Graphic Novels: Collecting, Cataloging and Outreach in an Academic Library

Full text

Graphic Novels: Collecting, Cataloging and Outreach in an
Academic Library
Aimee Slater
a,
⁎, Ann Kardos
b
a
Academic Outreach Librarian for Government Information and the Social Sciences, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Mailstop 045, Waltham, MA 02453, United States
b
Metadata Coordinator, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Mailstop 045, Waltham, MA 02453, United States
article info
Article history:
Received 23 October 2016
Accepted 25 January 2017
Available online 31 January 2017
INTRODUCTION
Most major US universities have graphic novels in their library
collections. Titles like Maus (Spiegelman, 1986)andPersepolis
(Satrapi, 2004) have become staples in the stacks for their academic
relevance and accessible style of delivering information through
visually striking art. While some libraries have comprehensive
collections and budgets to support them, many do not and thus
have a collection that lacks cohesion and scope. The Brandeis University
collection fell into that latter category, and we aimed to correct that. But
beyond titles that haveachieved scholarly notorietyand critical acclaim,
like Maus and Persepolis, how does an academic library with little to no
comprehensive collection create one and how does it engage students
with acquired titles?
For us, this began as a personal project. We individually enjoy read-
ing graphic novels and were heartened to see our library already had ti-
tles like Fun Home (Bechdel, 2007)andWaltz with Bashir (Folman &
Polonsky, 2009) in our collection, but there was no discernable method
to how titles were acquired. For example, whyWaltz with Bashir, butnot
Fax from Sarajevo (Kubert, 1998)orThe Photographer (Guibert, 2009),
which covered similar topics? Further exploration into the process
uncovered that our system for acquiring graphic novel titles was on an
ad hoc basis. We typically acquired titles as the result of faculty requests
for course materials, items we received on our approval plan, or includ-
ed in past donations. As a cataloging librarian and a social sciences
librarian, we were in a unique position to do what librarians do best:
bring order to chaos, and put together an organized plan to acquire
and publicize the resulting collection so students see it and, more im-
portantly, use it. But where to start?
LITERATURE REVIEW
There is quite an extensive body of literature going back to the early
2000s that discusses the merits ofhaving graphic novels in an academic
library's collection. Gluibizzi (2007) and O'English, Matthews, and
Lindsay (2006) remark on the popularity of graphic novels among stu-
dents, and the importance of relating to students through what they
read. These articles fall short, however, in giving practical advice on
how to start a cohesive collection. Golomb (2010) offers useful guide-
lines in narrowing scope of the collection as budget dollars are often
limited. As with most academic libraries, budget is a primary concern
so in an effort to minimize costs of increasing our graphic novel collec-
tion, we opted to limit the scope of our collection to include titles with a
nonfiction focus, allowing for the occasional fiction title with cultural
significance. For example, we included Alan Moore's Watchmen
(Moore, 1987) which deconstructs the tropes seen in traditional comic
books in a graphic novel format, but omitted his work on Swamp
Thing (Moore, 1998) which chronicles the adventures of a humanoid
vegetation entity.
Much of the research we did to help us look at Brandeis's collection
did not actually address any of our issues, as academic librarians trying
to build a collection that complements our library's mission and serves
our student body. Most of the articles we found dealt specifically with
public library collections, where it can reasonably be said that graphic
novels are more popular among patrons. Meanwhile, articles that fo-
cused on academic libraries tended to look atmuch larger-scale studies
of usage, or focused on what titles the collections did not have, rather
than what they did have. There was also a lack of focus on technical ser-
vices and discoverability.
Meier (2011) found with biology concepts, knowledge and attitudes
among non-major students were improved when adding graphic novels
to the reading list. A narrative with pictures helps novices retain infor-
mation, “less content within greater detail or greater context is more
useful”and “narrative helps students retain information.”We took
this to heart as we examined lists of options and expanded our idea of
only addingnonfiction titles tothe collection to also include fiction titles
involving literature or historic events.
Toren (2010) offers some ways forward in collection building and
examines the necessity of academic libraries to support leisure reading
along with scholastic reading habits. Our intention in building our own
collection of graphic novels is to offer students titles that unite these
concepts; a leisurely reading experience within the context of their
The Journal of Academic Librarianship 43 (2017) 116–120
⁎Corresponding author.
