We in Cataloging and the Collection Anywhere group have heard that there has been a lot of confusion about the way that spine labels appear on graphic format novels recently.

Graphic formats are becoming a larger part of library collections all the time.  Libraries and catalogers are still trying to come up with a simple, standard method of classifying and shelving them. 

Graphic formats fall into a few common genres: collections of comic strips, superhero type comic “books”, manga, novels or stories told through pictures, and nonfiction stories communicated through pictures.  Library users naturally want “like” materials with “like”, i.e., all the Garfield books together, the Superman books together, manga series together, etc.

For a long time, MLS treated most graphic format fiction the same way as any other fiction, so that (for example) a spine label read “FICTION” with the first three letters of the author’s name underneath it.  If not all titles that “belong” together (for example, all titles featuring Wonder Woman) are by the same author, they are not together on shelves.  Using the first three letters of the title is an option, but if all titles featuring a character (such as Spider-man) do not begin with the same word, they are not together.

We in Cataloging have been working on a new plan, and thanks to your feedback, we have refined it.

Going forward, barcode/spine labels for graphic novels are formatted as follows:

• Spine labels will use the first three letters of:
  
  • A superhero and/or villain character’s name (Superman, Spider-man, etc.)
  • A group of superheroes and/or villains name (Justice League, Suicide Squad)
  • The title of a manga series (Bleach, Attack on Titan, etc.)
  • The title of any material that does not fall into one of these categories
• All barcode labels will include author/title information as it appears on the material.

There are no plans to recall and change spine labels on materials already on library shelves at this time.  Later, Cataloging will evaluate the number of materials on shelves and consider a relabeling project.

In the future, after other projects have been completed, we will put together a group of Cataloging and public service staff to talk about graphic novels as a whole, including evaluating shelving and possibly recommending a new location code.

To the wonderful MLS public service staff: I apologize for not keeping you in the loop and making this change more complicated than it needed to be.  I appreciate the feedback that has allowed us to improve this process.  Thank you to all of you for all you do to connect library users with materials.