There’s no question that the current sexiest of all genres is the graphic novel, even though the graphic novels themselves are often questioned as a literary genre. But while the masses will debate its legitimacy, one group will never question the success of the genre when it comes to making people read.  That group is librarians.

Ann Conway of the Anderson Branch Library of the Cincinnati Library system in Ohio, and Barbara Mills of the Altoona Area Public Library in Pennsylvania are two such librarians who are not only advocates of the genre, but they are both calling for more of it in their libraries.  “I spend many hours looking for reviews and comments by legitimate reviewers on the wide variety of graphic novels becoming available in the market,” says Ms. Mills.  Why would she devote so much time to finding new graphic novels? “The books are almost literally flying off the shelves! Not only do young adults check them out, but we have found that they have an adult following as well, and are being checked by younger kids too.”

A genre that covers almost all age groups is one that the librarians really embrace, and reaching the hard-to-reach patrons is particularly gratifying, especially with competition from so many other forms of media.  “I personally feel that today's teens are very visually oriented, partly due to computer and TV and gaming interactions.  Therefore, GNs (graphic novels) are very relevant to them,” says Ms. Conway. 

Exactly how popular is the genre?  Well at Ms. Conway’s library, “Circulation on any one of them will probably exceed 16 times a year, whereas most other [genres] will circ considerably less than that. Most months the top ten teen circulating titles will be Manga.”

Building their collection of graphic novels is clearly and important task.  Being in charge of the most popular genre can be difficult, especially when having to make room for new books.  Ms. Conway says, “All GNs are very hard to weed unless they are worn-out!”  But difficult a task or not, the need and demand for graphic novels is high.  The teen statistics alone, according to Ms. Mills, are evidence enough of “how important and useful a resource of this type would be for all librarians for this age and younger,” if only more of the genre’s publishers did something about the “lack of selection resources for graphic novels.”