E-mail address: aslater@brandeis.edu (A. Slater).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2017.01.011
0099-1333/© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
The Journal of Academic Librarianship

learning objectives. We want the collection to be comprised of titles
with academic merit to dovetail into research being done on campus.
Maus Goes to College by Davis (2010) offers a comprehensive list of
the titles on reserve at University of Washington, which was a valuable
checklistfor our project as it listed each title and the course for which it
was used. We were able to use this list fill in some of our collection.
Graham (2010) at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln explores some
of the challenges and issues surrounding the “should”of building a col-
lection, andoffers some circulation statistics with regard to particular ti-
tles. While it was useful to see the collection building process at a large
academic library, the collectionstill focused on fictiontitles of the super-
hero stripe. There is some amazing work being done in this subset of the
genre, though it was less valuable to us given our focus on nonfiction,
historical fiction, or literary titles.
We want to avoid the situation described in Williams and Peterson
(2009) wherein they did a survey of over 600 libraries to see how
many libraries owned the books on a single year's ALA's Great Graphic
Novels for Teens book list with woeful results. If we expect students to
view the library as a place for them we must build a collection that re-
flects their interests and we must keep current with new and expanding
titles to infuse the collection with dynamic purpose.
Matz (2004),Schwarz (2002), and others have cultivated lists of
sources and resources to start a collection. While that's useful to an in-
stitution with no collection, we found these lists to be outdated and
not relevant to the collection at our institution. We already had well-
known titles such as Maus for various coursework support, but we had
no idea how to move beyond an assortment of random titles, make
them discoverable and then publicize them to students who may be
interested.
METHODOLOGY
Before we could develop and implement a graphic novel collection
practice, we had to examine what titles we currently had in the catalog
and audit discoverability. As mentioned above, many of our graphic ti-
tles had been bought over the years tobe put on reserve for specificclas-
ses, or as part of our special collection in Judaica. But how did students
find titles that were in the general collection?
It turns out, if a student typed “graphic novels”or “comic books”into
our online catalog's search box, they would get a decent list of titles
about graphic novels, but would not see an actual graphic novel or non-
fiction graphic work at all on the first few pages of results. If someone
managed to find a specific title, they might have some luck finding
other titles, but only if the discovered title were fiction. Brandeis, like
many other academic libraries, catalogs graphic novels (and some
memoirs, such as Persepolis or The Photographer) under PN6720-
PN6790 (Collections of general literature —Comic books, strips, etc.).
Nonfiction titles, such as the graphic adaptation of The 9/11 Report
(Jacobson & Colón, 2006), Climate Changed (Squarzoni, 2014) or Glad-
stone & Neufeld's The Influencing Machine (Gladstone & Neufeld, 2012)
are all cataloged under the Library of Congress classification for their
subject heading. About half of the collection is classified under the
PNs; the other half are nonfiction titles cataloged by subject. This
meant that a very persistent user or a savvy user—one who looked up
a particular fiction title and found it—would discover, at best, half of
the library's graphic titles.
We developed a plan for us to find as many of the graphic titles in the
library'scollection as we could. Working with the Reserves Coordinator,
we compiled a list of those titles acquired for reserves over the last eight
years. We generated another list using collection analysis software to
pull data from the MARC records. The report found all titles that had
“Graphic novels”in the 650 field, “Comic books, strips, etc.”as the sub-
field v ($v) in a 650 field, or 6 for “Comics/graphic novels”in the Con-
tents fixed field. Even with these two lists, titles were missed due to a
lack of consistent cataloging of these materials over the years. We
went into the stacks to find the collection across the library, and
sometimes found titles on the shelf that had not made it onto either of
our lists. We pulled all titles to audit their catalog records to identify er-
rors and fixthem.
A number of the titles had MARC records where it was difficult to
discern whether the title was a graphic novel itself or about graphic
novels. Many records were incomplete, often with no subject informa-
tion, and the majority had no input in the Contents fixed field. Titles
were separated intotwo categories based on whether they were graphic
novels or were about graphic novels. Brandeis does not use OCLC's ser-
vice to automatically update bibliographic records, so if newer im-
proved records were available, these were imported. All titles were
then returned to the stacks.
