it can’t all be about manga…

Just a quick before-I-go-to-bed post.  I was messing around on Amazon tonight as well as in the library’s catalogue instead of finishing the post I started earlier.  Oops!  But my hold list is delightfully full once again, and I added many many titles to my wish list so I do feel productive.

I’ve posted March’s new manga from the TPL’s New Releases lists, in all its redundant glory.  Tsubasa fans rejoice, however, as you can now borrow a whole whack of it.   In my other random searches I also noticed that they have some volumes of the Boys Over Flowers anime.  Just enough to get you hooked, probably.  Not that I really got into the anime or manga.  No, it was the live action Meteor Garden that sunk me, especially the time I pulled an all-nighter to finish the series and ended up having to call into sick the next day at work.  *cough*  I really was sick… really.

Also, volume 18 of Fruits Basket is coming out in October.  Yay!  I read on the boards at Anime News Network that after volume 17 Tokyopop will be moving to a three month release schedule rather than four.   Of course, some people already have volumes 18 and 19… and eventually 20 whenever it gets shipped out…  heh heh.

I almost forgot!  The Newsarama blog mentioned that the first issue of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane is online for free.  I keep bugging poor Ama about reading it in the comment sections, so I thought I’d link to it for her.  :) 

Part 1 of this post talked about why I bothered to spend so many hours on this little pet project of mine (and why I decided to go ahead publish it) but the overwhelming reason was curiosity.  What could I borrow from the Toronto Public Library, how could I find it and where were they deciding to put different series within their collections?  It's a bit embarrassing to think about how much time I spent doing this, but what the heck.  It was sort of fun in a making-a-list kind of way.  :)  Here is what I did and what I found.

The Searches:

No searches were done from the front search box.  This is a general keyword type search, and pretty useless if you're looking for something specific.  All searches were done by clicking the "Search" tab and using the drop down menu on the "Basic" screen or were done from the "Advanced Search" screen.  The abbreviations in brackets are how each search is listed in the title list.

Graphic novels - advanced search - subject keywords - 1750 results - limited to remove Merrill Collection results - 882 results - 279 of these were manga titles (gn) 

Tokyopop - basic search - publisher keyword - 158 results (tpop)

Viz - basic search - publisher keyword - 254 results - included books and dvd's in results (viz)

Graphic Novels — Japan - basic search - subject begins with - 111 results - these also seemed to be included in the broader graphic novels search (gn-jp)

Dark Horse - basic search - publisher keyword - 349 results - 97 of these were manga titles (dh)

ADV - basic search - publisher keyword - 25 results - 4 were manga titles, most were dvds (adv)

Manga  - basic search - any keyword - 125 results - 32 of these were manga - picked up Dark Horse Manga as well (manga)

Other searchs:

Viz graphic novel - 103 results - series term clicked through from manga record - not saved or added to list because I generously assumed they would be included in the Viz as publisher search.
Graphic Novels — Korea - zero results - I found this subject in the catalogue in my home town.  I thought it would be worth a try but Toronto doesn't seem to distinguish between manwha and manga.  I didn't check all of them, but I don't remember there being any Korean graphic novels included in the Graphic Novels — Japan search.

The Oddities:

Examples of manga with no subjects:
Hellsing
Alice 19th (for volumes 4 and 6 only)
Ultra Maniac
Castle in the Sky
Tsubasa
xxxHolic

Most were found by publisher searches.  The Del Rey titles were completely missed (and found either by an author or title search) as I am unwilling to browse through results for a search on Del Rey as publisher.
Imadoki has no volume numbers, only names.
Alice 19th - there are two author entries for Yu Watase within the Alice 19th records.

Ultra Maniac -  two entries (vol. 1 and volume 1 as "other title"), only one for the author.  Also listed as (television program) despite being a manga.  Probably because the note says that it inspired the anime.

Tsubasa and xxxHolic - not found by searching Del Rey - one is listed with Clamp (artistic group) as author, the other Clamp.  One xxxHolic record lists Tsubasa as the translated title of the book (I emailed the library about this).  Othello and Wallflower were found as title searches.  These all listed Kodansha within their records so I tried it as a keyword search, but there were 1300 results - too many to sift through.

Some titles are listed more than once in the catalogue because of spelling variations within the records.  "Title volume xx" is given as a variant/alternate title while "Title vol. X" might be the main entry.

Removed from the List:

Any Pokemon titles - I didn't want to try to separate the manga from the chapter books and videos/dvds
NO Holdings - some of these were from the Merril collection, some were lost
Two art books kept on list on a whim

Reading the list:

Dragon Ball Z. Vol. 1-13
Toriyama, Akira, 1955-
Viz Communications, c1984.
Teen Graphic Books FICTION TOR
Graphic Books FICTION TOR
Children's Graphic Books FICTION TOR
(gn 1,12-13 ) (viz 1-13) (gn-jp vol 13)

The library holds volumes 1-13.
They are held in three different collections - Graphic Books, Teen Graphic Books and Children's Graphic Books
Volumes 1, 12 and 13 were in the "graphic novel" search results - volumes 1-13 were in the "viz" search results - volume 13 was in the "graphic novels - japan" search results.

