Getting graphic
Posted by Chris on May 10th, 2008 filed in books, librariesI’ve been pondering this for a while. I’ve already got my thoughts on the subject, but I’m curious about what the rest of you think.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s look at two recently published titles: The Adventures of Johnny Bunko (a book imparting career advice, with text by Daniel H. Pink and manga-style art by Rob Ten Pas) and Hamlet (a graphic novel adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy by Neil Babra).
Now, taking into consideration as much information as possible about each title (intended audience, content, and form), how should each book be classified and shelved : with the rest of the graphic novels (alongside Batman, Spiderman, and Naruto), with the non-fiction books on the same topics (i.e., Johnny Bunko with business and vocational guidance, Hamlet with literature and drama), or somewhere else?
Any thoughts?
May 10th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Well, I’m not a cataloger, but: With the other books on the same topic, on the logic that we classify books by subject, not by format.
I could *almost* see an argument for the other side if you point out that we keep audio materials together in the same place, likewise videos, so why not graphic novels — but is Johnny Bunko a “novel”?
May 12th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Bunko with the subject: Hamlet with the other graphic novels. I would be thinking in terms of who would be looking or accessing the book and how. Bunko, for career advice/what have you. Hamlet for teens. But that’s just me (and no, not a cataloguer either).
May 16th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Bunko should be with career advice, no doubt, but Hamlet is trickier. A graphic novel section is generally set up with an audience in mind that won’t necessarily be drawn to Hamlet on its own, but students who are assigned to read Hamlet may well benefit from the graphic adaptation. So, my first instinct would be to place it in the teen section (unless the content is outside the criteria the library has set up for their teen section — I don’t know how graphically they depict the violence, for instance, and many libraries don’t put any graphic novels in their teen section by default).
May 29th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I work in the library of a boys high school, and we put our graphic shakespeares with the graphic novels as we want to draw attention to the format rather than the subject. Likewise I would probably put the Bunko, if we had one, on a nifty careers advice display for a good long while, before retiring it to the non-fiction shelves with its brethren