Comic Book Cataloging Literature Review. O English, L., Matthews, J., & Lindsay, E. (2006, March). Graphic novels in academic

Transcription

1 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Sarah Graham MLIS 7300 Comic Book Cataloging Literature Review O English, L., Matthews, J., & Lindsay, E. (2006, March). Graphic novels in academic Synopsis: libraries: From Maus to manga and beyond. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 32(2), The authors of this article address three main issues regarding comics in the academic library: whether these materials are worthy of collecting, the challenges of organizing them, and then how to promote their use. The first reason cited in favor of collecting comics (a label which includes graphic novels in this article) is that they support recreational reading and promote literacy. The authors briefly explore technology s impact on the decline of reading stating that the popularity of graphic novels and comics in popular culture create an opportunity for librarians to promote pleasure reading. Secondly, instructors are increasingly using graphic novels in classrooms as literary works because they are more interesting to students yet can be analyzed for common literary themes. Furthermore, comics can offer a portrait of popular culture and encompass many literary genres including fiction, history, and autobiography. Many modern comics tend to address more serious social topics than the escapist superhero comics with which most are familiar. Before graphic novels gained the popularity they have today, they were primarily assigned call numbers associated with cartoons, specifically Dewey and LC PN ; however, the authors suggest that as a canon of graphic novels begins to emerge librarians will face new access obstacles that will necessitate rethinking the organization of comics in the catalog schedules. The editors of the Dewey schedule propose classifying these materials with

2 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 2 cartoons and then subdividing by length to distinguish between graphic novels and other graphic formats like comic strips. The Library of Congress classification scheme allows for subdivisions for author and special topics within the broader cartoon classification. While these classification schemas allow graphic novels to all be classified in a singular location, the authors cite that they do not account for diversities in graphics novels such as content, genre, form, and audience, which are becoming increasingly important access points for these materials as scholarly interest grows. Another challenge discussed by the authors in cataloging graphic novels is confusion regarding multiple chief creators or serials where each volume has a unique title. The authors raise questions about how to determine the chief creator of a work and how to handle more than one creator when they are assigned different parts of the classification schedule, but they do not present any possible answers to these questions. When discussing series, the authors state that traditionally catalogers would create one bibliographic record for the series and then attach separate records for each subsequent issue. The problem with comics is that there is no consistency in how serials are published and many serial volumes have unique titles, which cannot be cataloged in the traditional manner. The authors suggest that librarians catalog these items as monographs and consistently use the 440 series statement tag to aid in searching individual volumes of a series. Finally, when discussing promotion, the authors state that the biggest challenge will be overcoming faculty members antiquated notions of comic books. They suggest that librarians create an educational awareness campaign and demonstrate scholarly use of comics to faculty and students. They also suggest resources for librarians to assist in this effort, such as the National Association of Comics Arts Educators, which provides information about using comics

3 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 3 in academic coursework, and ImageText, a peer-reviewed online journal devoted to the political, social, and aesthetic analysis of comics. Reaction: One thing I noticed immediately about this article is that it does not mention Randall Scott s extensive cataloging and classification procedures, which according to the other articles are indespinsible to the comics cataloger. Also, O English, et al. seem to use the terms graphic novel and comic interchangeably, when a clear case is made in the other articles that for scholars and fans they are quite different and should be approached differently when cataloged. The only concrete suggestion the authors provide in terms of cataloging is to add a series statement to the records and while this is a good start, it is nowhere near the depth of cataloging required to provide adequate access to the collection when used for in-depth scholarly research. While this article does a good job of outlining the importance of collecting comics and graphic novels for academia and outlines the main challenges in cataloging them, it does not offer many real solutions or work-arounds, unlike the Fee and Markham articles. Fee, W. (2008, September). Do you have any Ditko?: Comic books, MARC, FRBR and findability. Serials Review, 34(3), Synopsis: This article starts with a brief history of librarians and comics stating that from the beginning of the creation of comics and especially after the Comics Code, librarians have had negative opinions of comics and their effect on children. In the 1970s, however, as the Comics Code lost favor, a librarian by the name of Randall Scott from Michigan State University began writing guides of cataloging and classification procedure for comics, which were needed because of the challenges comics present due to the fundamental nature of the illustrations and their

4 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 4 erratic publication and collaborative creation history. He further makes the case that graphic novels are different from comics whose primarily serial nature make them more difficult to catalog than the former. Fee suggests many references for librarians cataloging comics including Scott s comics cataloging guide Comics Librarianship. While Fee finds this book helpful in cataloging comics and creating authority records for comics collections, he states that it is now outdated and does not account for updates in MARC and AACR and that new comics cataloging guidelines are in order. The author sent a query on AUTOCAT to see what procedures other catalogers are using and most respondents do one of 3 things: they circulate comics un-cataloged, create a single catalog record and keep an inventory list, or just copy catalog from OCLC. The reason most often cited was that in general collections comics are short circulating items that become worn quickly and are often weeded and discarded, so they do not warrant the time to fully catalog. The answers were very different, however, from special collections librarians who preserve comics in un-circulating collections. The Folger Shakespeare Library catalogs Shakespeare related comics as individual monographs using field 500 for a description of the content and field 655 to denote comic genre. Virginia Commonwealth University copy catalogs from OCLC and then adds the 866 field to denote the chronology of their series holdings, the 655 field for the comic genre, and then topical subject headings. They also have an authority record to link items in specific comic-related genres like superhero, manga, weird tale, etc. to aid in searching. The author next gives us an evolution of the Library of Congress comic cataloging project, which is the most ambitious yet. Prior to the mid 90s, they did not catalog comics at all;

