Graphic Novel Changes
Submitted by prodriguez on Tue, 07/24/2018 - 12:48
The Graphic Novel Discussion Group’s recommendations for changes in cataloging and shelving these materials have been adopted and will be implemented in the coming months. Read about the decisions and how they impact your library here.
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Comments
"Library staff aggressively weed materials in graphic novel collections based on age and condition" is listed under the Shelving heading in this document. This worries several of us in Collection Development. Unfortunately, no one from CD was in this committee. Graphic novels are notorious for going out of print. While we want worn copies to be weeded, please be more thoughtful when weeding by age if the titles are in good condition. Look at circs, number of holds placed, and determine if the title might do better at another location. Keep in mind that shelving these separately will also bring new attention to them.
In the committee, we mostly discussed withdrawing items based on condition, less about age. This recall will be a huge undertaking for the Cataloging department, and I think they were mostly concerned about receiving books in questionable or withdraw-able condition from the branches.
I think that having a location code will make searching the catalog and locating materials so much easier for our customers! I also like that all locations will now have a graphic novel section, so customers can have consistent experiences. I noticed that Tween graphic novels are not mentioned. Will these be included in the JGN location code? Currently, we have all Tween and Juvenile Fiction graphic novels in their own section, and they get browsed and borrowed by the same customers. I think it would make things more confusing for our customers to remove stickers and have Tween graphic novels re-interfiled with Tween Fiction, as some very popular series are Tween.
I am all for it, I think that we would see a better circulation of Tween graphic novels. I do think that classifying what makes a tween book a graphic novel or if it is just a tween book with illustrations will need to be drawn up.
I just wanted to add that there was no discussion about removing any of the graphic novel stickers from the Tween, Reader, and Easy graphic novels. I believe that they will continue as they are, with the stickers and 'T' location code. From the very beginning of our committee meetings, the focus was on Juvenile level and higher graphic novels, so we really did not spend a lot of time discussing the easy, reader, and tween graphic novels.
I'm so glad we're doing this! I think our customers will greatly appreciate the ease of use and I'm sure it will increase circulation for this collection. I do have a question about the rationale behind using FICTION on the call number label when the location is Graphic Novels. Labeling something FICTION when it does not belong to the Fiction collection could be confusing for customers and staff. It may also save processing time and costs to use GN, YGN, and JGN on the call number labels, much like how we added Y to the beginning of YA materials to eliminate the need for that sticker.
We came up with the idea of just having it a Fiction so that it would be easier to catalog, with the addition of the Graphic Novel location code that will be the indicator of what it is. We also discussed the the issue with certain characters/series that could be classified as either Fiction or Science Fiction. Spider-Man, Superman, Batman all are books that could fall under both categories. The same could be said with books that the publishers consider a Mystery but our cataloging guidelines determine that it is a Fiction book.
Pauline or Devin might be able to clarify more, it is something that we discussed for a bit.