manga @ the library

[fpbrush]

Here's something I began thinking about after some responses in my last thread. Manga at the library. It's something I never really thought about checking out (har har)--assuming complete lack of manga or poor selection--however it looks like some of you get at least some of your manga reading done from through the library.

So how is the selection of manga at your library? Do you use it for manga reading? Are there any programs at the library devoted to manga--I found out my local branch at college has some sort of manga program for kids to get together and share thier interest!

My community branch is a very small library but sees alot of traffic. It does have manga but the selection is mediocre. Some scattered One Piece volumes and some shojo. So it got me thinking-- I know I love to buy things, especially manga or anime related things. However, after I buy a series what usually ends up happening is I get a nice feeling of completion and end up never reading through it again. Or, we've all started a series, only to find it wasn't our cup of tea and stop collecting it. So I thought it may be a good idea to start donating manga to the library, it lets others enjoy a large collection and helps you save some storage space! I vaugely remember someone mentioning this a long time ago concerning anime. But I think it would work even better with manga, because of it's book nature. So I would love to hear your responses to this idea or if you have already done something like this, how it has turned out and how you went about donating! Thanks for reading!

[SoopyKun]

We have an awesome library; lately they've added a whole bunch of manga. Before, they had Ranma, InuYasha, Nausicaa, and the old, flipped Fushigi Yugi and Ceres. Now, they've replaced the latter two with the new editions, Naruto, One Piece, Kenshin, X, Bleach, Shaman King, Kare Kano, Vagabond, Yu Yu Hakusho, Case Closed, Beet, Totoro, Gundam, DragonBall...it's great! Especially when a lot of it is appropriate for younger readers, and therefore hooking them in early and creating more demand for more manga down the road. And for us, it gives us a chance to read series to see if we want to go and collect them ourselves.

Of course donating manga is great, too. We've been to library sales where you can find old volumes of Japanese manga.

[Collectonian]

My area has two libraries, inter-connected (so you can check out/turn in at either one). For manga, they do way better than I would expect for this area. They have quite a few series and through them I read MARS, Kare Kano, and Fruits Basket, all of which I bought, and Marmalade Boy (working on getting). It seems to carry all the Shonen Jump titles, so I'll be getting my first read of Bleach tonight (they have 1-7 so far). Being able to go online, put stuff on hold, and just go do a pick up/drop off on Saturdays is nice. All that said, though, it is not my main place for manga reading. If I really enjoy the series, I buy it so its always available. Some, like Rurouni or Inu-Yasha, that I'm interested in but don't want to invest in, I'll read through the library, or when possible I'll use it to check out the first volume of a series before investing in it. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

The main "problem" is that they don't always have all the volumes in a series and they don't always get them in order. For example, they got MARS 1-12 and volume 15, but it took them months to get 13 & 14. I am finally trying the Ceres manga, but they have volumes 1-4, then 6-11...no 5. So I may end up buying 5, reading it, then donating it. Only other problem is no yaoi/shonen-ai (but they carry Angel Sanctuary and other interesting series LOL).

Its really easy to donate, though, so now when I have manga I don't want that doesn't sell online, I just donate it instead. At my library, you basically just bring them to the counter and let them know "gotta a donation." :-)

[sir_integra]

When I was living in Northern California, I donated quite a few volumes of Fushigi Yugi to the Palo Alto Library. They really appreciated them and the volumes were in the stacks the next day.

The Santa Clara county library has a lot of manga and anime, which can be reserved and picked up. I used it a lot when I lived there.

Unfortunately, I'm living in western Connecticut right now and manga in the libraries seems to be non existent. However, I go to California about twice a year and bring donatable volumes to the Santa Clara county library. It's nice to know that others will read them.

I also donated lots of Inuyasha manga to a 6th grade class in the Salinas Valley.

[The Pirate Queen]

None. At all. In two counties and a city - I haven't checked any farther afield than that, mostly because it's a lost cause.

[Lungs]

[ QUOTE ]
frozen paintbrush said:
So how is the selection of manga at your library?

