For Librarians

Programming Ideas

Comic Book Swap

The Normal Public Library has had great success with it's program that allows young adults to trade their used comic books for something new. The library puts out a cart and adds all of the discarded comic books to it as they are taken out of circulation. Patrons can bring in their old comics that they don't want any more, put them on the cart, and take a new book.

Displays

Comic books are colorful and fun. They make excellent display pieces. Putting them up around the young adult section boosts awareness that they are there and might get kids interested in taking one home. It really livens the place up a bit, too.

Art Night

Teenagers could be encouraged to express themselves with art of any kind. Some ideas might be to draw their favorite comic book characters, to create original ones, to make their own comic books, or to translate stories - from books, movies, or their own lives - into the comic format.

Helpful Sites

Collection Development

ALA Collection Development - Graphic Novels

Tells you everything you need to know to get started, with lots of links to useful resources.

Diamond Bookshelf

Gives information on comics including why they should be a part of your collection, reviews, publicity, ordering, and even how to catalog them.

Comic Books for Young Adults: a Guide for Librarians

Comic Book Resources: Preview Catalog

Provides previews of soon to be released books and a list of the ten most popular graphic novels ordered the previous month.

Graphic Novels for Public Libraries

Annotated list of 350 graphic novels and links to other pages, many created by librarians.

Comic Books: Internet Resources

A list of resources to help librarians

Illinois State Library Homepage

This is a helpful site when looking for grant possibilities to increase your collection development budget

Helpful Articles

Arguments for Graphic Novels in the Library

Simmons, Tabitha. "Comic Books in My Library?" PNLA Quarterly 67:3 (2003) p.12-20.

Gorman, Michelle. "What teens want: graphic novels." School Library Journal 48:8 (August 2002) 42-4

Advice for librarians on starting graphic novel collections is provided. The advice concerns building the collection, dealing with those graphic novels that could be the target of parental or community objections, cataloging the collection, and displaying and circulating the collection. Practical suggestions for integrating graphic novels into existing library collections are also provided.

Mooney, Maureen. "Graphic Novels: How They Can Work in Libraries." Book Report 21:3 (Nov/Dec 2002) p. 18-9.

Advice on adding graphic novels to the library collection is provided. Graphic novels help with reading strategies and encourage young adults to read but they can be viewed as materials to be censored. Therefore, librarians should create or update their selection policy before challenges arise from the community. When starting to build the core graphic novel collection, librarians can find lots of ideas in books and on the Internet. They should start the collection with six to ten graphic novels and then build up the numbers continuously. When they have added graphic novels to the collection, they should advertise in the library newsletter or school update and tell the teachers. Details of how graphic novels can be included in the curriculum are provided.

Barron, Daniel D. "Zap Pow Wham: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Education." School Library Media Activities Monthly, 8:3 (Nov 1991) p. 48- 50.

Discussion of the use of comic books and graphic novels in school and public libraries highlights the role of school library media programs; how to use comics and graphic novels in teaching; the Japanese use of comic books; their use in literacy education; and the influence of comics on reading habits.