Those that did not already have the 6 for “Comics/graphic novels”in
the Contents fixed field had it added. A large portion of the graphic
novel and nonfiction records had no subject headings at all, or only
one 650 for “Graphic novels.”Those 650 fields were removed (unless
the title happened to be a graphic novel about graphic novels) and ap-
propriate subject terms were added. We decided to implement the
655 genre/form term headings, which are often used in newer catalog-
ing records for graphic novels. Brandeis had just standardized the usage
of genre form terms for our DVD collections, and that was used as the
model for the graphic novel and nonfiction titles. All graphic titles
cataloged at Brandeis are now required to have either “Graphic novels”,
“Nonfiction comics”or “Comics (Graphic works)”in the 655 field. A sec-
ondary 655 denoting the type of graphic novel or comics, such as “His-
torical comics,”“Biographical comics”or “War comics”is then applied
to be more specific and to help users find titles of a similar type. In
many cases, these enhancements were easy because newer records
that conformed to our project were already available to export from
OCLC. In other cases, we updated records or created new ones from
scratch (particularly for Hebrew and other foreign language titles). All
told, we examined the records of close to 200 titles over the course of
a month. We were confident after such a comprehensive update of
our catalog records, our users would be able to find everything we al-
ready had or would purchase.
IMPLEMENTATION
After using our new cataloging protocol to update pre-existing re-
cords for optimal discoverability, we set out to develop and refine an ac-
quisitions plan for new titles. Brandeis University has a strong social
justice mission and our students examine tough topics such as conflict
zones, peace and co-existence studies, terrorism, and issues of global
health, political movements and social discourse. We have an extensive
Judaica collection, a testament to our secular Jewish foundation, but like
other Research I institutions, we are actively acquiring in the sciences
and in literature as well. When it comes to acquisitions, we collaborate
across units with subject liaison librarians and technical services
working together to ensure we use our budget dollars efficiently. With
graphic novels, we had to be sure whatever collection strategy we im-
plemented took into account the different ways a title might be used.
Our graphic novel collection, whether we acquire in nonfiction or fic-
tion, needs to connect with our constituents in a meaningful way.
We first took a comprehensive inventory of what we had. As previ-
ously mentioned, our collection was fairly random and unplanned al-
though many of our existing titles fit our criteria of having relevance
to research being done on campus. We identified gaps in the body of
work of particular notable authors and made purchases to address
these deficiencies; for example, Gene Luen Yang's American Born
Chinese (Yang, 2006) was in the collection, but neither Boxers (Yang,
2013a)norSaints (Yang, 2013b). Since Yang was appointed Ambassa-
dor of Young People's Literature to the Library of Congress in 2016
and is a recent winner of a MacArthur grant, it was easy to justify
purchases of his work to fill the collection. We owned Joe Sacco's
Palestine (Sacco, 2001)butnotSafe Area Goražde (Sacco, 2002). We
had no titles from Guy Delisle, whose work is similar to Sacco's,
117A. Slater, A. Kardos / The Journal of Academic Librarianship 43 (2017) 116–120

and purchased several of his works including Jerusalem (Delisle,
2015), Burma Chronicles (Delisle, 2010), Pyongyang: A Journey in
North Korea (Delisle, 2007).
Once we started talking to our colleagues, we were amazed by the
input we received. Our Reserves Coordinator, who had the unique
knowledge of the whole collection as only reserve librarians can
have,reportedwehad40coursesoncampusacrossdisciplines
which use one or more graphic novels as course materials. Subject li-
aisons in history, science, humanities and other social sciences iden-
tified other titles to add to the collection, from sweeping adaptations
like Gareth Hinds' Beowulf (Hinds, 2007) to Liz Prince's personal
memoir exploring gender identity Tomboy (Prince, 2014). We filled
in the collection of Congressman John Lewis' (D-GA) March (Lewis
& Aydin, 2013), currently three volumes chronicling his role in the
Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It was encouraging to see so
many of our colleagues get behind this project and generate so many
great ideas for acquisition. Many of these titles are available at manage-
able price points, often below $15. By incorporating some collection
guidelines and working together, we have been able to increase the
holdings of our collection by 59%. So far, the reaction from students
has been encouraging.
