What to Read After Watchmen > For Librarians
For Librarians
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Comics in Academia1
"It is suddenly much easier to provide reasonable support for high school and the undergraduate college level study of comics. Whether this will lead to an increase in such studies is hard to say, but the possibility seems reasonable. There are more academic library comic collections than there are college courses taught on comics for sure. Libraries seem to be leading the way in introducing comics to academia right now. It is a good time to be a comics librarian."
- Randall Scott, 1990
The Comics Market2
- The North American graphic novel market has increased from $75 million in 2001, to $330 million in 2006, to $375 million in 2007 with an additional $329 million for periodical comic books.
- Graphic novels hold over 11% of the overall book industry.
- The library market for graphic novels is over 7% of the total at approximately $30 million.
- A graphic novel library collection will always see a higher circulation rate in proportion to its size.
- At least half of students checking out graphic novels will also check out text fiction titles at the same time.
1O'English, L. (2009). "Comics and Graphic Novels in the Academic Library Collection" in Graphic novels beyond the basics: insights and issues for libraries. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
2Cornog, M. & Perper, T., eds. (2009). "Introduction" in Graphic novels beyond the basics: insights and issues for libraries. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited..
