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There are two types of issues with shelving graphic
novels.
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Age Appropriateness – Graphic
novels run the gamut from those suitable for all ages, to those suitable
for only adults. Some graphic novels contain explicit material and need
to be shelved in the adult section of the library. Some are suitable for
teens but not younger children. Others are fine for any age
group.
The
November 22nd issue of Publisher’s Weekly includes an
article (“Libraries Developing Guidelines For Graphic
Novels” by Bridget Kinsella)
on the library community’s efforts to develop
guidelines for handling graphic novels. aimed at adults. The effort is as
a result of a California incident in which a graphic novel for adults was
pulled from the shelves due to its inappropriateness for children.
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Where to Shelve – There seems to be
no consensus about where to shelve graphic novels in the library.
Librarians seem about equally divided between those who shelve graphic
novels in the regular YA fiction section and those who shelve them with
comic books (741.5). Nonfiction graphic “novels” are shelved sometimes
shelved under 741.5, sometimes in YA fiction, and sometimes in the
appropriate nonfiction section. For example, the well-known graphic
novel Maus I (Art Spiegelman, 1991) was most often shelved with
World War II history books (940.53). However, another well-known
nonfiction graphic novel, Persopolis (Marjane Satrapi, 2003) was
most often shelved in the comic book section.
A
small percentage of the libraries I reviewed had a special graphic novel
section which included both fiction and nonfiction graphic novels.
Generally this section was labeled YA.
Most
graphic novels are paperback and thus some libraries shelve them in
paperback areas, however, the large format of most graphic novels makes
them unsuited to paperback shelves in many
libraries.
Sources:
Lee, A. (2004). “Graphic attraction: graphic novels in
libraries.”
Paper presented at ALIA 2004. accessed via pdf
file at
conferences.alia.org.au/alia2004/pdfs/lee.a.paper.pdf.
Raiteri, S. (2002). “Graphic novel collection
development. “ American
Library Association
website,
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2002/
collectiondevelopment.htm.
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