OUTREACH
We coordinated with circulation colleagues on the creation of a
graphic novel display. We chose the library's mezzanine as a pilot be-
cause many students congregate and collaborate in this open space
which sits above the library café. The display was composed of
graphic novels and graphic nonfiction books on a wide variety of
topics, and also included several non-graphic titles about the history
of graphic literature throughout the world. We wanted students to
explore graphic novels themselves but also examine the significance
of the medium. The display ran the entirety of the fall 2015 semester.
We tracked usage only superficially –circulation staff reported that
books were removed from the shelves and scattered on tables
throughout the library and needed to be straightened and re-shelved
daily. Future plans include another display since we now have more
titles and a more comprehensive strategy to collect check outs and
usage statistics.
Since our peers had such great ideas about collection development,
we thought, maybe our students would be a source of insight as well!
We searched the university postings of student clubs and found the con-
tact information for the Brandeis Comic Book Club (BCBC).
The BCBC meets weekly in the student center where students
come to eat, check their mailboxes, and visit the game room. The
club offers its inventory of comics, mostly of the popular culture va-
riety (superheroes, adventure), to any student for check out on the
honor system. We attended a few meetings and met club members,
and discovered that they struggled with low membership and with
providing adequate storage and access to their mobile collection.
Through these conversations, we learned what services we could
offer to the club. The library is now housing their inventory bins;
the officers of the club come and retrieve their inventory before
meetings so they no longer have to keep it stored in dorm rooms or
the trunk of someone's car. The club retains complete autonomy
over its collection; the library did not barcode these titles or create
records for them, and other than club officers, no staff member or pa-
tron has access to them. It was important to us that the club continue
its system of displaying titles in a student-run space, and the focus of
our efforts be supportive and not invasive.
We have emphasized that the BCBC is their club: we are not interest-
ed in taking it over and instead we want to work in tandem to augment
each other's collections. This means, at a minimum, we should know
what they have to avoid acquiring duplicates. Even better, it means
we want them to know about the library's collection so as they discuss
comics with peers along with other topics like upcoming papers and
assignments, members can organically cross-promote our collection.
We do have some overlap as would be expected in titles which are
both seminal and popular fiction, including Wilson's Ms. Marvel
(Wilson, 2014)whichwedefined as culturally significant because
its main character is the first Muslim character to headline a major
comic book series.
In meeting with the club, we discovered they struggled with low-
visibility and getting the word out about their club and offerings was
a challenge. We spoke with club leadership and offered our services
to provide more visibility for the club and its collection. We created a
catalog record in our online catalog (Alma/Primo), that provides a
link to the club's website and a link to its list of their holdings
using the club's pre-existing inventory Google spreadsheet. If a
patron searches for “Superhero Comics,”“Comic book”or “Graphic
nonfiction,”in the Brandeis library catalog, the BCBC now comes up
near the top of the first page of results. When doing a general search
for “Graphic novels,”the club's record shows upwith library-held titles.
The currentpresident of the club sends out the link to the catalog record
with weekly correspondence to club members, and has encouraged
students to search the library general collection for additional titles.
This collaboration is in its early stages, but we are encouraged by the
enthusiasm and engagement by students in the club in our fledgling
graphic novel collection.
CONCLUSION
These days, the market is flooded with graphic novels that cross all
academic disciplines covering both social commentary and superhero
adventures, sometimes at the same time. Our process has taught us
some key fundamentals to building and sustaining a usable and relevant
collection:
•Check the catalog and ensure discoverability is an efficient and intui-
tive process. Work with catalogers to ensure the subject and genre
headings are correct and consistent, and that items in the collection
can be found by searching graphic novels by title or subject/genre,
or relevant keywords. Patrons search in different ways so we need
multiple paths to discovery.
•Leverage internal knowledge from reserves staff, catalogers, circula-
tion staff and acquisitions teams to learn what's coming into the
library and what might already be there. Check with reference
librarians for current trends in topics relevant to work being done
on campus.
•Do targeted outreach to student clubs/groups on campus who have
interest in comic books. Think about ways the library can support
the club –whether it's storage in the library, a discoverable record
of their holdings in the catalog, or working together to sponsor local
artists and writers to come in to talk to students in a libraryspace. Dis-
cuss ways the library can support student-led initiatives, but not sub-
sume them or otherwise dominate the work that students are already
doing. We want students to see that thelibrary is a supportive service
center with an investment in patron-focused endeavors, academic
and leisure.