[/ QUOTE ]

Non-existent.

[RaeS]

My library has a fair selection stuck in the teen area. One of the nice things is they have a lot of the older releases that are really hard to find. I read Clover, Cardcaptor Sakura, Rumic Theatre, X/1999, Ranma, Maison Ikkoku, Parasyte, and Akira all through the library. New stuff sneaks in all the time too so I'm often pleasantly surprised. They also have book request forms that can acquire available titles for you from other branches. As for donating I certainly have thought about it, but unfortunately our library is so old and cramped that for every book they take in another has to go off the shelf. I don't see the situation changing soon either, since the funding proposal has been voted down for the last two years. But the section certainly does its part for fans. And hopefully catches the eyes of others looking for the newest teen magazine.

[Helschadenfreude]

My library in the collegetown I live in has a pretty decent collection as it can pull from all the libraries around it.

Has stuff like SlamDunk, Swan!!, DN Angel, Girl Got Game, Lone wolf and cub, Budda, Mars, Fushigi Yuugi, Hellsing, Yugioh,Rurouni Kenshin, Dragon Knights, Pet Shop of horrors, Tarot Cafe, Alichino, just to name a few. The funny thing is they may skip volumes, like peacemaker. They only brought 3. /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif So I don't know what happened in one and two.

They also have a very slim collection of anime which consists of pokemon, and get this, Last Exile and Fruits Basket.

I wonder where do you put in requests for the library to buy stuff... :sigh:

[DrMM]

None. The YA section is pretty pathetic, in general.

Of course, my hometown library is for a city of 3500 people, so you can't expect miracles.

I attempted to convince my boss at the library I work for (a college) to buy at least Kenshin, but didn't succeed. Ah well.

[Ryan227]

When I first started reading manga I got almost all of it through my library. My library is a part of a network so I can go online and request anything from any of the libraries in the network. I read a lot of Rumiko Takahashi series, X, Clover, Magical Knight Rayearth and Saiyuki through the library. My actual library has a pretty nice corner with a few different series in it, but there are some libraries around that seem to have loads of stuff... hehe there's one that has a lot of anime and manga in it, someone buying stuff for there must be a fan or something...

As for donating things, I've actually thought about it but I'm really not ready to get rid of any of my manga. Also they have a sign on the door saying they'll only except things in really good condition, which all mine is in good condition so I wouldn't have to worry.

[Knewlio]

Last time I checked was about six months ago, and they had pretty much nothing. Some Dragon Ball, some Sailor Moon, etc. Not even the current mega-titles like One Piece or Naruto.

I guess I consider myself a collector, too, so even though I rarely re-read my manga (I pretty much always have a big stack waiting to be read, anyway), I don't think I'd ever donate. I just like to have it, I guess.

[adam_omega]

Interestingly enough, some libraries have more than just manga. Shannon over at Animefringe wrote about the whole topic of libraries in her Club Scene column last month (http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2005/08/special/02.php).

About the only thing not covered, as "Yet Another Comics Blog" mentioned, was using the "Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to get things that your library doesn't own from other libraries that do."

[Shsway]

Our selection is terrible. I try to donate books that I'm not reading when I can, but they never seem to make it to the shelves. Methinks some librarian is making off with the goods instead of prepping them for other people to sample. /images/graemlins/anger100.gif

[SoopyKun]

[ QUOTE ]
HelSchadenfreude said:
They also have a very slim collection of anime which consists of pokemon, and get this, Last Exile and Fruits Basket.



[/ QUOTE ]

Last I checked, our library had no anime, but they did have Duece Bigelow. I thought was kind of amusing.

[pete5883]

My libraries have a few scattered volume 1's and a few later volumes. It's good enough though, since I've learned from borrowing OMG and Maison Ikkoku that I really have no interest in romantic comedies, without having to spend the cash.

