The TL and Graphic Novels

The Role of the TL

TLs play a vital role in informing school communities about GNs, in GN selection and management and in collaborating to ensure GNs are promoted in schools and supported by parents.

TLs Lead The Way

TLs understand students’ information needs and interests (ASLA 1.2) and have a sound understanding of the school’s curriculum and culture. Therefore TLs are ideally placed to educate and mentor their colleagues and school community (ASLA 3.4) regarding GNs.

A survey to establish the school community’s existing knowledge and feelings towards GNs would be beneficial (ASLA 2.4), informing the TL how to prioritise strategies to best meet the community’s GN learning needs. Educating the community about the contribution carefully selected GNs can make to students’ learning and their enjoyment of reading (ASLA 3.3) is important. TLs need to be clear that GNs should co-exist, rather than replace traditional texts - each having value. A carefully thought out change plan would be necessary to create a school culture that enthusiastically embraces GNs.

Excellent TLs have a detailed knowledge of current educational pedagogy, understanding that students learn in different ways (ASLA 1.2). Inundated daily by images, students require visual literacy skills to interpret and understand what they see.  Visual literacy is often neglected (Laycock, 2011, p.5) so children need to develop a visual vocabulary to become visually literate and TLs need to lead the way by providing this necessary staff training (ASLA 3.1).  I am not someone who enjoys taking on leadership roles but I have had to with my school's Information Literacy focus (just ran a parent workshop this week on Referencing skills which went really well - so I am surprising myself!) However, I have enjoyed learning about GNs so much that I have asked to talk about their value to library staff later this year (we have about 20 library staff at my school.) I also want to invite parents in later this academic year (our year ends next July) to inform them them of the benefits of GNs. I am also planning to collaborate with staff on which GNs could be used to support our curriculum in time for the next academic year. I am very conscious too that al of this needs to be part of  a Change Plan to ensure everyone in the school community is on board and to ensure GNs are embraced , promoted and appreciated. 

Budgeting for GNs

TLs must plan carefully and budget for GN collection development, maintenance and display (ASLA 2.3). If extra funding is not available, evaluation of existing expenditure is necessary,  re-prioritising money for the GN collection (Laycock, 2005, p. 50). The ideal of displaying GNs face-out has library space and budget implications. However, as the cover’s graphic image will attract readers the money will be well spent and the space justified. Ongoing GN maintenance will also impact budgets as the GNs’ soft covers and high borrowing rates mean a reduced shelf life (Laycock, 2005, p. 53).

GNs are read faster than a novel, so the collection will need careful monitoring and regular updating (Volin, 2011, p.5). Frequent weeding for condition will be necessary as GN’s high usage and soft covers mean their condition deteriorates faster. Reading online and talking to students about emerging trends will help keep the collection current, but this needs to be budgeted for carefully.My budget focus for Term 2 will be to buy GNs and evaluate them for my school's needs before purchasing multiple copies for my library (we have almost 800 students in my Junior School - so multiples of popular books are advisable.) In Singapore it is hard to find books - especially GNs so I will be searching and probably purchasing mostly online. I really need to consider shelving too. I have just freed up three shelves to use as face-outs for GNs and the books are being borrowed so much more! I need to consider if there is any other way I can find face-out space. One possibility is using the nearby magazine area - which is all face out and would mean at last another 12 books could be displayed showing their front covers. Then I would have to move the magazines ...there's always a knock on effect, isn't there , when there are space issues in a library! 

Selection

TLs understand well-resourced libraries have a direct impact on school achievement (ASLA 1.4).  GNs necessitate careful selection because they vary in quality (Hansen & Fink, 2012, p.3) and also because their content can cause offence (La Marca & Macintyre, 2006, p. 124). Manga, for example has semi-nude characters and language not suitable for young western readers (Frey & Fisher, 2008, p. 30) and what is seen can have a more powerful impact than what is read. Many publishers include an age-rating on the back of GNs but as there is no consistent ratings standard TLs must evaluate GN content carefully (Volin, 2011, p.4).

La Marca & Macintyre (2006, p. 124) and Laycock (2005, p. 51) advise using reputable GN vendors, searching library associations for recommended GN booklists and reading widely from sources like School Library Journal to inform selection. Publishers’ catalogues and online reviews can also be useful (Volin, 2011, p.5).

After advising teachers regarding appropriate GNs, collaboration is good practice to ensure the final selection supports the curriculum and facilitates higher-order thinking (Laycock, 2005, p.52) (ASLA 2.2). Involving students in the selection process will help promote GNs in the library (La Marca & Macintyre, 2006, p. 124).

The TL’s selection process should be informed by the library collection development policy and selection criteria like popularity, genre, reading level, artwork quality, writer’s/artist’s reputation. This will help the TL counteract any challenges to the collection (Laycock, 2005, p.51). The existing policy might need to be revised to include GNs if it does not already do so. The TL remains however, the ‘ultimate  selection tool’ (Laycock, 2005, p.51) for TLs have a broad overview of school needs.I was interested to discover most GNs have a recommended age displayed on their back cover. I really do believe that the TL must evaluate the GNs though as I have seen many which are inappropriate for my Juniors for a variety of reasons. 

Cataloguing

Original cataloguing by the TL might be necessary for the GN collection if the school’s cataloguing service does not create records for stand alone GN collections. Some publishers do provide online cataloguing advice but often it is for GNs located in the non-fiction collections (Laycock, 2005, p. 52). I am lucky that my staff are trained to do original cataloguing - so this is not an issue for my library. If I didn't have the staff though it could be a big problem as I am not trained to catalogue. 

GN Promotion

A single location for GNs ensures better access for users (La Marca & Macintyre, 2006, p. 124) – ideally a central location or high traffic area. Dynamic signage relating to comics will have student appeal and visually reinforce the nature of the collection (ASLA 3.2).  Although advice differs on the organisation of a GN collection (Lee, 2004, p.2), a stand alone GN collection can be organised by shelving non-fiction GNs by Dewey call number and fiction by author surname or alternatively by title or character (Volin, 2011, p.4).

Existing GN collections must be evaluated as old, uninspiring GNs, or those in poor condition will not have the ‘kapow factor’ Laycock (2005, p. 50) advises is best to inspire students. Weeding existing collections, by condition or borrowing statistics can create shelf space for  new GN collections (Volin, 2011, p. 4) (ASLA 1.4).

GNs should be displayed face-out (Laycock, 2005, p. 53 and Lee, 2004, p.2) and exploiting movie links and other tie-ins will also promote GNs. The TL needs to introduce GNs to all students, use them with classes and provide easy access for the GN enthusiast (Frey & Fisher, 2008, p. 34). Including a GN when offering book suggestions to students, (Goldsmith, 2010, p.33), is another simple, effective strategy to promote GNs (ASLA 3.2).   I can't wait to re-vamp the whole GN collection area and design some amazing signage - I want the signage to have a huge visual impact on the students so they will be attracted to those books. This subject changed my attitude completely to GNs - now when I see a child choose a GN I am saying how great GNs are and what a good choice they have made. Before I would have been telling the child not to forget they need to also choose a 'good fiction' book and that the GN was an 'extra' book  - how misguided I was!!!!! What a fabulous assignment - I learnt so much and it has made a real difference to my practice - I can't wait to implement all I have learnt. I have already made some changes - so I have made a start which is good. Unfortunately I have to weed the Guided Readers for the English Department and work with the Head of IT to design an app for Information Literacy first - but I will get there, I must be patient. 

References: See September 7th Post