•Develop a basic graphic novel collection statement, knowing that it
will evolve as the genre evolves and as student engagement evolves.
Include necessary administrative and leadership staff to ensure sup-
port from all levels of the library. Some staff may not understand
that graphic novels have academic value. Be ready to suggest some ti-
tles for them to check out to increase their understanding. They don't
have to become fans, but it's hard to argue with Not the Israel My Par-
ents Promised Me by Harvey Pekar (Pekar & Waldman, 2012), the
powerful story in Fax from Sarajevo (Kubert, 1998), which deals with
one man and his family's struggle in war-torn Bosnia, or especially
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation (Jacobson & Colón, 2006)
which might be the only way a reader can grasp the full gravity of
what happened on that day.
118 A. Slater, A. Kardos / The Journal of Academic Librarianship 43 (2017) 116–120

APPENDIX I. LIST OF CURRENT HOLDINGS AS OF OCTOBER 2016
Title ISBN Author
A Bintel Brief: Love and Longing in
Old New York
0062291610 Finck, L.
A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge 037571488X Neufeld, J.
Abina and the Important Men 0190238747 Getz, T.R.
Adolescence: Jew in Communist
Prague, Volume 2
1561631973 Giardino, V.
American Born Chinese 0190238747 Yang, G.L.
Auschwitz 0810948311 Croci, P.
Ba-ḳerav uva-shevi: zikhronotaṿ
shel YitsḥaḳNagarḳer
mi-Milḥemet Yom ha-Kipurim
9789651324710 Shoval, E.
Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of
Hiroshima
0867196025 Nakazawa,
Keiji.
Barefoot Gen: The Day After 086719619X Nakazawa,
Keiji.
Batman: The Killing Joke 1401216676 Moore, A.
Beowulf 0763630225 Hinds, G.
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our
Feet Book 1
1302900544 Coates,
Ta-Nehisi,
author.
Boxers 1596433590 Yang, G.L.
Building stories 0375424334 Ware, C.
Can't We Talk About Something
More Pleasant?
1608198065 Chast, R.
Chicken with Plums 0375714758 Satrapi, M.
Climate Changed: A Personal
Journey Through the Science
1419712551 Squarzoni, P.
Corridor 9351775747 Banerjee, S.
Days of Destructin, Days of Revolt 1568586434 Hedges, C. &
Sacco, J.
Deep Dark Fears 1607748150 Krause, F.
Embroideries 0375714677 Satrapi, M.
Fax from Sarajevo: A Story of
Survival
1569711437 Kubert, J.
Footnotes in Gaza 0805092773 Sacco, J.
Free Country: a tale of the
Children's Crusade
1401242413 Gaiman, N.
From Foe to Friend 1592643957 Agnon, S.Y.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic 0618871713 Bechdel, A.
Gabo: memorias de una vida mágica 8415530218 Pantoja, O.
Graphic details: Jewish Women's
Confessional Comics in Essays and
Interviews
0786465530 Lightman, S.
ha-Dor ha-sheni: devarim she-lo
siparti le-aba = Deuxième
génération: ce que je n'ai pas dit à
mon père
9655600017 Kishḳah, M.
How to Understand Israel in
60 Days or Less
140122234X Glidden, S.
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate
Situations, Flawed Coping
Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other
Things That Happened
147676459X Brosh, A.
I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors 1594489181′Eisenstein, B.
Incognegro 1401210988 Johnson, Mat,
author.
Introducing Jung 1874166056 Hyde, M.
Irmina 1910593109 Yelin, B.
Jamilti & Other Stories 1897299540 Modan, R.
Jerusalem: A Family Portrait 1596435755 Yakin, B.
Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy
City
1770461760 Delisle, G.
Jetlag 1592641555 Keret, E.
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid
on Earth
0375714545 Ware, C.
Jung for Beginners 1934389765 Platania, J.
ḲomiḳsʻIvri, pereḳ1: ha-shanim
ha-rishonot, 1935–1975 = Israeli
comics, part 1: the early years,
1935–1975/
Catalog of an exhibition
held in Holon, 2008
Israeli Cartoon
Museum
Loss of Innocence: Jew in
Communist Prague, Volume 1
1561631809 Giardino, V.
Macbeth::A Play by William
Shakespeare
0763678023 Hinds, G.
(continued)
Title ISBN Author
March: Book One 1603093001 Lewis, J.