[wakuchan]

The Buffalo area library (all 52 branches of it together @_@) has quite a lot of anime and manga, some of it pretty obscure.
Of course, it's scattered all over all the library, and now they're adding a 25 cent surcharge to every request you place...*grumblegrumblegrumble*

[Galt]

I think my local library has a good selection of manga, but its all in the kids / teen section. They have a sign that states that no adults are allowed in that part of the library. I guess they assume the worst - any adult in that section is obviously there to abduct children. What sad times we live in.

I've been meaning to get around to checking out some other local libraries for manga but haven't had the time.

Galt

[quenelf]

[ QUOTE ]
Ryan227 said:
As for donating things, I've actually thought about it but I'm really not ready to get rid of any of my manga. Also they have a sign on the door saying they'll only except things in really good condition, which all mine is in good condition so I wouldn't have to worry.

[/ QUOTE ]

(Just by the way, the word is 'accept' not 'except'; they sound similar, but mean something different.)

Yeah, here in the UK I don't think libraries will accept donated books at all any more. Essentially they only want to carry what library users ask for, not what somebody else thinks library users should read. /images/graemlins/happy.gif It's a bit of a shame but that's the way it is, or was at least - I haven't been to a library for years.

When last I went to a local library they had the first 2 volumes of Ranma 1/2, which probably made them absolutely ground-breaking leaders at that time /images/graemlins/happy.gif

--quen

[bakedleech]

One of the local library employees is a huge fan of comics in general, and he spends ~$2000 a month at our comic store on trade paperbacks and manga, of which ~$1500 is manga. He is constantly picking up new series based on library user recommendations, and has about 5 series that he double-buys because circulation is so high. There is manga in the young adult/teen section and in the "adult" section of the library. The only bad thing about it is that you usually have to request titles, because if you just walk through the library you probably wouldn't think they have much of a selection. They're mostly checked out! /images/graemlins/happy.gif

We have an excellent library in town, but without this one employee who likes comic books I don't think they'd have any manga at all. I think it must be similar for many libraries in that they get the requests for manga, but they don't know anything about it or where to get it from. If you want your library to carry manga, I'd try and identify the employee in charge of purchasing, especially for the young adult section. Then bring them a presentation of sorts, showing them what is available and letting them know where to get it. If there is a local store that sells manga, talk to the owners and see if they have a library program or if you can negotiate a library discount. We give 10% off of everything, but it's definitely worth it for the volume that the library gets monthly! Many older people have no knowledge of manga, so if you can do more for them than just ask if they can get a series, they would probably be more willing to help you.

At the same time, if they have no knowledge of manga they may have concerns about content. You would need to be upfront with them about what is available, but be able to provide examples that are wholesome for everyone. I know there are small towns where boy's love wouldn't fly, because I'm originally from one. So have a list of titles that it would be difficult for anyone to find offensive and an appropriate for your community section to place them in.

This was long, but I hope it helped!

[Splitter]

Our library's pretty good on manga. Through it, I've become a big fan of Kare Kano, Fruits Basket, Negima, and Ayashi no Ceres.... the only problem with the library is (and I have no idea if it's someone who got the volumes before me or the library's doing), but all the shots of nudity, especially Negima, have been torn out of the book. Vol. 2 had a substantial 20 pages missing, so I had to buy it anyway -_-

Anyone else suffer from this problem with their library?

[cairber]

Our libraries have lots of manga. I haven't seen any of it torn, but I haven't read many series there that have nudity in them.

[Collectonian]

[ QUOTE ]
Splitter said:
Our library's pretty good on manga. Through it, I've become a big fan of Kare Kano, Fruits Basket, Negima, and Ayashi no Ceres.... the only problem with the library is (and I have no idea if it's someone who got the volumes before me or the library's doing), but all the shots of nudity, especially Negima, have been torn out of the book. Vol. 2 had a substantial 20 pages missing, so I had to buy it anyway -_-

Anyone else suffer from this problem with their library?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, thank god. I'd be raising a hissy fit if our library willfully damaged their books like that. Its sacriligious...I'm cringing just thinking about someone doing that. /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif

They don't want nudity, don't carry those series, but for god's sake please don't harm the book!

