literature, Arts & Medicine Database 14 April 2005 http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=383

Graphic Novel Libraries - Around the World

by Emily Barney

I remember reading an article from NY Times article last year about some really interesting businesses in Japan that cater to Manga addicts. It might not directly apply to a startup collection in the U.S., but I think it shows the direction that teen libraries might be heading in, with easy access to entertainment in multiple media forms from manga to internet to video games and DVDs. We just don't serve clean underwear or massage chairs yet. ;)

In Tokyo, the New Trend Is 'Media Immersion Pods' By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
Published: May 14, 2006

I found lots of pictures on flickr of Manga libraries in Japan, from little roadside collections to huge stores and cybercafes like the one in the article with rentable cubicles:

Woman & Her Comic Lending Library "Convenience Mart" style "comics library"
Originally uploaded by The Kozy Shack Originally uploaded by Ikhlasul Ama

Libreria Manga
Originally uploaded by Parro

Manga library Kyoto "Room" in a Cyber-Cafe "Library
Originally uploaded by Tim Eyles Originally uploaded by yoni.holmes

Beyond Japan, I also saw pictures of a really awesome graphic novel library in Stockholm. Since the whole library is dedicated to this genre of literature, the images of the layout and storage options is very informative for our project. Michael Casey, who writes the LibraryCrunch blog, has a slideshow of more images here. I sent him an e-mail and he was nice enough to say I could use any of his photos for our website, he would just like to see it when it's up.