March: Book Three 1603094024 Lewis, J.
March: Book Two 1603094008 Lewis, J.
Maus: A Survivor's Tale 0679406417 Spiegelman, A.
Maus II: Here My Troubles Began 0394556550 Spiegelman, A.
Megillat Esther 0827607881 Waldman, J. T.
Me-ḥolot le-ḳomiḳs: novelah grafit
bi-melot shivʻah ʻaśorim le-iḥud
ḥamesh shekhunot Ḥolon
ha-rishonot/
NO ISBN Rozenblum, A.
Mendel's Daughter 0224078569 Lemelman, G.
Metro: A Story of Cairo 0805094881 El Sharfee, M.
Ms. Marvel: Crushed (Volume 3) 0785192271 Wilson, G.W.
Ms. Marvel: Generation Why
(Volume 2)
0785190228 Wilson, G.W.
Ms. Marvel: Last Days (Volume 4) 0785197362 Wilson, G.W.
Ms. Marvel: No Normal (Volume 1) 078519021X Wilson, G.W.
Not the Israel My Parents Promised
Me
0809094827 Pekar, H.
Onward Towards our Noble Deaths 1770460411 Mizuki, S.
Palestine 156097432X Sacco, J.
Patience 1606999052 Clowes, D.
Persepolis 0375422307 Satrapi, M.
Persepolis II: The Story of a Return 037571457X Satrapi, M.
Pictures and Words: New Comic Art
and Narrative Illustration
0300111460 Bell, R.
Playback: A Graphic Novel 1559707968 Benoit, T.
Pyongyang: A Journey in North
Korea
1897299214 Delisle, G.
Rebellion: Jew in Communist
Prague, Volume 3
1561632090 Giardino, V.
Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of
Rosa Luxemburg
1784780995 Evans, K.
Safe Area Gorazde: The War in
Eastern Bosnia 1992–1995
1560974702 Sacco, J.
Saints 1596436891 Yang, G.
Sefer ha-ḳomiḳs ha-Tsiyoni 9789654484961 Perat, A.
Showa 1926–1939: A History of
Japan
1770461353 Mizuki, S.
Showa 1939–1944: A History of
Japan
1770461515 Mizuki, S.
Showa 1944–1953: A History of
Japan
1770461620 Mizuki, S.
Showa 1953–1989: A History of
Japan
1770462015 Mizuki, S.
Sipur ṿarod 9789655210200 Zeffren, I.
Sipur yoshve ḳafeh “ʻOver ṿa-shav”
u-felishat ha-roboṭim: rishumim
No ISBN Rosen, Z.
Students for a Democratic Society: A
Graphic History
9780809089390 Pekar, H.
Superman, from the thirties to the
eighties
0517551004
The 14th Dalai Lama: a manga
biography
0143118153 Saiwai, T.
The 9/11 report: A Graphic
Adaptation
809057387 Jacobson, S.
The Arrival 0734415869 Tan, S.
The Beats: A Graphic History 0809016494 Pekar, H.
The Contract with God Trilogy: Life
on Dropsie Avenue
9780393061055 Eisner, W.
The Dark Knight Returns 1401263119 Miller, F.
The girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. 1560978511 Hernandez, J.
The Harappa files 9350290316 Banerjee, S.
The Influencing Machine: Brooke
Gladstone on the Media
0393342468 Gladstone, B.
The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti 1561639362 Geary, R.
The Most Excellent and Lamentable
Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet
0763668079 Hinds, G.
The New American Splendor
Anthology
0941423646 Pekar, H.
The Odyssey 0763642681 Hinds, G.
The Photographer 1596433752 Guibert, E.
The Plot: The Secret Story of the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
0393060454 Eisner, Will.
The Property 1770461159 Modan, R.
(continued on next page)
119A. Slater, A. Kardos / The Journal of Academic Librarianship 43 (2017) 116–120

(continued)
Title ISBN Author
The Push Man, and Other Stories 1896597858 Tatsumi, Y.
The Rabbi's Cat 0375422811 Sfar, J.
The Shadow Hero 1596436972 Yang. G.L.
