Library Cartoons: A Literature Review of Library-themed Cartoons, Caricatures, and Comics

To understand differing views of past events, historians, political science scholars, and sociologists have analyzed political and editorial cartoons with themes ranging from elections to fiscal policy to human rights. Yet scant research has been dedicated to cartoons with library themes. The author of this paper examines peer-reviewed literature on the subject of library cartoons, including historical background, analysis of recent themes, and arguments for promoting library-themed cartoons, caricatures, and comics. The author finds a significant gap in the literature on this topic and concludes that information professionals would benefit from a comprehensive content analysis of library-themed cartoons to enhance understanding of the significance of libraries during historic events, assess public perception of libraries, and identify trends over time