This post by Manitowoc (WI) Public Library Youth Librarian and YSS Board Member Susie Menk helps us all think about our graphic novel collections. And she's wondering....what do you think?
So what do you do with your graphic novel collection? Do you have it under the Dewey Decimal number
of 741.5973 or do you keep it with comics in the 741.5 section? Do you shelve the books in the non-fiction
section or do you keep them in their own space?
How do your patrons respond when they see the Dewey Decimal number in
the catalog? Are they confused? Are they able to find the graphic novels on
their own or do you find yourself having to walk them to the right area?
In an effort to make graphic novels easier to find for
patrons and easier to browse, my library is switching up how we catalog these
books. We have chosen to catalog them
under the work “graphic” and eliminate the Dewey Decimal number. In addition to changing the call number, we
are also changing the author name to the series name (when applicable) or main
character name. So Jeff Smith’s Bone series has been catalogued as
GRAPHIC Bone instead of 741.5973 Smith.
The adult and teen graphic novels have been re-cataloged
already and I am starting on the youth collection. The graphic novels will stay on the same
shelving unit where they have always been, but with the new call numbers and
new location of YGRAPHIC listed in the catalog, hopefully patrons will have an
easier time finding the right book or their favorite book on their own.
So, how do you shelve and catalog your graphic novels? I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you decide what is or isn’t a graphic
novel? Is The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey a graphic novel or a chapter book? How do you catalog the superhero graphic
novels—by DC or Marvel or by the character like Spiderman or Batman? There are so many things to consider when
cataloging this collection. What works for
your library?
6 comments:
At Verona we have kids' graphic novels in their own area, including nonfiction graphic novels (we put them in by author). We have Dog Man in graphic novels but not Captain Underpants, which is in series. Bad Guys is in series. I guess if it's a pretty equal split between text and graphics, we keep it in series, but we don't have hard and fast rules about it. I just moved the Emmie and Friends series to graphic novels - we accidentally put them in two places. We have superheroes by their names unless it's a group of them together.
At the West Allis Children's Department we shelve them in their own area. The call number is J GRAPHIC author or series if more than one author, for example J GRAPHIC BABY-SITTERS. (Baby-sitters club has more than one author.) Sometimes other libraries have books in graphic novel section that we have in Juvenile fiction. But it works out. If it has more text than graphic elements it goes in juvenile fiction. But we don't have hard and fast rules about it either. For superheroes I have them shelved under J GRAPHIC SUPERHEROES. I don't recommend doing that. I plan on changing to character name. For graphic non-fiction they are shelved under author unless they are part of a series with different authors. One thing I would keep mind is the most efficient use of space. For my library having its own section was the best way. I just finished reading Class Act the follow up to New Kid by Jerry Craft. I recommend it highly!
Hi Julie! Thanks for sharing! Just a quick question--what do you do with the superheroes that are in a group? I'm curious since I'm still working on my collection and haven't decided how to handle these yet.
Susie
Hi Mary! I read New Kid recently and can't wait to read Class Act. Have you read When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson? I highly recommend that one.
Thanks for your comments about the superheroes category. I go back and forth with this one, but I agree that using the character name might be best.
Do you ever have series non-fiction graphic novels? What do you do with those? We have a Science Comics series and we also have several graphic novel biographies. Not sure what I'm going to do with the biographies.
Susie
Stars Are Scattered is on my TBR list! I can't wait to read it.
Yes, we do have non-fiction science series. I do shelve them under series titles. We actually have Science Comics, and their call number is J GRAPHIC SCIENCE. It seems to work for our library. For groups of superheroes like Justice League, I probably will do something like that. One thing I have to consider is the way the Adult Department shelves their graphic novels. I do like having a consistent library practice.
Mary,
I totally agree about keeping the adult and youth graphic novels consistent. It's one of the reasons I am re-cataloguing our collection in youth! :)
Post a Comment