The Story of the Jews: A 4000-year
Adventure
0375501304 Mack, S.
The Thrilling Adventures of
Lovelace and Babbage: With
Interesting & Curious Anecdotes
of Celebrated and Distinguished
Characters; Fully Illustrating a
Variety of Instructive and
Amusing Scenes as Performed
Within and Without the
Remarkable Difference Engine;
Embellished with Portraits and
Scientifick Diagrams
0307908275 Padua, S.
The Tragical Comedy or Comical
Tragedy of Mr. Punch: A Romance
1563892464 Gaiman, N.
Tomboy 1936976552 Prince, L.
Trashed 1419714538 Backderf, D.
Unterzakhn 0805242597 Corman, L.
Ṿals ʻim Bashir: roman grafiFolman, A. &
Polonsky, D.
Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War
Story
080508892X Folman, A.
Watchmen 0930289234 Moore, A.
We Are On Our Own: A Memoir 1896597203 Katin, Miriam.
Will Eisner: Champion of the
Graphic Novel
1419714988 Levitz, P.
Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl
Ballads
1419719459 Hayes, N.
Y: The Last Man 9781563899805 Vaughan, B.
Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular &
the New Land
0810997495 Pekar, H.
Zahra's Paradise 1596436425 Amir, author.
WEEDED –Falls outside of scope of collections statement
Title ISBN Author
Ann Tenna: a novel 0307267474 Marchetto, M.
APPENDIX II. GRAPHIC NOVEL COLLECTION STATEMENT
Brandeis University Library is dedicated to curating a collection that
aligns with the scholarly needs of our patrons. Graphic novels, defined
by the Library of Congress as “narratives in which the text and illustra-
tions are equally important to the conveyance of the story”(The Library
of Congress, n.d.) are a part of that scholarly record. Along with increas-
ing our collection based on faculty requests for course-related materials
and addingthose titles to special collections housed at Brandeis (see: Ju-
daica), Brandeis librarians will assess graphic novel titles as requested
by patrons or staff to acquire those titles that are deemed to have aca-
demic relevance or cultural significance. This includes but is not limited
to: titles that have been created or re-imagined as sequential art in non-
fiction, historical fiction, classic literature, and memoirs. Works by nota-
ble authors will also be considered, regardless of content. We are
dedicated to building an academic collection that features titles across
mediums to ensure our patronshave access to the broadest array of ma-
terials to conduct the high-quality research expected at our university.
REFERENCES
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Davis, A. (2010). Maus goes to college: Graphic novels on reserve at an academic library.
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Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Delisle, G. (2007). Pyongyang: A journey in North Korea. (H. Dascher, Trans.). New York:
Drawn and Quarterly.
Delisle, G. (2010). Burma chronicles. (H. Dascher, Trans.). New York: Drawn and Quarterly.
Delisle, G. (2015). Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City. (H. Dascher, Trans.). New York:
Drawn and Quarterly.
Folman, A.,& Polonsky,D. (2009). Waltz with Bashir:A Lebanon war story. New York: Met-
ropolitan Books.
Gladstone, B., & Neufeld, J. (2012). The influencing machine: BrookeGladstone on the media.
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Gluibizzi, A. (2007). The aesthetics and academics of graphic novels and comics. Art
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Golomb, L. A. (2010). So many options, so little money: Building a selection collection for
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archives (pp. 101–110). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Graham, R. (2010). The spinner rack in the big red and ivory tower: Establishing a comics
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Wang.
Prince, L. (2014). Tomboy: A graphic memoir. San Francisco: Zest Books.
Sacco, J. (2001). Palestine. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics.
Sacco, J. (2002). Safe area Goražde: The war in Eastern Bosnia 1992–1995. Seattle, WA:
Fantagraphics.
Satrapi, M. (2004). Persepolis: The story of a childhood. New York: Pantheon.
Schwarz, G. E. (2002). Graphic novels for multiple literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult
Literacy,46(3), 262–265.
Spiegelman, A. (1986). Maus. My father bleeds history. Vol. 1.NewYork:Pantheon.
Squarzoni, P. (2014). Climate changed: A personal journey through the science. New York:
Harry N. Abrams.
Toren, B. J. (2010). Bam! Pow! Graphic novels fight stereotypes in academic libraries:
Supporting, collecting, promoting. Technical Services Quarterly,28(1), 55–69.
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Wilson, G. (2014). Ms. Marvel. No normal. Vol. 1. New York: Marvel.
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