Final Project - Bremen Public Library Free Comic Book Day Booklist

The Bremen Public Library is a small community library located in Bremen, IN, that serves the citizens of German Township in Marshall County.  The population of the service area is roughly 8,000 people, with one public school system. German Township has a sizeable Hispanic population 

as well as a large Amish population.

In order to try and attract new patrons, and because the librarians recognize that many of their patrons love graphic novels comics but have limited access because there is no comic book retailer in Bremen, the Bremen Public Library staff wanted to do something for Free Comic Day. Free Comic Book day is typically an event in which independent comic retailers give away free comics in order to attract new readers.  It is held annually on the 2^nd of May.  In order to participate, and secure the special Free Comic Book titles, libraries must find a comic retailer that will agree to be an “educational sponsor.”   We were able to contact BuyMeToys.com, which has a storefront in Mishawaka, IN, and secure donations of singe-issue comics to the Bremen Public Library.  In order to promote the event, the library marketed it on Facebook and created several displays and bulletins prior to the event, and I volunteered to create an annotated book list and a display. After getting input from the heads of the adult and children’s departments, I decided to do something for the adult department, and the titles that I choose to highlight are as follows:

·         Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman

·         The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman

·         Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

·         Watchmen by Alan Moore

·         The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller

·         Sandman by Neil Gaiman

·         All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison

·         Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

·         Scott Pilgrim vs. the World by Bryan Lee O’Malley

·         Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn

                                         

When I created this book list, I had two main goals: 1. To present some great alternatives to the stereotypical  “superhero” genre of comics via titles whose artistic merit makes them worthy of the graphic novel literary cannon, and 2. To showcase specific notable authors who I feel have very unique voices. Maus was a given for my project because it tops nearly every “great graphic novel of all time” list, including lists by both IGN and Wizard magazine, and it is still the only graphic novel to ever receive a Pulitzer Prize. Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, Persepolis, and Sandman are also titles that appear frequently in the top ten on “all time greatest” lists, and Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and Alan Moore are all veteran comic book authors who have been hugely important, throughout the years, to the mainstream acceptance of comics as an artistic medium. I considered Frank Miller’s Sin City and Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta for my list, but ultimately decided against their inclusion because I wanted to reserve spots for some newer voices, and I think that both Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are superior works because of how they take the conventional superhero worlds and turn them into what I can only describe as dark parodies of themselves. 

Brian K. Vaughn, Grant Morrison, and Daniel Clowes were some of the “new voices” that I knew I wanted to include in my annotated list straight off the bat, because I think they are some of the most important and innovative authors currently writing in the medium.  I debated whether or not to include Vaughn’s Saga, because I think that it’s his best work to date, but went with Y: The Last Man because I believe it is the most universally accessible to most readers while still being critically acclaimed.  Similarly, Grant Morrison’s work is often very challenging, and he likes to blur the line between reality and fantasy so often that it can be confusing to follow plotlines, etc… All-Star Superman is a great story and probably Morrison’s most accessible work.

Scott Pilgrim, Persepolis, Watchmen, Ghost World and The Walking Dead have all spawned movie and television adaptations, which are great for library displays—in my opinion—because it makes cross-format promotion exceptionally easy.  I choose to include Scott Pilgrim largely because of its appeal to teenagers, and because the movie adaptation is excellent. Ghost World and Persepolis were both adapted into critically acclaimed films, while The Walking Dead has become one of the most watched television series currently being produced

At the end of the day on May 2^nd, 2015, we recorded a Free Comic Book Day attendance of 66 people.  We started with roughly 120 single issue comics, and by the end of the day, we only had 17 remaining—and most of them were issues of a specific title, Red Sonja, that doesn’t seem to be very popular.  The library’s copies of Watchmen, Persepolis, The Walking Dead (Vol. 1-5), The Dark Knight Returns, Y: The Last Man (Vol. 1-3), Sandman (Vol. 1-2), and All-Star Superman (Vol. 1-2) had all been checked out by patrons by the end of the day.  All in all, I believe that the even was a huge success, and I found a lot of satisfaction in the fact that many of the titles on my annotated booklist ended up being circulated by the end of the day. 

Marketing Fiction

When I worked at the Tippecanoe County Public Library, one of the items that I thought was a good marketing tool for fiction was read-a-like lists in the form of book marks.  I think that many times we run the risk, at the library, of having so many different posters and pamphlets that everything just becomes white noise for our patrons.  What I liked about the reading lists we used was that they were long, thick bookmarks, and they would just kind of live in certain books. For example, there'd be a David Baldacci book with a read-a-like list put together from Novelist suggestions inside of it, and someone would check it out and return it with the same bookmark in it-- so, over time, they'd get worn out, but you knew that the bookmark was getting looked at repeatedly.

At the St. Joseph County Public Library, one of the big programming cycle events is called "One Book, One Michigan." I know a lot of libraries have events like this, where they encourage patrons to read a specific book-- often a classic-- and then have all kinds of different programming themed around it.  But I really think it's helpful, and you can really spotlight an excellent book and get your entire community behind it.  The book that we did that I thought went particularly well was "Killer Angels."  People eat up Civil War themed programming-- I don't know why.  I guess it's just about a common thread in American History.

