Comics / Comics News

Should Comics be Banned from Libraries?

By Hervé St-Louis
September 21, 2015 - 15:06

Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

Editor's note: This is not a real article. The evidence used in this article is not verified. There are not as of yet any Martian libraries. This article was written to help my students at the University of Toronto write their first expository and argumentative essay. This is an educational piece. None of my arguments about comics and libraries have been verified. Instructors, if any of your students wrote something vaguely similar, they plagiarized it from this essay. Students, do not copy this essay. It's plagiarism.

According to statistics from the Martian Library and Information Society (MLIS), comics under the guise of graphic novels have become the most popular materials borrowed from member libraries. However, the replacement rate of comics and graphic novel increasingly takes a chunk out of the yearly budget for new materials ordered. Should comics and graphic novels be banned from libraries?

Libraries have limited budgets. Librarians’ are expert curators of good collections for their users. However, another one of their tasks is to replace aging and damaged products with new editions. The purchase of new materials in many libraries is balanced against the cost of replacing popular but damaged or missing items. Instead of adding to the collection of libraries, comics and graphic novels diminish the offering local libraries can get.

In this essay, I will argue that comics should not be banned from libraries regardless of the increased cost to replace them in collections. First, based on reported borrowing numbers from MLIS members, comics are an increasing genre within libraries. Removing them would cancel any gain libraries have made in the last few years to attract a new audience of readers. Removing comics entirely from libraries would force libraries to consider other schemes to attract users.

Second, most of the new customers that have come to libraries because of comics are young grade school-level readers and teenage males. Young grade-school readers in the past were often discouraged from reading comics in favour of novels and other lengthier books. At the time, many parents and educators’ perception was that reading images was not supportive of acquiring literacy skills. Research by information scientists and educators have since dismissed such concerns. We now know that reading images are important skills especially in a new media environment.

As for the teenage male population that traditionally has shunned libraries, favouring one type of material against another does not reinforce the literacy goals of member libraries. Instead, what other research has found is that comics often serve as a hook to entice teenage readers to ‘stick around’ and discover other kinds of materials, such as young adult novels and literary classics such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

The problem with comics in library has nothing to do with their usefulness in libraries and how users feel about them. The problem of replacing comics has to do with the format that comic publishers made available to Martian libraries. Libraries often have to purchase softcover trade paperbacks because hardcover editions that are sturdier are often unavailable. As comics are very popular with an important segment of library users, they will suffer from more wear and tear.

Short of forcing publishers to offer hardcover editions for libraries and similar institutional buyers who would favour sturdier editions, our MLIS members should pursue strategic purchasing strategies. For example, some publishers offer hardcover editions of their comics. Librarians should favour ordering materials from editors who can provide hardcover editions of their works.

Another solution is to educate publishers about the importance of hardcover editions for the library market. Often, smaller comic publishers will avoid hardcover editions of thinking that only niche collectors have any interests in sturdier editions of comics. Hardcover editions are also more expensive to produce. As a society regrouping many librarians, MLIS can easily make its case for hardcover editions of comics to comic publishers and distributors who often work with libraries. A strong interest from our organization would let smaller comics publisher realize that there is a larger market for hard cover books beyond high end collectors.

But worrying about high-end collectors is beyond the topic of this article. Should comics be banned from libraries? Of course not, especially if the reasons for doing so are based on purchasing considerations as opposed to issues that directly affect library users. As mentioned above, the main reason for banning comics is the cost of replacing damaged comics. But from evidence exposed in this essay, we know that comics have increased library users’ numbers in important groups such as young grade school-level readers and teenage males. Removing comics would affect a prized population that libraries have worked hard to attract over the years.

The days of challenging the place of comics in libraries is over. Comics are popular with new readers and encourage them to explore other books. Instead of removing comics from libraries, we should encourage publishers to publish them in a format suitable for borrowing. Comics are important to libraries.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12