You look at the clock at 8:30 at night and realize that you can still make it to the public library before it closes at 10:00. You then proceed to check out Fruits Basket #14, Absolute Boyfriend #5, Incognegro, and Embroderies. You then realize you can't remember the last time you went to the library and checked out a traditional novel.
Aside from that, it was another one of those experiences at the public library where you're left kind of wandering around looking for what you want and trying to establish what version of shelving they've decided to go with. This is a big county library, on a junior college campus and has all the bells and whistles you could dream of. It also has graphic novel/manga shelving schizophrenia. There are some graphic novels and a couple manga titles in the adult 741.5 section, then when you enter the "Teens" area there is a stand alone shelf full of traditional graphic novels. Next to that is a hand lettered sign that says "Manga is found at the end of the YA Fiction shelves." Everything I've read emphasizes that manga are graphic novels. So why does no one really shelve them together? Why do Spiderman, Batman, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Othello get to party together, and Tohru Honda, Princess Ai, and the others have to hang out in their own section?
One of the things I really hoped to get a clearer idea about during this semester was how things were shelved... unfortunately, I'm learning that no one else is sure either.
For a sidebar, I went to get my oil changed today, and was happily reading a copy of Fruits Basket to pass the time, and a teenage boy looked at me and said "Fruits Basket?" I smiled and nodded to which he replied "Cool."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment