In Sep., the week before fall break, the BVH library began expanding its graphic novel and manga section. With the library receiving more funds, current BVH librarian Adrienne Marriott decided to put the books towards a new section she realized younger generations would find more appealing. To do this, she had students send her recommendations on what they would like to read.
“The whole reason the library is here is for students. It is mostly for students. Sometimes people are judgemental about graphic novels, they will say things like, ‘It is not really reading’ but any reading is good reading,” Librarian Marriott said.
With more graphic novels and manga to come, Marriott expressed how vague her knowledge is on the matter. She voiced how she could have searched up some graphic novels and easily ordered them, but decided to go against it, instead taking recommendations from people who are interested in the genre.
“I just know that for younger people, [graphic novels are] a big area of interest, and it is not my area of expertise. I knew I wanted to have more available, [the graphic novel expansion] seemed like a good way to expand the collection that people might actually want more of,” Marriott said.
“The library receives funding from the state, the ‘Local Control Fund’. So the district is able to allocate funds to each school library, and then as the librarian, one of the great things you get to do is, you get to select the library books that you think are the best for your student population,” Marriott said.
To help aid her expansion, Marriott called upon the student library aides to help with the new books that would be arriving soon. Junior Ayden Padilla is her main helper, Padilla himself would go on to recruit his friends to aid with the expansion. He went on to express his personal opinion about the expansion.
“I like [the expansion] because it is nice to expand the library [and see others begin to check out the books recently added]. We got to choose a lot of the books that we wanted to put in there and we got to spend a lot of money on them. I thought that was pretty cool,” Padilla said.
Padilla explains how before the expansion, finding the graphic novels and manga was a difficult challenge. He went on to note the positive feedback they have been slowly receiving with the expansion. According to Padilla, people are beginning to travel towards the back of the library to find the graphic novels, along with the difficulties they have been having while organizing.
“The buying part for Ms. Marriott has been easy. The [organization] has been kind of hard, because we are trying to account for which ones we think are going to expand in the future, so we can make room for them and so we do not have to move anything if we get more of a certain novel,” Padilla said.
Library aid and junior Alexa Ladrillono, has also helped with the recent expansion of the library backside. She expresses the ease she has had while organizing everything, and comments on the new genres that have been brought so far, with many more to come in the near future.
“There is a new variety of genres, there is a slice of life [heavily focusing on a character’s life with little to no plot involved], romantic genres, there is some adventure and there are a lot of different ones even I have not heard of before,” Ladrillono said.
Ladrillono adds to the positives that have occurred with the library expansion. She shares that it is a great way to give more towards the works soon to be featured as well as the students who will be able to get their hands on it.
“I think it is really cool that I have been able to do this [the expansion]. I think it is a great opportunity to be able to expand what has already been in the library and show other works that have not been previously shown in the library before.” Ladrillono said.
Marriott ends with her perspective on the library’s importance at BVH, relating it to how she views the library’s function as more than just being a place to grab textbooks for your classes. Rather, Marriott views the library as a place for students to entertain themselves with books, and expand their knowledge of different genres.
“I personally love to read but I know that is not everyone’s place, and I know that we all do not read the same things. If it was the library of Ms. Marriott, it would be all historical fiction and nonfiction books about science. But it is not the library of Ms. Marriott. We try to diversify [our content]” Marriott said.