[Knewlio]

Yikes! They just rip the pages right out of the book? I'd think going through with a marker or something would be a more obvious way to censor it. Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Ned drew censor bars over the Ranger Rick comic or whatever it was.

But, of course, as Collectonian said, damaging the books willfully is ridiculous. If you don't want that kind of content, don't carry that book! It's as simple as that.

[meryl]

[ QUOTE ]
Shsway said:
Our selection is terrible. I try to donate books that I'm not reading when I can, but they never seem to make it to the shelves. Methinks some librarian is making off with the goods instead of prepping them for other people to sample. /images/graemlins/anger100.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Sometimes books that are donated aren't put on the shelves but rather are put into the "Friends of the Library" booksale to raise funds for the library. Check to see if your library has sales regularly.

[Pelianth]

KCLS is something like the second or third largest public libary system in the country. They're a little skimpy on the anime section and have virtually nothing by most of the smaller publishers, but comparatively, their manga section is freaking huge. It's saved me a great deal of money since I no longer have to buy many merely average titles in order to read them anymore.

[Pelianth]

[ QUOTE ]
adamomega said:
About the only thing not covered, as "Yet Another Comics Blog" mentioned, was using the "Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to get things that your library doesn't own from other libraries that do."

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, I did that to get the first volume of Basara. Brief warning though, the further afield the volume has to come from/the smaller the libraries involved, the more likely it is that they'll want a small fee for shipping it. The libraries systems I have to work with are pretty large, so usually I can get just about anything for free, but elsewhere might not be so lucky.

[Antrustion]

[ QUOTE ]
Knewlio said:
Yikes! They just rip the pages right out of the book? I'd think going through with a marker or something would be a more obvious way to censor it. Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Ned drew censor bars over the Ranger Rick comic or whatever it was.

But, of course, as Collectonian said, damaging the books willfully is ridiculous. If you don't want that kind of content, don't carry that book! It's as simple as that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, the same type of thing used to happen at my library, too, but with magazines (National Geographic and the like), not manga. In most cases it's not the library, it's other patrons doing the tearing, usually either horny teens or overzealous parents.

My library has the old "Manga Manga!" book by Frederick Schodt. That's it. It's a little old, but it's still a very interesting book.

[Sandrylina]

Lots! They keep up with most of the best sellers, but they have some more interesting choices too (like Buddha! I was quite happy when I found that). There are not a lot of copies of each tho, so I became quite good at quickly requesting things and then going onto Interlibrary loan, but overall it's saved me from buying some series that I liked to read, but just simply did not have the means to purchase.

-Sandrylina-

[RaeS]

[ QUOTE ]
bakedleech said:
At the same time, if they have no knowledge of manga they may have concerns about content. You would need to be upfront with them about what is available, but be able to provide examples that are wholesome for everyone. I know there are small towns where boy's love wouldn't fly, because I'm originally from one. So have a list of titles that it would be difficult for anyone to find offensive and an appropriate for your community section to place them in.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah. That's actually important where I'm from. Ever since there was a big brouhaha a few months ago about a Spanish comic that had nudity & sex in it that someone came across at the Denver library, I've just been waiting for someone to complain about a manga title too. I'd love to see certain titles available to more people, but at the same time is scares me what ends up on the shelves sometimes labled for young kids.

[wakuchan]

[ QUOTE ]
Antrustion said:
[ QUOTE ]
Knewlio said:
Yikes! They just rip the pages right out of the book? I'd think going through with a marker or something would be a more obvious way to censor it. Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Ned drew censor bars over the Ranger Rick comic or whatever it was.

But, of course, as Collectonian said, damaging the books willfully is ridiculous. If you don't want that kind of content, don't carry that book! It's as simple as that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, the same type of thing used to happen at my library, too, but with magazines (National Geographic and the like), not manga. In most cases it's not the library, it's other patrons doing the tearing, usually either horny teens or overzealous parents.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeesh. I'd really hope it wasn't the library (although in this particular case it kinda sounds like it is) ... I dunno about other places, but around here the whole point of the library (aside from providing books, of course) was to not promote censorship >_> I mean, you can seriously get anything from the library, right down to satanic bibles if you wanted.
Erm. On topic. Um....the Knoxville libraries have what is apparently a very small selection of manga but I wasn't there long enough to find out much. Okay.

