Ordering the Classics

Manga has exploded in popularity recently, but the genre has existed long enough to have its own canon. You wouldn’t start a British literature collection without Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and manga holds a similar group of titles considered to be essential classics. Many of these series include Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama, YuYu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi, Slam Dunk by Takehiko Inoue, and Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi. Classic titles like these will serve as a stable foundation to grow a manga collection and popular manga titles will appeal to those who are interested in the genre, but don’t know where to start.

Ordering and Weeding Titles

Manga is challenging to collect due to the high total of long-running series. For instance, 105 English language-translated volumes of the series One Piece by Eiichiro Oda have been released in America. This should not deter you from ordering long-running series, as a series wouldn’t be long-running if it wasn’t popular. Yet there are two things to consider if your library decides to collect a long-running series: cost and shelf space. Collecting a long-running series will affect your budget. Is your budget substantial enough to collect every volume of the series? Is your budget big enough to also order other series? Collecting a long-running series will also affect shelf space for your manga collection.

The most crucial tip for weeding is to avoid selectively removing volumes from a long-running series. Doing so can leave readers with an incomplete experience. Instead, consider whether other libraries in your system hold certain titles before making any decisions.

Short Stories

Short story collections are a great addition to any manga library because they require minimal commitment from readers. Each story can usually be enjoyed independently, allowing readers to skip around without missing key plot points. Additionally, since these collections are not part of continuous series, you won’t risk having incomplete sets if you choose to stop ordering them.

Beast Complex by Paru Itagaki is a series of standalone short stories that bring together different carnivore and herbivore animals as they try to overcome conflict. These unique situations vary from a crocodile and a gazelle cohosting a cooking show in “The Crocodile and the Gazelle” to a snow leopard finding out that her movie co-star, a Japanese deer, had a hunger for method acting in “The Japanese Deer and the Snow Leopard.” Itagaki’s blending of different characters with unique moral situations brings to mind Krzysztof Kieslowski’s television series Dekalog, which dramatized moral conflicts of the Ten Commandments.

Junji Ito is a prolific author of horror short stories, a unique storyteller whose work doesn’t shy away from certain themes such as collecting or idol worship. Ito also doesn’t shy away from incorporating an assortment of objects into his stories. Two noteworthy stories incorporating a unique theme and object are “Hanging Blimp” and “Used Record.” “Hanging Blimp” is a deflating tale about balloons that appear with people’s faces on them, while “Used Record” is a story about a vinyl record with a deadly sound. These series can serve as a gateway to the authors’ longer works, such as BeaStars by Paru Itagaki and Uzumaki by Junji Ito.

Genres

Manga is an art style that serves its readers in various genres. The slice-of-life genre, for example, focuses on everyday life. Prominent titles include the comedy manga series Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san by Honda, which is about working in a bookstore, and The Way of the Househusband by Kousuke Oono, which follows a former Japanese mafia member who enters the dangerous world of homemaking. There are also sports manga series such as Eyeshield 21 by Riichiro Inagaki, which focuses on the American game of football. A unique series in another popular genre, action, is Gunsmith Cats by Kenichi Sonoda, which follows two female gunsmiths who fight crime in Chicago.

Reprints

Another useful collection tip is that older manga series like Eyeshield 21 can be difficult to acquire. Many older series are out-of-print in English, making them limited on the secondhand market and bearing high costs. Manga also doesn’t have a classics series in the English language, like Barnes and Noble Classics, which reprints popular older titles to make them accessible for a broad, contemporary audience. Despite these challenges, manga reprints occasionally occur, so I’d advise you to check publishers’ or booksellers’ websites consistently to check for reprinted manga.

The post Building and Curating a Manga Collection to Meet Growing Community Demand first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

In this episode of FYI– The Public Libraries Podcast, Kathleen Hughes, PLA, hosts Lori Leiberman, a Teacher/Librarian from Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, as they explore the intricate dynamics of the romance genre, and Lieberman’s upcoming PLA conference program, “Read Romance/Fight Patriarchy.” The conversation navigates the popularity and enduring stigma surrounding romance literature, discussing the genre’s paradoxical position as both a billion-dollar industry and a source of unwarranted shame for readers. Lieberman sheds light on the feminist essence embedded in romance narratives and their potential to challenge patriarchal norms. Drawing from her experiences at Lincoln High School, she shares insights into the positive impact of romance literature in educational settings, highlighting the genre’s capacity to engage students and foster cultural awareness. The episode concludes with practical tips for launching a Romance Book Club in libraries and building inclusive romance collections that authentically represent diverse voices and experiences. Don’t miss this candid exploration of the genre’s complexities and its profound impact on readers and education.

The post New FYI Episode: Read Romance — Fight Patriarchy first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Libraries can learn a lot from his successful approach.

People Still Want Paper Books

Books remain the main draw for bookstores and libraries. Amazon maintains a 50% market share of the physical book sales in the United States. The rest are sold in bookstores of various types and sizes. Although libraries certainly circulate a lot of digital materials, customers still want to come in and touch the books. The smell of a room full of books is distinct, and often a reason customers cite for loving the library. Browsing titles online cannot provide the same visceral experience as touching physical books and leafing through the pages. One feature that shopping on Amazon cannot replicate is the experience of browsing and serendipitous finds. The time that creative librarians put into developing and maintaining appealing displays is rewarded by helping customers spot just the right book that they didn’t know they were looking for.