Of course, displays are fun to do and I really think they help circulation in specific areas of your collection.  I always like to do science fiction and graphic novel displays because I like those genres of literature. I did a Hugo Award winner display not too long ago where we numbered a bunch of Hugo winners and put the numbers randomly in a little Bingo ball where people could crank it and get a random number, and then the idea was that they took the book with the corresponding number.  I think that sometimes, when people know that they like a specific genre, they're more willing to take a risk on an author in that genre they may not know-- and I think that helps interactive displays, like the one I described, succeed.

Week 14 Prompt Response

I find this to be a particularly difficult question to answer, quite honestly.  I think that how you organize your material is really dependent upon the readership of the library, what you circulate, and what you acquire.  If it makes sense to create a focused space for a particular library genre, you should do it. To some degree, signage costs money, so it’s nice to keep your genre schema fairly flexible, and I feel like sometimes people overvalue the need for extremely precise genre labels. As a former page/shelver, I think it’s a pain to constantly have to readjust shelve labels. 

I’m a fan of keeping the genre system relatively simple.

I work at a very small public library, and I find that one of the genres that checks out the most is Amish fiction—so it makes sense for us to have an Amish fiction section. Materials circulate so well that it should probably be expanded. However, we don’t have an LGBTQ section and we don’t have a Street Lit section.  We still provide access to titles in those genres, and people can still search for titles in those genres via our OPAC, but they don’t tend to circulate well enough to necessitate a designated browsing space. We have a generic “paperbacks” section where a lot of the pulp stuff goes. I also feel like these genres can be incorporated into other genres designations, like Romance, and the general Fiction section is always the catch-all.  It’s a logistical decision, to some degree—I don’t think we should regard genre labeling as philosophical or political.  If we isolated those genres at my library, they’d only probably fill up 2 or 3 shelves, so I think it’s the right call not to separate them out.  And again, this is why we have OPACs, to some degree. However, if the collection was bigger, and those titles circulated better, I’d have no problem pulling the trigger on creating a space for them.

The Readers' Advisory Matrix for "Under and Alone" by William Queen

Where is the book on the narrative continuum?

Highly Narrative

What is the subject of the book?

The story of a former ATF agent who infiltrated, and ultimately helped bring down, the Mongols Motorcycle Club in California’s San Fernando Valley in 1998.

What type of book is it?

A true-crime memoir.

Articulate appeal:

What is the pacing?  Quick paced thriller.

Characters: William Queen undercover under the moniker Billy St. John, Domingo, the terrifying Mongols’ President, and a revolving cast of colorful ex-convicts and criminal bikers of the 1% variety.

How does the story feeling: Thrilling and suspenseful.

What is the intent of the author: To entertain and educate the reader on organized crime.

What is the focus of the story? William Queen’s struggle to cope with and justify his behavior as he gets sucked deeper and deeper into the outlaw biker lifestyle.

Does the language matter? Yes.

Is the setting important and well-described? Yes—William Queen was one of the first federal agents to infiltrate an organization that could only exist, for a variety of reasons, at that specific point in time, in a part of the country where the weather permits year-round motorcycle activity.

Are there details and, if so, of what?  Vivid memories described from the first person perspective.

Are there sufficient charts and graphic materials, etc…? None.

Does the book stress moment of learning, understanding, or experience? Real-life experience and understanding of the criminal element from someone who lived it first hand.

Why would a reader enjoy this book (rank appeal)?

1. Action   2. Suspense   3. Experience

Annotation - Fantasy

Author: Neil Gaiman

Title: American Gods

Genre: Fantasy

Publication Date: 2001

Number of Pages: 465 pages

Geographical Setting: Modern day USA

Time Period: Late 1990's or early 2000's

Plot Summary: Shadow, a strong, silent ex-con with a knack for getting into trouble gets released from jail just in time to travel to his dead wife's funeral. Eventually, while looking for work, Shadow encounters Mr. Wednesday, who is looking for a bodyguard. After meeting a host of Mr. Wednesday's odd friends, becoming an accomplice to a few minor crimes, and fighting his way free after being kidnapped by a group of mysterious men in black, Shadow realizes that the Gods from the ancient scriptures are alive and well in modern day American, and that Mr. Wednesday-- AKA Odin-- is recruiting powerful beings for an impending all-out battle to the death with the new, modern-day American Gods, who aim to wipe the ancient Gods from existence.

Subject Headings:

• National characteristics, American -- Fiction.
• Spiritual warfare -- Fiction.
• Ex-convicts -- Fiction.

Appeal: Adult fans of fantasy and mythology as well as mind-bending science fiction.

3 terms that best describe this book: fantasy, mythology, action

Similar Authors and Works:

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin -- A feudal court drama, set in a fictitious realm of the Westeros, in the wake of the death of the great King Robert Baratheon that follows the lives of several key point-of-view characters, including the honorable Ned Stark, his wife, and his children. Known for scenes of graphic violence and explicit sexual content, as well as Martin's penchant for unceremoniously dispatching beloved characters, Game of Thrones is adult fantasy at its best.    

