The Anti-Comics Trend in the American Library Community in the 1940s and 1950s

  • Li Hongcheng ,
  • Li Changqing ,
  • Zhang Zhiye
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  • 1. School of Public Administration and Communication, Beijing Information Science and Technology University, Beijing 100192;
    2 Department of Information Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871;
    3 Beijing Xuanwu Hongqi Spare-time University, Beijing 100054

Received date: 2022-07-29

  Revised date: 2022-08-22

  Online published: 2022-11-17

Abstract

[Purpose/Significance] In 1940s and 1950s, the anti-comic trend initiated by the American libraries essentially promoted the libraries' cognition and understanding of comic literature, and laid an important foundation for the subsequent development of American library comics literature resources. By sorting out and summarizing relevant historical documents, this paper aims to provide reference for the construction of animation literature resources in library institutions in China. [Method/Process] This paper intended to sort out the discussions on comics literature in the American library community in the 1940s and 1950s by using literature surveys, provided a detailed summary of the various views attitudes that the library community opposed to and supported comics literature and comics collections in that period. [Result/Conclusion] The discussion on comic literature in the American libraries has the following inspirations for the construction of animation literature resources in libraries in my country:①Librarians should change their cognitive attitudes toward animation literature; ②Librarians should strengthen their gate-keeping awareness and select high-quality animation literature for readers; ③The cooperation between library institutions should be strengthened to jointly build a unified animation literature classification system; ④Libraries should further improve the collection level of animation literature on the premise of clarifying the special characteristics of animation resources.

Cite this article

Li Hongcheng , Li Changqing , Zhang Zhiye . The Anti-Comics Trend in the American Library Community in the 1940s and 1950s[J]. Library and Information Service, 2022 , 66(20) : 8 -19 . DOI: 10.13266/j.issn.0252-3116.2022.20.002

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