[lorddream]

I've got no idea what our library has in terms of manga. It's been closed for renovation/expansion for nearly two years and just reopened last week (the formal ribbon cutting is later this morning, actually.)

I don't really remember there being much of a selection the last time I went, but that was really when manga was just starting to get popular. When I go see the new look, I'll have to check to see if things have improved.

As far as book donations go, our library is pretty explicit: all of the books donated go into the Friends of the Library book sales that they do a couple times a year. Since I have no idea what the Friends of the Library does with the money, I tend to make any book donations to a my church's book sale (where I have a better idea about where the money goes.)

[Althalus]

[ QUOTE ]
Splitter said:
[missing pages]
Anyone else suffer from this problem with their library?

[/ QUOTE ]
In the next town over I've seen a library copy of "Rose of Versailles 1" that had a whole quarter of its pages missing (50 out of 200). About 10-20% of the volumes I sampled in my area had one or two pages or parts of pages missing here and there. Color pages seem to be especially prone to "rippers"... ^^;

It seems to be a universal problem where most of the readers are young kids. And the staff just doesn't have the time to check each volume individually when they are returned.


~Althalus

[fpbrush]

[ QUOTE ]
MorpheusDreamweaver said:
As far as book donations go, our library is pretty explicit: all of the books donated go into the Friends of the Library book sales that they do a couple times a year. Since I have no idea what the Friends of the Library does with the money, I tend to make any book donations to a my church's book sale (where I have a better idea about where the money goes.)

[/ QUOTE ]

After a bit of research, local branches around my college do the same Friends of the Library sales with donations. I want to try to avoid this because if they just sell them, I can just donate money to the library and help them just as much. But the point of all this is to get more manga in libraries! I have been trading emails back and forth between the Branch Librarian--my latest question to him being how I can donate directly to the branch, to which he has not yet responded.

[Saiya]

My library has a very nice selection of both anime and manga (they're probably a little better with the manga, though....). For manga, off the top of my head (this isn't everything there) they have most or all (that's out so far) of: Fruits Basket, Planetes, Inuyasha, Ranma, Dragon Knights, Magic Knight Rayearth, Card Captor Sakura, Flame of Recca, Nausicaa, Girl Got Game, D.N. Angel, Prince of Tennis, Utena, Kodocha, Tokyo Mew Mew, Boys Over Flowers, Kare Kano, Rave Master, Chobits, Jing: King of Bandits, and volume 1/random volumes of: Case Closed, Berserk, Peacemaker Kurogane, Lone Wolf and Cub, Fushigi Yugi, Battle Royale, Evangelion, Tuxedo Gin, Eagle, Buddha, Full Metal Panic, Rurouni Kenshin, Sailor Moon, Ghost In The Shell, Ceres, Swan, Marmalade Boy, Yu-Gi-Oh, Oh My Goddess, Guyver, Rebound, Mars, Love Hina, Trigun, and Vagabond. And this is since the last time I checked....they add new stuff all the time. The last time I checked, they had just done a HUGE update. /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif They also tend to go back and fill in the gaps if they only have one or two volumes. Not always, but they've been doing it more lately. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

I haven't read everything they've got - some I'm not really interested in, some I like but can't get through for some reason, and others I just don't feel like starting the series with volume 11 or something. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif I've gone through the majority of it, though. Maybe around 1/3 - 1/2 of the manga I read comes from them. They also have a really good ILL program, but I don't use it too often (I usually have enough to read anyway, and I'm pretty shy, so I don't like going up and asking them..... /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif). However, it seems there are also a lot of anime and manga fans around here (I wish I could meet some! I hardly know anyone IRL who likes it... /images/graemlins/cry00000.gif), because things are pretty much always checked out, and it can take weeks or months to get some titles (with a few anime, you can be lucky to get it before your hold expires... /images/graemlins/stunned1.gif).

