I had a chance to attend Comic Con this year as a presenter on a panel about graphic novels in libraries. I had never been to any Comic Con before, so I was excited to have an excuse to go. NY Comic Con offers a free professional pass to educators and librarians for the Professionals-Only Day where they conduct panels during the day and then the Exhibition Floor opens in the afternoon.
Sadly, because of my schedule, I missed some of the early day panels that likely would have been the most interesting to me as a school librarian: a panel on digital comics and graphic novels in the classroom. When I arrived, I was able to attend two panels on video games in libraries. One was about starting a video game collection where they discussed how to evaluate video games, lending pr
actices and budgets. The second was about National Gaming Day and was more focused on libraries that already have video game programs in their libraries. The final panel, Beyond the Basics, was about some of the issues that come up after you have an established graphic novel collection. I had a chance to talk about our experiences with our graphic novel collection along with two public librarians and one academic librarian.
After our panel ended, we got to explore the Exhibition Hall which was overwhelming to say the least. I mainly just stuck to the publisher rows to take a glance at some of the new graphic novels being showcased. Unlike ALA and other conventions I've been to, there weren't many publishers giving away books or Advanced Reading Copies. But it was a great place to pick up little buttons, bookmarks, and other memorabilia that will be given away as prizes throughout the year. I even got some Comic Con temporary tattoos which students in my graphic novel club were excited about.
If you're thinking about attending Comic Con next year:
Pros:
- it's free to librarians and educators
- good panels for school librarians if you can arrange your schedule to get there for them
- free memorabilia that your graphic novel fans will love
Cons:
- it's at the Jacob Javitz Center
- no free books
This post was brought to you by HVLA Treasurer, Rachael Myers.
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