A highlight of the reception was hearing from the recipients of the Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries. Presented annually, the two grants are the Growth Grant and the Innovation Grant. The recipient of the 2017 Growth Grant was the Institutional Library Development team at the Colorado State Library, with Erin Boyington, Adult Institutions Senior Consultant, accepting the grant. The library partnered with the Colorado Department of Corrections to provide services to The Sterling Correctional Facility in Sterling, CO. In her thank you speech, Boyington said, “I really believe that prison libraries give their patrons a chance to learn and grow as people. And the resources that this grant provides for the Sterling Libraries is going to open new gateways for those offenders who take part as students in the LEAD program.” ¹ The LEAD (Literacy Education in Adult Detention) program is offered by Pop Culture Classroom. “The LEAD With Comics program at SCF [Sterling Correctional Facility] will use the Eisner Growth Grant funds to allow a new teacher to travel to Sterling, Colorado, and to enrich LEAD curriculum and the libraries’ collections with new graphic novels.”²

The 2017 Innovation Grant was awarded to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jessica Mlotkowski, Librarian, Public Services and Cataloging, submitted the grant with assistance from students and faculty. She began by thanking Dakota Yazzie who is an Indigenous Liberal Studies major at IAIA and a former library student worker. “He inspired me to go to my computer one day and google ‘libraries graphic novel grant’”, Mlotkowski said during her acceptance speech at the reception.³ The grant will be used in a few ways – for both programming and library materials. Mlotkowski wrote in an email how they plan on using the grant, and some funds will be given:

…directly to our students, allowing them an opportunity they might not be able to pursue without those funds and without a structured graphic novel program. For the program itself, the library will be holding a graphic novel contest in which students participate to create a short graphic novel (less than 10 pages in length). The library will also hold several graphic novel get-togethers and workshops throughout the process, in which students will learn techniques and approaches to graphic novel creation. I am inviting faculty at IAIA who work with graphic novels in the classroom to help offer art and narrative tips and tricks through these workshops. Students will also have a place to share what they are working on and receive feedback and inspiration from one another. Those participating will have a little more than a semester to work on their graphic novels. Then we will hold an awards ceremony to recognize and celebrate the students’ creative efforts. The three best submissions will receive booths at Indigenous Comic Con, which will offer them the opportunity to get their name, artwork, and their graphic novel out into the industry, making important connections. The other participants will receive gift cards for art supplies that they can use in their IAIA coursework.⁴

The keynote speaker for the evening was Lynda Barry, cartoonist, author, and professor. Barry took to the stage and sang an adapted Tanya Tucker song for the audience, “When I die, I may not go to heaven, because I don’t know if they let cartoonists in. If they don’t, then bury me in the library. Because the library is as close to heaven as I’ve been”.⁵ The crowd cheered at this rendition and was followed by her group activity of shouting out the names of the people and libraries that have meant the most. Her speech touched on her career and influences and connected graphic novels/comics to libraries:

And one of the things that including graphic work, comics, at the library does, is not only are you letting people read it, you’re showing them that there’s this other language. This other language that actually can change your life. And I feel like the whole reason I’m standing here right now is because I drew a picture, right? And the whole reason you are all here, your whole bodies, is because of something to do with books. ⁵

Any library is open to submit proposals for the Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries opportunities. To learn more about the grants visit: http://www.ala.org/gamert/will-eisner-graphic-novel-grants-libraries

References

¹ Erin Boyington, Acceptance Speech (ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, June 24, 2017).

² American Library Association. (n.d.). Eisner Graphic Novel Grant for Libraries – Growth Grant. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/eisner-graphic-novel-grant-libraries-growth-grant

³ Jessica Mlotkowski, Acceptance Speech (ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, June 24, 2017).

⁴J. Mlotkowski, personal communication, June 30, 2017.

⁵ Lynda Barry, Key Note Speech (ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, June 24, 2017).

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One way of connecting with people interested in comic conventions is through partnerships. San Diego Public Library worked with convention organizers to host the Art of Comic-Con, which contains forty-five years of Comic-Con art. This free show includes art work from some of the best known illustrators and comic writers in the business, including many works that haven’t been seen before.[1]

Another way to become more involved is to be at a convention in whatever way you can. During 2015, many Colorado libraries were able to do outreach at Denver Comic Con (DCC) through a booth arranged by the Colorado State Library (CSL). With attendance of over 100,000, this was a fantastic opportunity for participating libraries.

Ashley Kazyaka from the CSL explained that the inspiration for getting libraries into DCC came out of the 2014 Colorado Association of Libraries Conference (CALCON). “Library staff from multiple districts expressed interest in Comic Con, but were unsure about how to coordinate the effort,” explained Kazyaka, so she took it on. DCC is run by a non-profit called Pop Culture Classroom, which focuses on literacy, and they were supportive of having libraries involved. To highlight some of the new technology that libraries have and people don’t necessarily know about, Kazyaka specifically talked with libraries involved in the maker movement, as well as people who had expressed interest at CALCON 2014. Kazyaka also put together a Google map of Colorado library makerspaces and handed out information for people to access it.[2]

When asked about the experience, Kazyaka said, “Nearly all of the interactions that I witnessed between library staff working the booth and DCC-attendees were not just positive but enthusiastic…There were times that people would be drawn to a particular activity, get engrossed in it, then suddenly have an excited realization, ‘THIS is the library, really?!’” Kazyaka is convinced that being at DCC is worthwhile, and all the participating libraries are interested in doing it again in 2016. If you’re interested in trying to get involved with your local comic con, Kazyaka recommends planning early and making sure your promotional materials reflect everyone involved.[3]

Some libraries have taken this kind of event a step further and started offering their own conventions. Just do an Internet search for ‘libraries and comic con,’ and the results pile up. Libraries all across the country are experiencing great success with everything from panels, to signings, to cosplay! Publishers Weekly even had a 2014 article called, “How to Throw a Comic Con at Your Library.” If that’s not enough, Diamond Bookshelf of Diamond Comics also has an article to provide ideas for libraries.

