General Discussion

I went to my local library yesterday and decided to peruse through the juvenille/young adult fiction section. Then it popped up into my mind that the section was also where all the manga and comic books were located. I was very pleased to find a large number of manga available from a variety of popular series. In other words, it wasn't all Naruto like I expected. Some of the titles were Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles (yay!), Prince of Tennis, Peach Girl, Fairy Tale and Fruits Basket. I know the main branch of the Louisville libraries also has a lot of manga. The best part was that it wasn't just the first three volumes--they had at least fifty percent of several series. I know the library in my smaller hometown of Paducah has a fair amount of manga and a ton of anime series on DVD from Inuyasha to Twelve Kingdoms.

I really love the fact that libraries are investing in this type of reading and viewing material. It's great if you want to try out a popular series that you're not so sure of. It's wonderful financially because it's free! Also, it's legal! Free and legal--what more could ask? So if you don't have the funds to purchase the latest three volumes of Bleach manga or you have a fit nostalgia and want to watch Sailor Moon, the library is the place to go!

Does the library in your area carry manga and/or anime? How much? Is there a lot of a variety or is it mostly certain series? Do you often go to the library to check out manga and anime? If your library doesn't offer any or a wide selection of manga and anime, do you wish it would? How about school libraries--do they have manga in their collections? Would you like to see manga there too?

You're from Paducah? I've been there for OMGcon in 2007. Hopefully 2009 too.

It is nice that your libraries are staying well stocked. My college library hardly has anything except the occasional graphic novel. Don't know about the other local libraries. As for the one back home, I checked last November and it had an ok collection in trades, but not much in manga.

@ Sonata: That's so funny! Are you in Western or Eastern?

@ Niko: I just learned about OMGcon last year, but didn't have time to go. I've considered going this year, but I'm not sure what it'd be like because it's in well...Paducah. How was it?  I don't know if my college library has any manga; I know we sure have a lot of graphic novels.

I check out  Ranma ½ seasons one and two from my local library.

I love going to the library. Our local one has a couple old series like lots of Rumiko Takahashi's older series and random CLAMP ones. I don't really look for manga in the library though maybe since the collection is a bit small. There's also a pretty good chunk of anime dvds from Inuyasha to Bubblegum Crisis to Cowboy Bebop.

My high school's library actually has a section for manga books. There are also a lot of wall scrolls as decoration there. I remembering being a freshman and was surprised that they'd even consider manga to be a legit thing to have in a high school's library.

I wish my libary had anime and manga but unfortunatly it dosen't which is a shame. I'm like one of the few people who enjoy it in my town and ive always wished there was a store were i could spend all my time. Hopefuly one day there will be.

@Lan: It was ok, but it's in one of the oddest hotels I've ever been in. Didn't really get too much time to just explore the con though since I spent most of my time at the MTAC booth.