V. Vol. Volume 1 One etc - records were emailed from the catalogue so abbreviations, numbers have not been changed.

Disclaimers: 

The searches were run on May 2nd, May 17th and May 22nd.  Records may have changed since then (ie manga on order will be catalogued and may then show up in different searches).  This isn't a list of all the manga in the TPL system, just the ones I could find.  WordPress also saw fit to remove much of the formatting from the list.  Apologies if any bunching of titles was missed/is unfixable.
 
 
The List: 

(more…)

One of the reasons I've been so sporadic with my posting lately is that I've been working on a very big list.  I indulged my tendency to occasionally get obsessive and decided to try to find most of the manga in the Toronto Public Library.  This involved running various searches and compiling the results to see which search worked best for finding manga at the library. 

After doing all of this work, I debated whether or not to actually make it a post and eventually decided to go ahead and publish what I had done.  Why not share all that work?  :)  I wasn't sure if I wanted to publish one big list, make it a separate page, confound people searching for titles who might get this entry in their results even if it was completely useless to them, did I want to maintain or update the list (NO!), etc.  I was also a little worried that it might seem that I was picking on the library here since what I was doing was finding inconsistencies in cataloguing and so on, but really that wasn't my purpose.  It was curiosity to see what they had and how they were classifying it all. 

It was interesting to see the differences in how they catalogued the earlier manga and what they're doing for the newer titles.  That's another reason I don't want it to seem like I'm only criticizing what they've done - practices change over the years, and Toronto is a huge city with multiple branches that amalgamated into one big system back when we became the GTA.  No one is going to go back and recatalogue things just because manga's popular now.  Heck, I was having trouble being consistent in the list I was building (and in my manga library list) and I'm only one person using my own methods. 

One thing the TPL definitely should work on?  Consistency in the records for manga in the same series (for instance, use the same subjects for each book, same author entry, etc) and USE SUBJECTS!  I had run about eight different searches, sifted through hundreds and hundreds of records and only found out yesterday that they had Tsubasa and xxxHolic in their catalogue when I clicked on Clamp's author entry to confirm their Cardcaptor Sakura holdings.  arg!    I also found an error in one of their xxxHolic records - they listed Tsubasa as the uniform title and also as the original translation.  I sent them a note through their feedback to let them know that it was two different series and got a response back saying the cataloguing department would look into it.  We'll see if they fix it or not.  

The moral of that little story is keep clicking when you're searching, I guess.  You never know what else is going to turn up.  :)

I'll post my search strategy and the results later today or tomorrow.  I'm still doing a bit of tweaking and I didn't want to make one incredibly huge entry.  It seemed logical to separate my motives from my results.  :)  I'm also not planning on maintaining the list.  This took hours and hours to do and is NOT something I'm going to repeat any time soon!  From now on I find out about manga additions from their new book list, and I'll hope that they make an effort to include it all. 

Updated to add here since I'm afraid of messing up the formatting in the big post again:  If you're looking for Viz and/or Tokopop titles the most efficient way of searching seems to be by publisher keyword.  It picks up all the titles lacking subjects as well as the one that use graphic novel as a subject. 

Edited again because Toronto is the GTA, not GTO.  Too much manga!

There is an angry letter in the most recent edition of Science Fiction Weekly (third one down for April 25th) about the decision to pull Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics off the shelves of the libraries in San Bernadino County.  I haven't commented on this at all, but I had been following the story.  There's a very comprehensive round up of links on MangaBlog, and there was some discussion happening over at the Newsarama forums as well.

I think I may have had more sympathy for the objectors (though never enough to approve pulling it from the collection) if the person who was "exposed" to the book wasn't a sixteen year old boy.  How overprotected do you have to be to be that traumatized by seeing some sexually explicit drawings?  Heck, I wasn't the most worldly teen around when I was that age and I don't think I would have run screaming to the media had I seen it.  I haven't seen the book myself (the Toronto Public Library doesn't have it) but from the descriptions I've read the panels in question don't seem that bad.  (And as long as the sex between the fairy and the squirrel was consensual, is it really any of my business?)  Hmm.  I have a credit from Amazon from when they screwed up my order at Christmas.  Perhaps I'll use it on this.  It's a pretty cheap book.

