Graphic Novels

iCode	iType	Loan Rule	Loan Parameters	Call Number	Location	New Items on STAR?
10300	95	67	21D YH YR $.10	GRAPHIC Aut	znaa	Yes

What’s included:

• Graphic novels.
• Comic books, i.e. DC and Marvel.
• Single panel cartoons and multi-panel comic strips. This includes collections of stand-alone drawings (i.e., New Yorker cartoons) and collections of newspaper-style comic strips (The Far Side, Peanuts, etc).
• Any other “multi-panel works written to be read in relatively long segments, like short stories or novels” (Dewey manual).

What’s not included:

• Books about writing or drawing graphic works. This includes profiles of well-known cartoonists and graphic novel illustrators. Shelve these at 741.5XXX.
• Criticisms and interpretations of specific comic strips, cartoon characters, etc. These, along with any large-format retrospectives with lengthy narrative sections, also go in the regular 700s.

Spine label and other info:

• Write out GRAPHIC in caps, followed by the first three letters of the author’s name. Do NOT include “F” or any Dewey numbers in the text. Add the red graphic sticker to the bottom of the spine label.
• Do NOT add any additional stickers.
• Do NOT use the prefix BIO for biographies and memoirs.
• Shelve adaptations of previously published works under the name of the original creator. For example, the graphic novel of Margaret Atwood’s The handmaid’s tale — adapted and illustrated by Renee Nault — is under GRAPHIC Atw, not GRAPHIC Nau.
• To group related works together, choose a unifying element, such as recurring character or series title, for the call number:
• If we have multiple works about a well-known character, shelve them under the character’s name and the author’s name, using the first three letters from each word. For example, works featuring Batman: GRAPHIC Bat Aut.
• Enter other graphic series, including ones based on television shows, under title. As with the character-based spines, use a two-part entry: Title + Author. For example, titles based on the TV shows Stranger Things and Riverdale are entered under GRAPHIC Str Aut and GRAPHIC Riv Aut.
• Though we’ve made the decision to shelve both comic books and comic strips in the GRAPHIC neighborhood, it may be helpful — at least for cataloging purposes — to recognize the difference between the two. Use LC’s definition of the comic book format as guidance: “Comic books present multi-page content in short form (usually 80 pages or less) with stories that are standalone (complete within a single issue) or serialized (spanning two or more issues). A single comic book issue may also include multiple stories of various lengths.” Comic strips are much shorter, often no more than 1-4 panels in length, and are not used for extended story-telling.

ITEM RECORD

SPINE LABELS AND AUTHOR/ADAPTOR TITLE PAGE