Special considerations for librarians

1. Subscribe to GNLIB, the Graphic Novels in Libraries email list. This is a great place to ask any questions about anime or manga.
2. Titles of English speaking market releases of manga or subtitled and re-dubbed anime series may be different.
   In such cases if you obtain the bilingual DVD be sure to include alternative titles in your catalog.
   Be aware that the manga and anime versions of a story may also have different titles, such as Kare Kano and His and Her Circumstances or Onegai Teacher and Please Teacher.
3. Don't collect for one age group, there are many wonderful titles for children teens and adults. Focusing too much on one age group will limit the collection just as it would for other areas of the collection. A special problem is spending too much time and resources on kids and teen collections while ignoring titles for adults.
4. Shelving should be divided up as it would be for other fiction, usually separate sections for kids, teens and adults. It may be tempting with a small collection to place all the anime or manga in a single section, however given the diversity of genres and age appropriate content such could be problematic. In any case given the continuing popularity of anime and manga such single sections will fill up quickly.
5. You may want to include headings in your catalog entries that will allow patrons to easily search for anime or manga. This will be especially useful for locating titles one is not familiar with and for items in unfamiliar sections
6. Anime series are almost always a serialization of a single story, videos should be obtained in sequence as missing an episode is like missing a chapter in a book.
7. Manga series are also almost always a serialization of a single story, for this reason you may want to purchase an extra copy of volume one as it is likely to be checked out more often and wear out faster.
8. For libraries the connection between anime and manga means that it may be a good idea to coordinate purchases between book and video librarians for series available in both formats. This coordination should not only be for anime and manga but also include live action movies, novels, soundtracks and books on specific series.
9. For series be sure you label the videos or manga clearly so patrons know the sequence.
   Not all series have volume numbers clearly printed on them.
10. One note on etiquette: Avoid the using term Japanimation to refer to anime as many fans (myself included) object to its use, especially as it sometimes is rendered as Jap-animation. Any fan, and many in the general public, will understand the use of the term anime.