#ToshokanFLP

Notes from #ToshokanFLP #02 with Sara & Linda: Free Library of Philadelphia resources for fans.

Overall, what does the Free Library of Philadelphia have in its collections for anime and manga fans?:

Manga/DVDS and BluRay; children's, teen, adult; some spinoff novels; how-to-draw-manga; some cosplay resources; some streaming anime

E-resources. (Kanopy and Hoopla; Overdrive; Freading)

E-books: Hoopla has 151 items listed under subject heading manga (168 in all-text search) - also note drop-down menu with different results

Movies: Hoopla has 63 under all-text search for anime

Television: Hoopla has 26 under all-text search for anime

Kanopy has much slimmer pickings--mostly documentary/meta--best way to search is "Japanese" and then limit to Japanese-language items and page through
Overdrive: 529 e-book results for manga all-text search--big-name titles like Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball, plus some lesser-known series. Includes 9 in Chinese and 1 in French.

Overdrive: Limiting above results by subject "art" gets 10 art-related titles, a number of which are by Japanese authors. Search on "anime" turns up some relevant titles plus a lot of animal-related titles.

0 results from EBSCOHost ebooks; slim to no pickings on Contemporary Music Online
222 results on Freading - general search "manga" filtered by category comics & graphic novels

Gale eBooks--a lot of interesting-looking commentary (encyclopedia articles, chapters and full books on the topic, etc.) - 43 results

How about our physical locations (when open)?

Linda recommends the Free Library's Field Teen Center at Parkway Central, as well as visiting multiple branches to browse their graphic novel collection(s) in Children’s, Teen and Adult areas.

See walkthrough of catalog question for how to figure out where manga/anime are most concentrated via the website.

Talk about the conditions of searching through the catalog.. What is a general call number for how to draw manga books?
741.5 (.51, .5952...)

Japan > Comic books, strips, etc. for manga plus other related books
Graphic novels > Japan. for manga plus other related books
Comic books, strips, etc. > Japan > Technique. for drawing books
Cartooning > Japan > Technique. for drawing books

General catalog search on "anime" limited by Japanese yields 1,159 titles--mostly correct. 857 of that total are DVD and 156 are Blu-Ray. For nonfiction on anime, try these call #s: 791.433/4 and 741.5*

Catalog general search on "cosplay" - 43 titles - many how-to; 12 that have it as subject heading. 746.92 (clothing); 792.026 (costuming)
To determine where materials are most concentrated within the system, submit a search for the materials you want and then scroll through the "Branches" section of the left-hand sidebar--it shows the number of holdings at each location.

Past and present programming in libraries

Sara's past programs: in-person anime and manga discussion/screening/activity groups at Port Richmond, Lillian Marrero, Greater Olney, Rodriguez, and now Kensington--first older kids/teens, now mostly older teens/adults.
Other staff have held events at Whitman, Holmesburg, Walnut Street West, Parkway Central (recent), Falls, Wynnefield, Tacony*, Santore (recent trivia contest)
From 2014 to 2019, there was a Free Library of Comic Con annual event--initially just for teens, though the age range subsequently expanded upward and downward. It has now been discontinued.

Currently: Kensington is hosting a virtual meetup on Discord for screening and conversation - adults and older teens - https://discord.gg/yncaWnX

Other Free Library website resources:
https://libwww.freelibrary.org/explore/topic/anime-and-manga - Explore topic on FLP website
https://libwww.freelibrary.org/blog/?action=post&id=3330 – Sara’s 2018 blog post