5 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 5 however, they were eventually assigned to comics boxes and secured in a vault when security concerns arose. Within the last few years all the comics were de-acidified in preparation of a new cataloging system. The Library of Congress Comic Book Curator has begun assigning a 5 digit shelf number to the individual comic titles with number blocks devoted to certain classes of comics. The next step is to create detailed bibliographic catalog records for each item including 650 tags for authorized subjects, 653 tags for unauthorized subjects, and 655 tags for comic genre. They will also include subject headings for lead and supporting characters. Finally, the author suggests modifying MARC at various levels in order to increase access to these collections for scholarly research. First, Fee recommends that records have detailed publication field entries because many series featuring the same characters have often run simultaneously and the relationships between series are important to comics research. Next, many popular comics were published before the invention of the ISSN, so catalogers will need to design a unique coding system by assigning titles their own locally devised numbers, like the Library of Congress has done. These can be cataloged in field 035 for system control numbers and will allow the catalog to link to related items for more productive searching. Fee then gives a brief description of each Comic Book Age and suggests that catalogers use genre fields in the cataloging record to denote to which age a title belongs because the ages are defined by unique characteristics that are important in studying comic book history and popular culture. The Main Entry-Personal Name tag for comics is challenging as well as prominent creators tended to write, illustrate, and edit in various combinations and capacities as well as use pseudonyms and Fee suggests recording creators with the general 700 tag due to their complex roles.

6 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 6 Another area of concern is the title statement as the title for a given comic can change several times. The masthead on the comic records the actual title, publication, series, and issue information; however, AACR2R prefers to use source information on the cover title. The author suggests catalogers use LCRI guidelines that allow the use of the masthead when two or more cover titles appear for the same work. He argues that while this guideline is only supposed to be used retrospectively it should be the norm when cataloging comics. Reaction: This article differs from the O English et al article because Fee never discusses whether comic are worthy of collection and scholarly research, which is possible because he was addressing the cataloging practices of institutions that were already actively collecting comics. Of the 3 special collections library mentioned, the Folger Shakespeare Library catalogs their comics with the least amount of detail. I think that this is probably because they only collect comics dealing with William Shakespeare, which probably do not present the creator and series challenges often cited for other types of comics. He also give much more detailed information about overcoming cataloging challenges than the Fee article. When reading this article I noticed parallels between librarians and the general population s history with comics. Not only have librarian s regard for comics evolved over the years but they are also becoming more legitimate research sources in academia and increasing popular leisure reading material. Markham, G. (2009, March). Cataloging the publications of Dark Horse Comics: One publisher in an academic catalog. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 35(2), Synopsis:

7 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 7 This article begins with the author introducing an agreement between the Dark Horse Comics and the Portland State University Library in which Dark Horse agreed to donate past and future publications in order for the library to make detailed cataloging records and the challenges posed by this agreement. The author quotes Randall Scott when discussing that libraries collecting comics are facing new challenges concerning preserving and organizing these materials within professional standards. Markham then suggests that these challenges may be the result of current cataloging rules carrying an inherent bias against scholarly research of popular culture since no classification schemes currently exist for comics and graphic novels. When materials are received, the library first assigns all titles the base Library of Congress call number for Comic Books, PN6720 and the cutter.d3 is attached to represent Dark Horse comics in particular. They then copy catalog records from OCLC and add fields to distinguish individual titles and increase the ability of the search function to retrieve related items. Even though Randall Scott advocates cataloging comics as serials, catalogers decided to treat the items as monographs and some of the common comics cataloging problems are alleviated by the fact that Dark Horse comics are distinguished in the comics market by their production of limited series containing only 2 to 4 issues. The author states that title, subtitle, and series information is always available on the cover of a comic, but references Randall Scott in stating that even though it violates AACR2R, the source information on the masthead should be used instead because it is more reliable and contains more information, like the ISSN for newer publications. The author suggests adding field 246 to the record to denote alternative titles.

8 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 8 Portland State University Library uses the chief creator as the main entry. To address concerns over determining who is the chief creator, this library chose to recognize the main story writer as the main entry and acknowledge other contributors in additional fields. Another cataloging challenge is that it is customary in comic publishing to reissue a comic with different cover art by a different artist. The Portland State Library has chosen to create different bibliographic records for each comic and record differences in cover art in the note field. Finally, Markham states that Portland State University Library has chosen to add Library of Congress subject headings to the records for prominent and ancillary characters. They also add fields for the genres, like artists books and sequential art. They further subdivide the genres to include horror, crime, adventure, science fiction, and superhero. Reaction: Two things I noticed that makes this article different from the others is it is the only one that discusses the challenges presented by changes in cover art and of all the libraries mentioned, Portland State University Library the only library that groups comics under the genres of artist books and sequential art. These seem like more appropriate genres for comics than the ones suggested in other articles because it distinguishes them from comic strips and cartooning. Also, this article states that Randall Scott advocates cataloging comics as serials, but each library in all the examples of these articles have cataloged them as monographs due to the complex creator and series run issues comics have, which I found interesting since Randall Scott wrote the guidelines for cataloging comics on which most comics catalogers rely. A controversial decision discussed in this article is that to input the main story writer of the comic in their catalog as the Main Entry. I find this problematic due to the integral nature of illustrations in comics and the more complex and tangled relationships authors and artists of

9 COMIC BOOK CATALOGING LITERATURE REVIEW 9 comics have when compared to the relationships of creators of other illustrated works. The article does, however, state that main entry is an antiquated notion and downplays its significance in the catalog record. Conclusion: It seems that since the cataloger must often make difficult decisions about whether or not a comic is a monograph or serial, what the title of a comic is, and who exactly is its author, it would behoove comics catalogers to have at least a cursory familiarity with comics history, prominent authors and illustrators, and important storylines in addition to their cataloging training in order to navigate the unique cataloging challenges comics provide.