Connecting with people is one of the specialties of libraries. What better way to connect with new users and add a new service for those who are already library lovers than through comic cons!

Sources

[1] Yarbrough, Beau. “Comic-Con 2015: Comic Art Show at the San Diego Library, No Badge Required.” Los Angeles

Daily News. July 8, 2015. http://www.dailynews.com/arts-and-entertainment/20150708/comic-con-2015-

comic-art-show-at-the-san-diego-library-no-badge-required (accessed July 15, 2015).

[2] Kazyaka, Ashley, email interview by Becca Cruz. Project Manager (July 16, 2015).

[3] Ibid.

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El Deafo Book Cover

Public Libraries: You’ve written and illustrated a number of picture books. But what made you want to write for older kids with your Newberry Honor book El Deafo?

Cece Bell: I really felt like a graphic novel was the perfect format for this particular story—a picture book would not have been able to show all I needed to tell. And the story I wanted to tell involved a lot of the same issues that middle grade kids are experiencing now, so it just made more sense to write this book with middle grade readers in mind.

PL: What was the best and hardest part of writing/illustrating this book?

CB: In general, the hardest part was just the sheer amount of work involved in making the book. So much drawing! So much figuring out! More specifically, the chapter about sign language was extremely difficult to write. I am not proud of the attitude I had about sign language when I was a kid, but I wanted to be honest about it in the book. I worked very hard in this chapter to balance my own negative feelings with the more positive facts about sign language that the sign language teacher shares with me during this chapter.

PL: Were you a library user when you were young? Do you use the library now?

CB: I definitely used the library when I was young. I was lucky because I could walk to our local library—it was just four blocks from home. I confess that I did a lot more looking at pictures than I did actual reading. I soaked up the picture books and disappeared into the enormous collection of Winsor McCay’s Sunday comic strip, Little Nemo in Wonderland, which was so big you weren’t allowed to check it out.

I use the library today as a quiet place to get some writing and illustrating done. I still love to soak up the pictures in the picture book section, too.

PL: What do you enjoy most about library and school visits?

CB: I really enjoy answering the kids’ questions, and then getting to spend a little bit of one-on-one time with them.

PL: If you weren’t a children’s book writer and illustrator, what would you like to be?

CB: There’s nothing else I’d rather be! But I occasionally wish that I was a jazz pianist. How cool would that be?

The post I Was Lucky Because I Could Walk to Our Local Library: A Conversation with Cece Bell first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Define “Young Adult Graphic Novel.” – We started by looking at the young adult graphic novel collection, and we decided we were going to pull some of the series that were showing up on “Best Adult Graphic Novels” lists. That should bring a built-in audience to our new adult graphic novel area. Out of the young adult collection came Sandman, Spawn, and Watchman. The young adult collection thus became the bastion of the superheroes of DC and Marvel with a strong Star Wars presence. It’s not that adults didn’t read these books voraciously, but it brought the content of the graphic novels more in line with the content of the young adult novels we had.

Where are the compilations of newspaper comics going? – Libraries put these books in all different places, including non-fiction and young adult sections. Not that it doesn’t happen, but when did you see a high schooler reading Doonesbury? And many people like Dilbert, but searching in the 700s is a daunting task. We rescued the newspaper comics compilation books from 741.5 and put them in the adult graphic novel collection. As soon as we did, they started circulating quite a bit more than they had before.

Where do the graphic novels go that students may be assigned for class? – Maus and Persepolis are good examples of books that teachers frequently incorporate into their curriculum. These books had been living in the young adult section, but unfortunately no one was reading them. However, we had an eighth grade English teacher ask us about other books similar to these, including some of Gene Luen Yang’s books and A Game for Swallows. Would we be getting additional similar titles, he wondered, because he’d like to assign his class to read some of these types of books? To give these titles more cache and also to entice adults who would also be interested in these books but never find them in youth materials, these books were moved. All “literary graphic novels” now live in the adult graphic novel collection.

How is this section not a repository for unloved books? – Given the more conservative view our community has about books for youth, there were a number of graphic novels we didn’t have in the library’s collection. We now have the graphic novel versions of titles by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Janet Evanovich sharing shelf space with the Walking Dead. We have Sin City and Hellraiser. Without this section of adult graphic novels, we couldn’t adequately accommodate many popular titles that appeal to a quiet minority of our community who never requested we purchase these books but seems to be checking them out regularly.

How do you evaluate success? – Obviously, circulation is one way, and the graphic novels have only been their own section for six months or so. It seems like people are reading the books, even if it’s only the staff who are grudgingly admitting that “there might be something to these graphic novels.” Every time we talk to an adult about Maus, Persepolis, or American Born Chinese and he or she decides to check out the book, we have success. However, overhearing that a 24 year-old male patron said to his friends via social media, “You have to come to the Madison Public Library. They have really great comics [referring to our adult graphic novel section].” That is the best sign of success ever.

You know your patrons best. What do they want in their adult graphic novels? You may decide what makes up our adult graphic novels section does not work for you. Use this as a guide, and no matter what you decide, we hope your section is popular with the patrons of your community.

Cover Photo Credit: carmichaellibrary (CC BY 2.0)

Melanie A. Lyttle is the Head of Public Services Madison Public Library. You can watch her YouTube channel, Crabby Librarian, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rv5GLWsUow. Shawn D. Walsh is the Emerging Services and Technologies Librarian at Madison Public Library.

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