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GERM 202: German Comics: Finding German Comics in the Library

Professor Christophe Koné

LC Classification for Literature and Language

Library of Congress Classification Outline for Class P.

P Philology. Linguistics
PA Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
PB Modern languages. Celtic language
PC Romanic languages
PD Germanic languages. Scandinavian languages
PE English language
PF West Germanic languages
PG Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian language
PH Uralic languages. Basque language
PJ Oriental languages and literatures 
PK Indo-Iranian languages and literatures
PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania PM Hyperborean, Indian, and artificial languages
PN Literature (General)
PQ French literature - Italian literature - Spanish literature - Portuguese literature
PR English literature
PS American literature
PT German literature - Dutch literature - Flemish literature since 1830 Afrikaans literature - Scandinavian literature - Old Norse literature: Old Icelandic and Old Norwegian - Modern Icelandic literature - Faroese literature - Danish literature - Norwegian literature - Swedish literature
PZ Fiction and juvenile belles lettres

Library of Congress Classification System (LCCS)

Materials in the library are organized according to the Library of Congress Classification System.   Each book is assigned a unique "call #" that enables its location in the library stacks: 

  • PN6700-6790: Comic books, strips, etc. 
    • PN6700: Periodicals. Societies.Serials 
    • PN6707: Encyclopedias. Dictionaries 
    • PN6710: General works 
    • PN6712: Moral and religious aspects 
    • PN6720: General Collections by Region of Countries 
      • PN6725-6728: United States 
      • PN6731-6734: Canada
      • PN6734-6738: Great Britain 
      • PN6745-6748: France 
      • PN6755-6758: Germany 
      • PN6765-6768: Italy 
      • PN6775-6778: Spain 
      • PN6790.A-Z Other Regions or countries 

 

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)

In addition to be assigned a call #, a book is assigned Subject Headings.  The purpose here is to be able to retrieve materials on the same topics regardless of where they are located in the library.  Relevant subject headings to find German language comics include: 

Cataloging Practices

How comics, graphic novels and manga are catalogued is an ongoing topic of discussion.  Just last year in 2022, the American Library Association. Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table, published the Best Practices for Cataloging Comics and Graphic Novels.  These guidelines explicitly decline to make recommendations about classification, since "classification is considered too variable andindividualized a practice to be a candidate for prescriptive guidance and standardization." 

The classification (cataloguing) is then at the discretion of catalogers who then decide which of the informational content of the book or its  artistic/literary form is more important.