Ithaca College

A group of Ithaca College students, acting as the “Graphic Novels Advisory Board” are helping rural libraries to bring more graphic novels to their young patrons.

Four English majors volunteered to spend time this semester reading and evaluating contemporary and classic graphic novels written for children and young adults.  The students, Lila Kwederis, Alex Paul, Andy Yzaguirre, and Angelina Randazzo read over 120 titles, evaluating each text using a multi-phase rubric of their own design.

In February the group made a site visit to the Lisle Free Library to assess the current graphic novel collection and interview Cheridan Douglas, the library director about her budget, space constraints, and target audience.  Based on this information, the students crafted a site-specific list of fifty titles hand-picked to complement existing volumes and designed to expand graphic novel readership across multiple age groups.  The students presented their list to the library director this weekend; they will return in August to evaluate the success of the augmented collection and will make further recommendations next fall.

Next fall the group will be meeting as an official class, and hopes to extend their activities to additional  libraries in the Four County and Finger Lakes Library Systems.  Students interested in joining should contact Katharine Kittredge at kkittredge@ithaca.edu.