Availability of comics in libraries - Germany

[Frank Fabian]

Kari:

>We have been talking about the availability of comics from
>libraries, especially Uncle $crooge comics.
>In Finland libraries buy copies of all popular comics, also
>of those which are published weekly or monthly. They keep them
>as long as they stay in a readable condition, usually two or
>three years, after that they get thrown away. You can borrow
>them home, except for the newest issue which you can only read
>at the library. If publishers make annual volumes they buy them
>also and those last much longer. Now I am curious to know, how
>are these things in other countries?
>Are "consumption"/"soft-paper-back" comics available from libraries?
>
>Kari.Lepola at hut.fi


As always, it depends .... :-)  I'm a librarian and have worked for some 
years in a German Landesbibliothek (state library) which receives 
"Pflichtexemplare" from the publishers, which means the publishers (of a 
certain area) are obliged by law to give copies of everything they publish 
to the library, usually for free. The German Disney publishers (Egmont 
Ehapa) are also obliged to do this, in fact twice: first on the state 
level, then again on the federal level.
The Stuttgart state library where I worked receives copies from Ehapa. 
These are for archiving; you can't take them home, and once the year is 
complete, they are bound into hardback books. You can use them in the 
reading room, and they most likely even lend them out by inter-library 
loan, but only to the reading room of another library and only for purposes 
of research etc. It makes sense, because archive copies really shouldn't be 
lent home.
Then again, a state or university library probably wasn't what you had in 
mind. I do not have a comprehensive view, but I guess that most German town 
libraries (Stadtbuechereien) don't carry stapled comics (like e.g. the 
German / Dutch / Scandinavian weeklies) and such because they would wear 
out too soon and also because there might still be some prejudices left 
against that "inferior" kind of literature. Of course, some libraries may 
have them nonetheless. Most of them are likely, however, to have hardbound 
comic books; Asterix in particular is very popular.
Hope this helps ...

O, by the way, hi to all on the list! I've been here before (November 1995 
to January 1999), and after regaining Internet access, I've just rejoined 
the list.

Frank Fabian