Queer manga och manhwa på folkbibliotek

• Main Authors: Andersson, Lena, Wilander, Mikael
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Högskolan i Borås, Institutionen Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap / Bibliotekshögskolan 2009
• Subjects: homosexualitet; manga; katalogisering; folkbibliotek; kunskapsorganisation; tecknade serier; bestånd; hyllplacering; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-19508

We believed that knowledge organisation of manga and manhwa with homosexual (including lesbian) themes might be a challenge for Swedish public libraries. One of the reasons for this is that these themes in manga and manhwa usually occur in genres not directed towards an LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) audience. To see how Swedish public libraries treat such titles and why they treat them as they do, we examined a selection of public libraries, their collections, acquisitions, cataloguing and shelving of relevant titles. The theory used is mainly Grant Campbell’s binarisms, subject access to LGBTQ literature and critical analysis of knowledge organisation. Three methods were utilised: online directory searches, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with librarians. We found a number of relevant titles. Among the selection criterions used, librarians mentioned acquisition requests and title reviews. Several libraries did not perform original cataloguing or did not use subject headings indicating homosexual themes. Some of the subject headings used to indicate such themes were manga terms, others were terms directed towards users seeking literature with homosexual themes. Shelving practises varied slightly, depending, among other things, on what librarians perceived to be the target audience. Some libraries displayed titles with homosexual themes during occasions such as pride festivals. Overall, the libraries we examined claimed not to give any special treatment to titles with homosexual themes. How much work the librarians put into facilitating searches for these titles varied by their personal interest and time available.