Lørenskog Municipal Library Cultural Service
The History of History (Fortalt fortid): History through graphic art
Graphic novels that address historical topics was the trend this year among the 144 public libraries that responded to the Fritt Ord Foundation’s call for applications from libraries for 2024, “The History of History”.
“The visual aspect of the graphic novels lends itself well to attract all kinds of lenders”, comments librarian Toril Å. Iversen.
According to graphic art creators as well as librarians, graphic novels can teach history in new ways to new groups of readers.
Forty-four libraries have been granted MNOK 2.6 to organise meetings on nonfictional prose, fiction and graphic novels. One such library is located in Lørenskog.
“We want to show that graphic novels are proper books, i.e. that they can help improve reading skills and be just as good and technically robust as traditional publications. Sometimes, adults ask: ‘but could you please recommend a proper book as well?’, if we recommend a graphic novel. Our goal is to make it as natural for people to borrow a graphic novel as a traditional nonfiction book, and that this will be reflected in our lending statistics”, says Iversen, and her colleagues agree.
Picture: Librarian Torbjørn Oppedal and Benedicte Wessel of the Lørenskog Library are in charge of the project “The History of History: History through graphic art”