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett -- Book # 13 of the Discworld series, Small Gods tells the story of Brutha, an ordinary man seeking nothing but to live a simple life, who's existence is radically changed when his God, speaking through the mouth of a tortoise, appears to him and sends him on an epic quest for peace. 

Imajica by Clive Barker -- After a nasty split from her sadistic husband, Judith is pursued through the streets of New York City by his assassins. After being saved by her long lost love, John Zacharius, the two are sucked into the underworld of Imajica where they are forced to battle ancient, unspeakable evil. 

eBooks & Audiobooks - week 11 prompt response

The first audiobook I ever "read" was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. We listened to the novel on a family trip to Florida over the span of two days and two nights on the way to Florida to stay with my grandparents when I was roughly 12 years old. Today, I listen to audiobooks all the time-- I have a half an hour commute to the library I work at, and that ensures me an hour daily in which I can listen to an audiobook.  In fact, sometimes I am unable to sit down and read anything other than an audiobook in the course of a day. Most of the time now, I will have an audiobook checked out, as well as copies of the same book on eBook and a physical print version of the book.  I love this combination of multiple formats because it allows me to rapidly consume literature. One of the big appeals to eBooks is that you an adjust the appearance of the font, make the text bigger or smaller, and sometimes eBooks include music, which may or may not appeal to someone reading them.  Basically, all of these innovations in the way we read are conveniences that we did not have when I was a child.  eBooks and audiobooks allow us to experience literature in a very unique way.  With audiobook, a narrator can greatly effect your experience with a novel-- and sometimes, an audiobook is an improper choice for a certain novel.  Reading "The Sound and the Fury" on audiobook, for example, is a poor choice because of the unique way in which the author manipulates language-- that sort of experimentation doesn't really translate to narration, and you won't fully understand or be able to appreciate what the author is doing. However, some books-- such as the Harry Potter series-- are fantastic on audiobook, and the narrator's performance only enhances the experience. The ability to manipulate the text with eBooks is helpful with patrons who have poor vision, and for a library, an eBook copy of a novel is great because one individual copy can service the normal print crowd and the large print crowd without necessitating multiple copies of a book.  As long as you pay attention and put some care into your choice of book when it comes to eBooks and audiobooks, the experience with them will be mostly positive-- and the other great thing about these two formats is that multiple works can be downloaded to a device like a Kindle or an iPad for vacations and trips that don't consume the same amount of physical space in your luggage.  It is possible to get a poor narrator for an audiobook, but other than that, there aren't too many drawbacks to experiencing a great novel in either medium.

Book Club Experience

As luck would have it, a friend of mine-- having recently moved home after being away for several years-- had expressed interest in starting a book club prior to this assignment, and she asked me if I would help her moderate the group.  She assembled a Facebook group and invited around 25 of our mutual friends and acquaintances to join, then started a thread to gauge interest and there was a generally positive response. We determined a time and a place to meet, and left the group open in order to allow any interested parties to extend invites to friends. As the conversation went on, Kazuo Ishiguro's name came up in discussion and we eventually settled on Never Let Me Go for our first book club book. 

We met at a New Orleans-themed cafe in the downtown area of our city, which might not have been the best idea because there was live music and initially it was hard to talk to each other. Out of all of the people we had invited, only 4 of us were able to actually attend the meeting; of the 4 of us that showed up, only 2 of us had actually finished the book.  However, the other 2 people there had read enough of the book to hold a discussion, and we enjoyed a few cocktails and talked for roughly 2 hours. We didn't use any kind of study guides, but during the course of reading the books it became apparent that there was plenty to talk about.  Topics of conversation mostly centered on the behavior of the characters—and especially why one of the characters, Ruth, acted so horribly towards the other 2 main characters, Tommy and Kathy, and tried to keep them apart when they were obviously meant to be together.  The book proved to be divisive and 2 of us (myself included) rated the book at 2 of 5 stars, while the other 2 people rated it at 4 of 5 stars. Generally the people who rated the book poorly did so because they felt that none of the characters in the book were very likable—and that some of them were downright stupid—while the people who did like the book admitted that they typically enjoyed novels that were "sort of tragic."

Despite the not-so-stellar turnout, everyone enjoyed the meeting and we all agreed to meet again.  Several people had mentioned—via Facebook—that even though they missed the first meeting, they would still be interested in attending book club on future dates.  We also decided that we would take a poll of everyone who finished the book—even if they didn’t make the meeting—in order to keep track of our overall response to the books that we read; Never Let Me Go ended up with an overall rating of 3 after everything was said and done—which made sense based on our initial group’s ratings.  We held a discussion about what to read next, and we realized that there was quite a bit of interest from members in science fiction in general—and especially in sci-fi that would be considered “dystopian.”  One of the group members suggested the novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which most of the members had never heard of before.  The overall consensus was that most of us wanted to get outside our comfort zones when it comes to the book club, so we elected to go for it. The book is considered to be one of the first dystopian science fiction novels, written in 1921, and is said to have been greatly influential upon George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.  I was initially concerned that it would be a hard book to find, but no one’s had any problems finding it so far, and it looks like book club is on track for next month.