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Welcome to the Get Graphic! blog! This is your place to read, explore, and contribute information about the Get Graphic! project and graphic novels in general.
The following article was published in the Buffalo News “Next” Magazine about the Get Graphic program…
Getting Graphic at the Library
Buffalo is getting graphic - so get psyched. Many libraries across the country have been adding graphic novel sections to their stacks recently. But the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library is taking it a step further with Get Graphic!, a new two-year initiative set to allot more than $92,000, with the help of a state grant, to graphic novel-related programs and increase the library’s graphic novel selection.
The Get Graphic! initiative began when the library was looking for a project to target teens and young adults in order to get them jazzed about reading, in the interest of both improving literacy and having fun. Britt White, now the librarian in charge of building the library’s graphic novel collection, noticed that the graphic novel section was one of the most popular at the library. The genre seemed a natural springboard for having fun with reading, and soon enough, Get Graphic! was born.
Peggy Skotnicki, central library administrator and director of Get Graphic!, says, “Literacy is the library’s mission; its mission is to help people, but it’s also to have fun. We’re looking to build literacy, but also to engage the students.” In this vein, the project will involve lots of fun activities for kids, in addition to programs that work with schools and other organizations.
This year, the project’s focus will be on engaging kids in graphic novels through movie nights that will tap into kids’ love for movie characters that are featured in graphic novels. There will also be a Superhero night, where participants can conjure up drawings of what their superhero counterparts would be.
Meanwhile, there will be workshops for teachers, librarians and other educators on using graphic novels in education. The plan is that high school teachers will integrate “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction graphic novel about the Holocaust, into the spring curriculum. “Maus” author Art Spiegelman will come to Buffalo May 22 to give a speech and hold a question and answer session.
The second year of the program is mainly geared toward workshops with youth, specifically in creating their own graphic novels. Program directors are planning workshops at the central and other libraries, the Albright Knox and in schools.
The library will also continue working to build its collection. Things look promising: the library’s collection of graphic novels is a pretty decent size already and the library is getting new material in “pretty much every day,” White says.
Teens are directly involved in developing Get Graphic! through the initiative’s Teen Advisory Board. So far the group has been engaged with the project casually, but White says that as the program proceeds she will “definitely have them be involved giving us ideas for how to make it (Get Graphic!) more enticing for teens.”
If you’d like to participate, follow the “teenspace” link on the library’s Web site (www.buffalolib.org) to learn how to get involved. The program will have its own Web site, mainly geared toward teens but with links for teachers. See the list of graphic novels below to get a jump start on a very cool way to learn - you can check most of them out at the public library. But get there quick, because as White says of the graphic novel stacks, “By the end of the day, it looks like a bomb went off over here!”
Tags: buffalo library, get graphic, graphic novel, next magazine