Since graduating from UNC-SILS in 2009, I've thought of myself as "an aspiring comics librarian", but I'm sad that there is so little guidance for folks with that same interest. There are bits and pieces out there, and many people doing good work, but nothing that could be used to establish Comics Librarianship as a solid field of study or practice. Since I found myself exploring what that might look like, I decided to formalize my work into a hub of resources for other folks looking for guidance.
The majority of my output here will be reviews of books and other resources that I think comics librarians would find useful to read and learn from, or even just to know about. Some will be obviously designed for librarians, such as guides to graphic novel collection development or programming. Others won't have us in mind, like histories and theoretical works, but will still have at least some relevance to our field. Since comics is a medium that has only recently been given the same scholarly attention received by other media, we'll have to do a certain amount of scrounging from other sources to construct a body of works for librarians to learn from.
Something I will not be doing here is reviewing comics and graphic novels themselves unless they are specifically relevant to the field of comics librarianship. Happily, reviews and book announcements are very easy to find, including in non-comics publications like The New York Times and Library Journal. I will also refrain from announcing conventions and other comics-related events unless it's clear that, again, they have some relevance specific to comics librarianship.
Other projects I have in mind for this site include interviews with librarians who are actively working with comics in some way (in other words, role models!), lists of resources that don't necessarily require a review, and even a mock-up syllabus for a course of study in comics librarianship. Wish me luck!
Do you have a suggestion for a comics librarianship resource, or do you want to contribute to this project? Or do you just want to take me to task for my evaluation of a given resource? If so, please leave a comment or contact me at patrick.d.holt@gmail.com.
Finally, I'd like to offer my thanks to these folks for their help and support:
Nina Kane
Nick Holt
Amy Godfrey
Jennifer Lohmann
Allie Jackson
Caroline Peterson
Marian Fragola
Stephanie Fennell
Jan Seabock
Sarah Morris
Julia Gootzeit
Other projects I have in mind for this site include interviews with librarians who are actively working with comics in some way (in other words, role models!), lists of resources that don't necessarily require a review, and even a mock-up syllabus for a course of study in comics librarianship. Wish me luck!
Do you have a suggestion for a comics librarianship resource, or do you want to contribute to this project? Or do you just want to take me to task for my evaluation of a given resource? If so, please leave a comment or contact me at patrick.d.holt@gmail.com.
Finally, I'd like to offer my thanks to these folks for their help and support:
Nina Kane
Nick Holt
Amy Godfrey
Jennifer Lohmann
Allie Jackson
Caroline Peterson
Marian Fragola
Stephanie Fennell
Jan Seabock
Sarah Morris
Julia Gootzeit
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