Graphic-Novel Flap Fuels Recataloging of Kentucky Library’s Collection

December 9, 2009

In response to concerns voiced in November to officials of the Jessamine County (Ky.) Public Library about sexually explicit drawings by illustrator Kevin O'Neill in author Alan Moore’s graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier, JCPL’s senior staff and trustees have decided to reclassify the library’s entire graphic-novel collection and reshelve the titles in the young-adult and adult sections, respectively, as appropriate.

The December 3 announcement emphasized that the library was maintaining its age-neutral borrowing policy regardless of where materials were shelved. “The graphic novel section at JCPL has always been in the adult stacks,” library Director Ron Critchfield told American Libraries, going on to explain that since JCPL has treated the YA collection as “part of the adult stacks, a community concern was that graphic novels should not be adjacent to the young adult section.” Critchfield added that he and senior management, with support from library trustees, decided on this modification, which involves the reclassification of every graphic novel, “in an effort to respect both citizen concerns and First Amendment law.”

“The shift will involve placing our approximately 600 graphic novels into the 741.5 classification section” in the respective adult or YA range, “based on professional reviews, publisher designation, and/or professional expertise,” he told AL, noting that reclassifyng and physically moving all the books is time-consuming and would take until at least early 2010 to complete. The reshelving will move the graphic novels in the adult section about 70 feet away from the YA stacks.

Revealing that he was physically threatened several times over the controversy, Critchfield said in the December 4 Lexington Herald-Leader that “a number of persons in the community who use the library [and] local government officials” expressed support for the relocation decision. However, there was at least one skeptic: Sharon Cook, one of two circulation clerks fired in September for keeping Black Dossier out of circulation, told the Herald-Leader that such an arrangement “already exists in other libraries and so is not a new nor creative solution.” Cook added, “We can hope that this is the first step in JCPL being more responsive to its tax base.”

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