“Seriously seeking comics” : Subject determination, classification and indexing of comics

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine how comics, here defined as a combination of text and images, are handled by the libraries in regards to subject analysis, classification and indexing. A comparative approach has been used in this study. First, common practices, methods and theories concerning subject analysis developed for documents consisting of text or images are presented. Then the current systems at two special libraries, specializing in comics and consequently dealing with both text and images, are examined and related to the above mentioned practices, in order to discover differences and similarities. The results indicate that practices, methods and theories developed for documents consisting of text or images are applicable on comics as well. The two examined special libraries had both developed their own classification systems and lists of subject headings, to accommodate the special needs of their particular type of documents consisting of text and images, but these were based on similar principles as practices and methods developed for text or images. Also discussed here is that comics appear to lack general acceptance as a form of literature in the larger library sector. Special libraries dedicated to comics often develop their own in-house systems, while general libraries tend to overlook the special attention this type of documents need. As a result, and unless comics receive the same considerations as text and image separately, they may become more obscure as a genre within general libraries.Uppsatsnivå: