Week 13 Prompt

This week’s prompt hit really close to home for me. I have encountered similar issues in the past where co-workers were dead set against, or not completely on board with the idea of including graphic novels for youth or adults. Street lit – and really, African American literature in general – has never been a top collection priority, and the few items that our collection contains are extremely dated with virtually no circs. I feel that the debate in libraries – and possibly school libraries in terms of graphic novels – harkens back to library days when selectors were arguing about whether or not to include ‘trashy fiction’ into their collections!

It’s really frustrating when multiple patrons ask for titles and I have to turn them away because a single selector or committee decided that a type of material or subject weren’t ‘appropriate’ for our library – based on what? If there is patron interest, I think we should include these materials. As for the common belief that adults don’t read ‘that stuff’ – I can tell you from personal experience that at my library that is not true in the least. We’ve actually separated our growing adult, middle school, and teen graphic novel sections so that they are easier to find for patrons. The number of holds on such titles are fairly high, and circ stats.

With interest in The Walking Dead TV show, we have also had to purchase additional copies of the graphic novels that the TV show is based on. Art and drawing books related to graphic novels and manga are also popular with teens and adults. Luckily, we’ve never had a challenge for a graphic novel or manga title, but the ALA’s website outlines how to deal with challenges for these books: http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/ifissues/graphicnovels

I really like their answer for the question, ‘Why do libraries have to buy graphic novels?”: 

Why do libraries have to buy graphic novels?

The library has a responsibility to serve its community-your neighbors-including those you may not agree with or who may not agree with you. Libraries purchase materials, such as graphic novels, because they have a mission statement that requires them to serve a broad range of community needs and wants. The material you find in your library was selected by librarians, who are taught as part of their professional education to determine the needs of their communities and to select materials based on library policies.

As for YA titles for adults, it has been suggested that we incorporate our YA titles into our actual fiction collection – so we would end up with a second (or third) copy in an alternate location as to encourage adult patrons to discover the world of YA literature. Currently, our YA dept. is small, and always full to the brim with high school students. One way that several of our adult patrons who don’t like to visit the YA dept. to obtain YA materials get around this is by placing on-shelf holds online for the titles they’re interested in. We’ve also found that offering these titles available as eBooks, and the anonymity involved in procuring them, has increased YA stats!