Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manga. Show all posts

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Throw-it Thursday: What the Manga?!

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library, is back with another collection development column.

We recently separated our manga books from our graphic novels and gave them their own collection. It was not a terribly difficult process (unless your tech services department likes to be difficult, then it might get a little dicey), mostly because the collection is not overly large to begin with.

First, I ran a collection report to see all the books we had in our graphic novel collection. Then I went to the shelf and grabbed the books that were checked in and clearly manga. I took these back to my desk (it’s so much easier when you are the tech services department and you are the one who wants to create the collection!) and re-coded and re-labeled them. We got manga stickers to use instead of graphic novel stickers.

After I finished changing all of the books that were on the shelf, I went through the items on the list that were not on the shelf (checked out, in transit, lost, etc.) and placed holds on all of the items I knew were manga or thought might be manga. As they come back, I am re-labeling them and sticking them in their new section if that is where they belong.

Our new manga collection is small but beautiful!


The graphic novel section is now smaller, but it is easier to find things!

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

American Manga Awards Nominees and Winners

Photo by Katie Alford
Manga exploded in popularity in the U.S. over the last 10 years.  While already on an upward trend, demand skyrocketed during COVID.  It's a juggernaut for our Teen collection's circulation statistics, with most of our Manga titles circulating within the last 6 months. That particular section tends to only get weeded due to condition a ordered quickly.

I plan to write about building Manga collections, advocating for it, and how to stay up to date on new manga titles in a later blog post but for now I want to shout out the American Manga Awards.

The second annual awards announced their winner last Thursday (determined by votes from professionals working in an editorial capacity with North American manga publishers). The pertinent ones for Teen collections were:

  • Best New MangaThe Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All, Volume 1, by Sumiko Arai
 (Yen Press) (Rated T, 13+)
  • Best Continuing Manga SeriesThe Apothecary Diaries, Volumes 12 - 13, by Hyuganatsu, with art by Nekokurage (Square Enix Manga & Books) (Rated T, 13+)
  • Best New Edition of Classic MangaAshita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow, Volumes 1-2, by Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba (Kodansha) (Rated OT, 16+)
    • also won for Best Lettering

The Manga Librarian, Ashley Hawkins, wrote a great round up of the nominees with links to reviews for most of the titles. The reviews come from SLJ, Booklist, Manga in the Middle, Anime News Network, and the Manga Librarian herself. I found it incredibly helpful to have all the titles and links in one place.

To the entire round up, stop here. [American Manga Awards: Nominee Review Round Up! Ashley Hawkins. Manga Librarian blog. August 17, 2025.]

Thursday, July 7, 2022

More and More Manga: A Primer from School Library Journal

Looking to build a manga collection?  School Library Journal has your back!

Brigid Alverson's SLJ.com article, More and More Manga: An Updated Primer on Japanese Comic Books and Graphic Novels , introduces the basics: terminology, publishers, and more...  

Grow, collections, GROW!




Thursday, June 13, 2019

Collection Development: Manga

Does your graphic novel section have manga?  If not, it might be time to invest!


According to recent information from The NPD Group, "book sales in the manga subcategory in the retail trade channel grew 16 percent from January 1, 2019 to May 11, 2019, exceeding the 5 percent growth of the total adult-comic/graphic-novel category."  The information includes major book sellers like Barnes & Noble, as well as stores like Target, and online retailers like Amazon.  It does not include specialty comic book stores.  A trend seen as leading to this spike in manga sales is the availability of Japanese anime shows and movies from online platforms including Hulu and Netflix.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Public Libraries Online has a great post about manga: Manga: Tips for A Great Library Collection

The New York Public Library has a starter post for those who have not explored manga before: A Beginner's Guide to Manga