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Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
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Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
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Graphic novels and comics in libraries
and archives. Essays on readers,
research, history and cataloging, edited
by Robert G. Weiner
Mel Gibson
a
a
University of Northumbria
Available online: 15 Dec 2010
To cite this article: Mel Gibson (2010): Graphic novels and comics in libraries and archives. Essays
on readers, research, history and cataloging, edited by Robert G. Weiner, Journal of Graphic Novels
and Comics, 1:2, 217-218
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2010.526367
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Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2010, 217231
BOOK REVIEWS
Graphic novels and comics in libraries and archives. Essays on readers, research, his-
tory and cataloging, edited by Robert G. Weiner, Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland
and Company, 2010, 276 pp., US$45.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-7864-4302-4.
Robert G. Weiners collection is predominantly focused on the ways that North
American librarians and archivists, with examples predominantly from the US, engage
with sequential art as practitioners, sharing examples of successful practice. It also offers a
small number of pieces that do not share that focus and a wealth of leads into other print
material and websites on collection development.
The essays are grouped in sections which reveal the diversity of responses to the
medium in North America and the collection does a good job of gathering together a series
of themed snapshots of a range of settings and issues. It may best be thought of as more
like a series of conference panels, where speakers come from very different disciplines and
ranges of experience, than a more traditional collection of essays. The 29 essays included
are divided into 10 sections: history, school libraries, public libraries, academic libraries,
state libraries/archives, audiences, nomenclature and aesthetics, meta-comics/webcomics,
cataloguing and evaluation of collections.
The diversity of the collection means that it is uneven in terms of address, although
most of the authors offer their practice as case studies, effectively linking the pieces. The
exceptions to this are the pieces in the history and nomenclature and aesthetics sections.
To return to the notion of address, some of the essays are written with a professional
audience in mind who may not be familiar with graphic novel collections. Essays taking
this approach tend to offer a how to, or a campaigning take, in encouraging other pro-
fessionals to engage with the medium, sometimes on behalf of a specic client group or
audience, such as young adults, for instance.
In contrast, others address an implied reader who is familiar with the medium and
the issues for library staff. Here the exploration of a specic issue is often the focus, as
is the case, for example, in comparative accounts of university library holdings. These
essays often share quantitative and qualitative research material that could usefully support
attempts to develop collections.
Still other essays address a specic professional sub-group. The pieces on cataloguing,
for instance, show a rigorousness and level of engagement that not all British library ser-
vices may be able to use as a model, due to so much of that area having become part of
the work of library suppliers, but do show a range of solutions to the problems that such
material may offer that are appropriate, depending on the kind of service being offered.
A nal group of essays offer a more academic, research or philosophical take, some-
thing particularly in evidence in Amy Kiste Nybergs analysis of librarians writings about
graphic novels and the changing perspectives they reveal. This diversity could be seen as a
strength, or a weakness, but certainly suggests the potential of the text.
This is a very useful collection, which, it is suggested by the editor, should be dipped
into rather than read through. In reviewing the book, of course, I have followed the latter
ISSN 2150-4857 print/ISSN 2150-4865 online
DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2010.526367
http://www.informaworld.com
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218 Book Reviews
approach, which reveals a number of common strands across the pieces. Whilst this results
in repetition, which can be a problem, the slight variations give some insights as to where
an individual practitioner or service might be in terms of understanding the medium. There
were a few generalizations, for instance, about manga, which may have reected the ways
that some authors were not particularly familiar with that national set of schools, or, per-
haps, had only familiarity with mainstream titles for teen readers. In contrast, in the history
section, there was a lovely piece specically on the history of manga in Japanese libraries
that looked at shifting cultural perceptions that had taken place in terms of library policy
there.
Interestingly, this repetition also ags up the continuing signicance of particular
debates across the professional sectors involved. These are predominantly about questions
of denition and a large number of the pieces focus on these, in addition to the section
devoted to nomenclature. Other key foci were the problematic historical perspectives on
the medium that staff nd themselves having to address in relation to colleagues, patrons
and funding bodies (a common theme with British writing in this area as well) and issues
about perceptions of the audience and so what kind of collection to develop (with a shift
in the essays from seeing the medium as addressing young adults to one which sees it as
dominated by adult readers). Another major focus was shelving and cataloguing, again,
also a dominant discourse in British libraries. Questions the pieces address include how to
display sequential art, where to display it, how to catalogue serials, ction and non-ction
examples and the use of Dewey or other systems.
As a literacy worker and author in this eld, I can conrm that there are enough points
of contact between the North American and British experiences for the book to denitely
be useful to public, school and other practitioners in the UK. Those with an awareness of
library policy and practice elsewhere in the world may have a similar reaction to this text,
although I suspect that there are many places where these issues have been more thoroughly
addressed.
I am sure that many of the ideas, approaches and data in the book will be useful,
although fewof the articles offered me newinsights, given my longstanding commitment to
this area. Reading the book also brought home to me that Keith Barkers Graphic Account,
published by the Youth Libraries Group in 1993, which mostly focused on building col-
lections for 1625 year olds may have been the British equivalent of Stephen Weiners
similarly early and positive interventions in librarians understanding of the medium.
To summarize, elements of the book may well prove useful to librarians and archivists
(as well as academic staff and others) who are trying to support the development of collec-
tions in their settings, for whatever reason. Their arguments could be supported through
drawing on some of the quantitative and qualitative data offered through some of the
examples. Similarly, elements may be drawn on in relation to stock layout and promotion.
The book also suggests some interesting possible directions for research across a range of
disciplines.
Reference
Barker, K., 1993. Graphic account. Newcastle-under-Lyme: Youth Libraries Group.
Mel Gibson
University of Northumbria
Mel.gibson@northumbria.ac.uk
2010, Mel Gibson
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