I suppose there will be a couple of positive points to the whole situation.  Another group of people have been slapped upside the head with the fact that not all manga is for children (did we not learn this lesson years ago with cartoons and the Simpsons?  Is it necessary to do it all again?), and hopefully there are some people in that community who will realize that censorship in the name of "saving the children" is still censorship.  There were no children here to save, anyway.  The book had circulated over a hundred times before with no objections, but unfortunately that wasn't taken into consideration.  They should have been allowed to move it to the art section or somewhere else and been done with it.  (Been allowed to.  Nice.)

I can't recall if there were any of the usual calls for the poor librarian's head (or job) who ordered it for the library (though usually it's because of books with homosexuality in them, which you also cannot expose young people to because apparently it makes them gay**) but perhaps in the future these poor people can use this as an opportunity to educate their users on how books are selected for the library.  Usually by depending on book reviews and recommendations, I would suppose.  It's how we do it, but we're a medical library so we don't run into these kinds of situations, fortunately.  I don't think many libraries have the staff necessary to send somone to bookstores to personally read or flip through each book page by page before buying it.  I doubt the cataloguers have the time to do it either.  The point I'm trying to make?  (Is there one?)  The book is 176 pages long and the offensive content was limited to a very few of them.  It was easy to miss, not the end of the world that they did, and who knows if they would have treated the book any differently if they had seen it?  Hmm.  I seem to be assuming they didn't know about the panels in question.  Does it matter to the story at all?

(**Do we tell the save the children people about the abundance of homosexuals and cross-dressers in manga now, or let them find out for themselves so that others have a shot at borrowing some of this material before it gets pulled?)  

Arg.  Yes, I am being sarcastic and vaguely bitter here.  I can see their point - I wasn't packing Cardcaptor Sakura off to my nephew when he was younger and a fan because I didn't think some of the content was appropriate for him.  But… I didn't say no one else got to read it either.  I didn't run to the library to make sure they removed it from their collection just in case some other child read it.  (I also don't hassle them about the fact that I think they sometimes do a bad job of picking which collection their manga and anime goes into.  It bugs me, but I don't want to be that person.)  I check out the manga, anime and books I send to my nephew and if there is anything I feel unsure about I either ask his parents what they think or put it aside until he's older.  That's why kids have parents - to teach them what they need to know when they're ready for it.  It's different for every kid and every family and I don't see why some people don't get that they don't get to choose for everyone.  And by everyone, I mean everyone.  Children, teens, adults, senior citizens, whatever.  Which is what getting a book removed from a public library means - the public doesn't get to read it.

Uh.  I'm getting preachy here, aren't I?  Articles like this are the reason I spend so much time thinking about the age ratings on manga, though.  I even geeked out and asked about it on the Tokyopop message boards, since the editors answer questions over there.  In short, they seem to rate by language, sexuality and nudity rather than violence (unless it's gory).  I think they tend to rate things down more than the other publishers do, but I may be too touchy about it.  And I'm going to do you all a huge favour and not get into me and the early days of manga at the bookstore.  My friends have heard it many many times before and yes, I'm still boycotting a certain stupid store over the whole thing.  (And they still get flicks when I walk by)  I will only say that I've seen bookstores who try to separate manga by age group and they don't do it well. 

This is a little less clear and went a little more off topic than I would have liked, but 1) I try not to see these things as completely black and white, even if I will always be on the manga side of things, 2) there are a bunch of issues concerning collection development vs censorship and classification of library materials I'm not going to try to get into, 3) I'm trying to be polite and not say what I'd like to about a certain type of people.  I'd say it in person but it's just too hard to write with all the qualifiers I'd need to exclude the innocent.  It's also harder to convey sarcastic air quotes in writing.  And 4) I never claimed to be a good writer.  heh  BTW, does this classify as a rant?  Does it measure up in comparison to one of my TTC rants?  There's no swearing, so it can't be that bad, I guess.  :)

I'm going to go read my new Kamichama Karin manga now.  A cute little story about a girl who discovers that her mother's ring can make her into a goddess.  Then I might read The Art of Loving, which is about a teenager who becomes obsessed with sex and doing nasty things to his best friend.  But does the best friend really mind?  He doesn't seem to, but do the friends in yaoi books ever mind? 

Yesterday's Unshelved strip is both funny and depressing, since it pretty much sums up the past year at our library. 

I just went to make sure I had nothing overdue on my library account and saw that I have Initial D #2 signed out…  I do??  I guess I should look for that. 

On a plus note, I'm down to 8 books/movies/graphic novels but also have 6 more holds to pick up.  arg.  Right now I'm rereading the Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.  The day I borrowed it WHO had just told me for the third time that week that I was going to get caught in a massive bird flu epidemic so I thought it was appropriate when I saw it on the shelf.