As far as donating, well, I'm more or less careful with what I buy, and I don't have anything I'd want to give up yet (and probably only one I might ever want to). Also, I haven't checked my library's policy for donations, but it'd probably go into the friends of the library sale, and I'd rather see it on the shelves...oh well. Maybe eventually. /images/graemlins/relief1.gif

[Yoda47]

Hmm, now I'm curious. I've been buying a lot of books lately, and haven't been to the library in a long time. I wonder if they do have any manga now.... I shall have to investigate.

[Herron]

I've been reading this thread, which has been very interesting. I'd been thinking about if my library had gotten any manga in, but I haven't been able to get there to check. I know they have started getting anime in, because my mom checks them out. I guess I've sorta gotten her interested in anime, lord knows how I did it, but it happened.
So I assume they may have manga as well.

I have a couple of volume 1's I want to get rid of, considered sell but then I thought about how they could be better used at the library to introduce more people to manga. Of couse I didn't think about the library not wanting them or wanting to sell them, so if they did that would be disheartening. I guess I'll have to see what they're policies with manga are... when ever I can actually get around to it. /images/graemlins/sweat200.gif

[meganly_chan]

Mediocre. I haven't gone to the library in my town (don't even know where it is), but I have been to my mom's. They have random volumes of Ranma 1/2 and some other stuff here and there, but if you're trying to sample a series it's not the best way to do it.

[Pelianth]

[ QUOTE ]
meganly_chan said:
Mediocre. I haven't gone to the library in my town (don't even know where it is), but I have been to my mom's. They have random volumes of Ranma 1/2 and some other stuff here and there, but if you're trying to sample a series it's not the best way to do it.

[/ QUOTE ]
It's worth noting that at my library at least, only the few titles that don't seem to move well (Sadly, things like Planetes and Firefighter.) ever actually hit the shelves. Most of them have hold lists a mile long.

[Collectonian]

Decided to check with my library on their policy about donated books after the earlier talk of how libraries just sell them off. Their response was basically "if we need it, it goes on the shelf, otherwise we sell it in a sale...and one is coming up so come shop" /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[fpbrush]

I am encouraged that some of you have already taken action to help out your local branch in the manga department, as well as those of you who have gone out and started asking some questions! Thats exactly why I started this thread /images/graemlins/happy.gif

As an update, for my branch at college, the most recent response has been:
"Bring in the books, we'll work from there."

So we will see the outcome of this when I go back and present him with my books! It's good to see they are open to alternatives after I expressed that I wanted these on the shelves--not in a for sale stack.

Will keep you pdated! Great job so far guys /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[RedComet]

I might get some from my school's library but they only have a few good series with like one volume each and then the rest is Shounen Jump stuff or some random shoujo series with both me disliking.:) My local library is even worse. The only thing worth checking out there was one volume of Nausicaa.

[MadL]

Those of you living in Torrance, CA, are apparently in luck... (http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/1879682.html)

[ QUOTE ]
Torrance will be spending $10,000 to stock shelves with the colorful Japanese counterculture (??) comicbook novels.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't care much for the article itself -- the writer hits just about every item on the Lazy Journalist's Big List O' Manga Stereotypes, and also refers to the "Japanese" age ratings on the covers (AFAIK, those are done by the US publisher) -- but this is a good trend, methinks.

Edit: Oh, yes -- link courtesy of Anime News Network.

[Helschadenfreude]

[ QUOTE ]
frozen paintbrush said:
I am encouraged that some of you have already taken action to help out your local branch in the manga department, as well as those of you who have gone out and started asking some questions! Thats exactly why I started this thread /images/graemlins/happy.gif

As an update, for my branch at college, the most recent response has been:
"Bring in the books, we'll work from there."

So we will see the outcome of this when I go back and present him with my books! It's good to see they are open to alternatives after I expressed that I wanted these on the shelves--not in a for sale stack.

Will keep you pdated! Great job so far guys /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I wonder though, are such donations tax deductible? Just curious not to ruin the whole spread the manga thing.