According to at least one library that just posted it, the LC number of the anthology is PN6720.A26 2009. Which is weird because, according to the Library of Congress, PN is "Literature (General)." We should get an "N" of some kind (art). But--well, see the comments to my "Instrumental music..." post.
Librarians reading this (I'm looking at you, Derik): is there anywhere we can appeal this issue? Also, does the LC give each book a specific number, then everyone follows suit--or does (as occasionally it seems) each library decide on its own where in the classification to fit each book?
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I have no idea about appeals, but that far end of the PN section is where comics go. "Literature (General)" does not encompass PN at all, as Film is also in PN.
ReplyDeleteNot everyone necessarily follows the LoC's call number decisions, but most, for convenience sake do. And of course public libraries mostly use Dewey or in the case of fiction alphabetical. I'd suspect most put comics in their own section completely.
Well, I was just going by this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/classification/lcco/lcco_p.pdf
In any case, class P--as you can see at the top--is "Language and Literature," and if this is where they stick both film and comics in, some serious anti-image bias went into putting this classification together (see the comments to my music post).
Stupid #$%#$^$ Blogger ate my comments twice! I hate you Blogger.
ReplyDeleteVery short version: LC is old. Change is costly. Contemporary areas lose out.
I work at a University Library and ordered the book for it where it went on our Graphic Novel/Comics Shelf and has a call number of PN6720 .A26 2009 GRAPHIC NOVEL
ReplyDeleteIt could be because comics were embraced by literature prior to being embraced by art. (I say this because our English department was buying comics years ago even poetry classes were talking about some of the more abstract comics while the art department ignores comics existence entirely.) Many comics in libraries are chosen for their narrative content more so than the art. I choose the comics for this University and I try not to do that but when looking at the recommendations from library organizations this is very evident. Also every other book on the shelf is narrative so the only way to not put that call number on it would be to exclude it from all the other comics and put it with the art books. To me it has more relevance when grouped with comics than with fine art books.