Entertainment Weekly (although I'm sure it's everywhere) has an image of the map from the last episode of Lost along with analysis.  I'm more of a sit back and see where the show is taking me kind of person.  I usually don't come up with anything even close to what the show trots out for it's reveals.

…you somehow manage to FORGET it's Manga Day!!  Arg!

Actually, I had a very irritating last couple of hours at the library today.  It resulted in me not only being in a very bad mood, but also leaving late because I didn't have time to do my interlibrary loans when I was supposed to.  Sooo, I grabbed a quick dinner on the way to the bookstore and it wasn't until I was going up the escalator that I realized I had forgotten all about going to the comic store!  My mental NOOOOO! was very dramatic.  Fortunately I (surprisingly) have the ability to not carry a bad mood from one job to another so was in a good mood for the rest of the evening.  It helped that I remembered that the new Wallflower came out yesterday so I got to buy that while I was on my break.  I was going to save it as incentive to finish my current book, but after giggling over the blurb on the back I decided I couldn't wait and read it on the way home.

Four of Japan’s hottest guys are doing their best in their mission to turn dark, macabre Sunako into a dainty young woman. Gorgeous Ranmaru is famous for his smooth way with the ladies. But when a cute toddler named Rin shows up calling Ranmaru “Daddy,” it seems that Ranmaru’s days of swinging bachelorhood may be over! Ranmaru swears that Rin is not his kid, but they sure look an awful lot alike.

Ranmaru does his darndest to avoid the little boy, but Sunako turns out to have a soft spot for the little squirt. It looks like Ranmaru just might have to accept his role as father–and Sunako seems like the perfect mom. Will motherhood finally turn Sunako into a true lady?

Surprisingly this turned out to be my least favorite story in the book.  (It was still pretty good, though)  It seemed a lot more divided up into short stories than usual, but it was a fun mix.  It included:

• Yuki brings home some magic mushrooms an old lady gave him on the street.  The guys manage to spit theirs out, but Sunako undergoes a dramatic transformation.  Turns out they were Princess Mushrooms, and the boys finally get the perfect lady they've been hoping for….
• The blurb story.  It was pretty amusing watching the guys chase after this little energetic boy.
• Sunako and the guys attend a Hallowe'en party at a spooky old mansion.  Sunako is in Heaven, but the others are horrified to see their Landlady at the same party.  Can they keep the two apart or will they have to start paying full rent again?
• Kyohei ends up in the hospital and all is in chaos as women converge on his hospital room.  The other guys manage to provide a distraction, but it seems his room is haunted by the spirit of a "fragile bishonen boy."   Will Kyohei get the rest he needs to recover, or will the craziness continue?  And will Sunako ever find the creepy human experiment souvenirs she's searching for?

I'm going to the comic store tomorrow at lunch, darnit!  No forgetting this time!  I was going to go at lunch today but remembered that I had some holds expiring at the library so had to go there instead.  The poor circ person was trying to help me after I "complained" about having over $50 in overdue fines since Christmas.  (Being the overdue person at my library means that I'm pretty good about accepting responsibility for deciding to not return my own books on time.  So I wasn't really complaining, I was smiling, and it was more of a self-exasperated joke.)  She was running through all of my options like, "You know you can renew from any branch, right?  And renew online?  And we have drop boxes outside. And you can return your books to any branch?"  Yes, yes, I replied.  Finally she gave up, laughed, and thanked me for supporting the library.  sigh.  It's the dvd's.  A week goes by so quickly… and I'm never allowed to renew them….

If you were listening very carefully at around 4:15 today you may have heard some distant thumping.  That was my head hitting my desk repeatedly as I got a "can you order this page of books before year end" email from one of the other departments here.  Well, I'll see what I can do in the next half an hour, but I kind of doubt it.

This is, of course, after working through about 15 pages of books for the library in two days due to some last minute leeway in the budget.  Arg.  I have a headache!  So all the accounting I was going to be doing got pushed aside and tomorrow is the deadline for everything to be ship shape and upstairs.  Guess who gets to work late today!  (Which I did on purpose, I guess, because the alternative was coming in yesterday and I didn't want to spend my only day off in the library.  I stayed home and caught up on some tv and anime instead.)

I managed to find two of the nine books after calling four or five bookstores (when I should have been finishing my interlibrary loan requests), so I shouldn't feel *too* guilty.  But I do, of course.  I want to be a miracle worker!  I also got an end of the day call from UPS because a package of ours somehow got stuck in customs, which never ever happens.  It just wouldn't be a year end without something going wrong with one of our Barnes and Noble orders, though.  I love that online bookstore - they have medical books in stock, they don't *lie* about what they have in stock, they're usually pretty cheap and they ship quickly.  But every single year end I've been doing acquisitions there's been a problem with an order.  That's the only time of year it happens.  Weird.

Okay!  Break's over.  Time to go back to Excel, damnit!