Library Staff Members Know What Patrons Want

When Barnes and Noble tried a “one size fits all” approach nationwide with fees paid to feature books that the publishers wanted to promote, it was a failure. Libraries are most successful when they let the staff respond to community interests. Front line staff members know their customers and their community. They know what people are asking for and how to meet those needs. Libraries sometimes accomplish this through floating collections, where items stay in the branch where they are returned. It is also important to target the buying of materials based on circulation statistics and the number of customer holds –both good ways to gauge demand. Barnes and Noble learned that encouraging bookstore staff in each location to promote what their customers wanted increased sales. Libraries can apply that lesson for books and for programming. Communities respond when they feel that the library is listening and providing what they want.

“Give Em What They Want”

Charlie Robinson, long time director of Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL) is well known in library circles for pioneering the concept of “give ‘em what they want.” When Robinson took over as library director of BCPL in 1963, the system was following the traditional philosophy of housing classics and buying what the librarians thought people should be reading instead of what they wanted to be reading. While his philosophy was controversial, it helped BCPL grow into a leading public library system with circulation rivaling Queens Public Library by the early 1990s.

Focus on Priorities

Mission creep happened in Barnes and Noble, and it certainly happens in libraries as well. Some of it is positive – notepads and Nook tables and eReaders in Barnes & Noble make sense. But the space that was used for elaborate toy sections and household items was converted back to space for books and educational materials. Libraries have expanded to include public health initiatives to address community needs but they also have to make careful decisions so that staff and budgetary capacity are respected, and the library is able to focus on established priorities. The lessons learned by B & N’s challenges resonate with public libraries as well and have the potential to support the growth of both in the future.

The post Lessons in Focus: What Public Libraries Can Learn from Barnes & Noble’s Challenges first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

At the end of 2022, I posted a survey on various listservs to determine how other libraries managed their world language collections, including selection, cataloging, and distribution. The majority of libraries across the U.S. that responded use demographic data from the census as their primary source for determining which non-English languages to provide to their community. Specifically, libraries use the American Community Survey which provides data down to the city level and is updated continuously. School district data, local surveys and need assessments, as well as patron attendance of English learning programs, are additional vital sources.

Diana Miranda-Murillo at the Austin Public Library in Texas says, “something that is not included in the demographic data is how people move in the city. For example, we might know that Spanish speaking people are not living around a certain area of town but they might work there. So, paying attention to data on where customers return materials [is important].”

Miranda-Murillo also suggests partnering with local cultural and refugee organizations for determining languages and types of materials. “For example, when I approached the Association of Ukrainians in Austin, I learned it is a community with families and small children so I added Ukranian materials that matched that profile.”

Once the languages are determined, choosing the materials within each language is challenging. Librarian selectors fluent in the language is ideal but not always possible. Many libraries rely on vendors, such as Tsai Fong Books and Multicultural Books and Videos, to supply a selection of world language materials using specific parameters, patron feedback, and continuous adjustments to get the best for their community.

Lana Harman from the Yolo County Library in Northern California says, “Standing orders were tried in the past but were unsuccessful as vendors are usually located in major cities and a) judge what my community needs by the needs of the community they live in; and b) unload slow-moving books on us.”

More and more libraries are hiring bilingual librarians, especially in the local predominant non-English language, which helps with purchasing as well. Bilingual selectors can also travel to various world book fairs, such as FIL Guadalajara, to get materials from smaller publishers and upcoming titles, as well as assess trends. Long Beach Public Library in California sends staff to Cambodia every 3-5 years to purchase materials in Khmer.

Alternatively, libraries like California’s Arcadia Public Library look at what other libraries in similar community demographics are purchasing. The Hillsboro Public Library in Oregon recently partnered with the library in their sister town in Japan to assess each other’s language collection and make suggestions for improvement.

“Local feedback” and “patron requests” in determining purchases were both common library responses in the survey, including the Benicia Public Library in California, Tigard Public Library in Oregon, Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan. For their smaller world language collections, Tigard Public Library and Long Beach Public Library also rely on donations.

Of course, due to monetary, selection, and staffing restrictions, not all languages can be provided (on location or through outreach). Ann Arbor District Library offers a small amount in 125  languages but only focuses on about 25 and Long Beach Public Library uses a similar methodology. Until receiving a grant from the California State Library, Benicia Public Library was only able to offer Spanish materials as an alternative to English. The grant allowed them to expand their world language collections to seven languages and have, since then, added two more.

Another alternative is limited languages in one area – such as adult materials – so the resources can be used more efficiently elsewhere. Youth materials are often less expensive and bilingual, so resources can go further. Some libraries, like the Multnomah County Library in Oregon, offer a greater number of languages for outreach books since they can be uncatalogued and have very little processing (both huge cost savings).

As our communities develop and diversify further, it is increasingly important for public libraries to provide quality world language collections. Ideally the availability and cost of materials from other countries will improve (as well as funding of course) but it is clear that collaboration is key, between libraries, vendors, and local organizations. Thank you to all of the libraries that responded to my survey for this article – I hope it leads to some amazing world language collection discussions and partnerships.

The post World Language Collections: Growing With Our Communities first appeared on Public Libraries Online.