You know that wave of notoriety that comics are enjoying right now? A large portion of it is due to the efforts of librarians across the country, a fact Jen de Guzman is well aware of:

A key moment in the effort to raise librarians’ consciousness of graphic novels was the 2002 Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) conference. As a part of the American Library Association, YALSA instituted an annual list of recommended graphic novels for teens. Mike Pawuk, teen services librarian at the Cuyahoga County Library in Ohio, contributed to spearheading this effort, chairing a pre-conference called “Get Graphic @ Your Library” (which makes me think of patrons using the study rooms in creative ways, but I guess that’s not what they meant). The pre-conference became an event itself, with guest speakers Neil Gaiman, Art Spiegelman, Jeff Smith, and Colleen Doran.

“We have a lot to be proud of,” Mike wrote to me reagrding this event. “Plus, we’re the only event that featured Art Spiegelman—an admitted chain-smoker—to appear on stage without a cigarette.” (I wonder if they’d have the same success with noted cancer-stick aficionado Marjane Satrapi.) Mike relates with some amusement, that “some of us on the committee thought that in a few years graphic novels would be just a passing fad—and look at us now!” The pre-conference resulted in an annual YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, and a lot more awareness of the medium. “Graphic novels are definitely here to stay,” Mike wrote.

Since I started writing about comics for my daily newspaper I’ve become much more aware of how hip most librarians are about comics. They really are spearheading this charge.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 8:16 am and is filed under Industry, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.