One of the things that I’ve been trying over at Success Library (In the Gateway shopping centre in Success for those who wanna know) is shelving our graphic novels collection by title rather than author. Again, I’m lucky to have the librarian here be prepared to try out new things and not be afraid to go against the norm.
It drives me crazy how comics at libraries are shelved by author and the reason why? Spider-man must have had over a couple of hundred writers since he started almost 50 years ago. It makes SO much more sense to have it all organised by series! I want Batman, why I just go look up BAT (in most cases) and there you are. It works! In the old system Id have to go to LOE, MOR, MIL, DIX, and so on and so on. People come in saying “I want to read a Batman comic!” – not “Hmmn, I feel like reading a Chuck Dixon book”. In most cases – there are the superstar writers out there but in most cases.. Obviously this system works fine for books but comics? Not so much. Comics are organised by title – people seek out comics by title (generally) – its the character or series that’s important (sadly) not (generally) the creators.
Just because no-ones doing it doesn’t mean its not a good idea. I’m lucky in this case (don’t laugh, it means a lot to me! 
) but most of the time its a matter of “Well do other libraries do it that way?” I want to be a trailblazer (I’m hyping up this ‘shelving comics by title’ a little too much aren’t I?) and go against the norms when the norms don’t make sense rather than just follow along because that’s what everyone else does.
So after working there for almost a year and just chipping away a few books every now and again I’ve almost finished! (Well, finished whats currently on the shelves) And now I’m working on linking all the material and having everything searchable by series. If you clcik on an Amazing Spider-man book you should be able to bring up a list of all the other Amazing Spider-man books we have as well as bring up a list of all the Spider-man books we have in general.
Good stuff!
I’m definitely living vicariously through my coll..er..the librarys collection now and often stare lovingly at my beautifully organised shelves and tut to myself when I see someones shelved a Garfield book in the adult fiction section. The nerve! But yes, I think I’m a little obsessed and possessive over it. I even go in to work on it when I’m not being paid (That happenned one time alright? Leave me alone). What can I say – I love me some comics and is it really a bad thing to have someone passionate over something? My mind positively melts when I envision my ..er…our graphic novel section in our new library thats soon to be built! I’m getting giddy just thinking about it..
Does anyone else have their graphic novels shelved by series or title? Just curious..
I’m interested in how this works, because I’ve thought of doing this as well – shelving graphic novels by series rather than author. Do you find it makes it easier for patrons and staff to find stuff? Also have you created like a matrix or something for the series links? Since I’ve been at my library, I’ve grown the graphic novel collection hugely, from 2 shelves to 2 full bays and still going!
I really havent been doing it long enough to get a proper gauge but I can’t see how it wouldn’t be better. Books are located so much easier. The only thing I’m struggling with is with the more creator owned stuff that’s just as identifiable by the writer as the series – think like Gaiman or Miller or someone. But so far I think it’s working well and makes more sense to me as a comic fan myself. I’m linking everything together in our catalogue just through series links eg ult spiderman links to the ult spidey series, spidey in general and ultimate universe books as well.
Good work on the shelf expansion! It’s fun huh?