Katharine “Kat” Kan, a longtime librarian and advocate for putting comics in libraries, died on October 12. She was 71. Kan was so passionate about her work that, according to an obituary written by her husband, “she refused to retire until her deteriorated health forced her to just weeks before death.”
Born in Tokyo on April 1, 1955, Kan graduated from the University of Hawaii-Manoa in 1977 and later earned a Master’s degree in library studies.
Kan began her career at the Hawaii State Library system, where she rose to the position of director of young adult services. She later worked at the Allen County Public Library in Indiana, before relocating to Panama City, Fla., where she served as a librarian at St. John Catholic School, reference librarian at Bay County Public Library, graphic novel specialist for the library services company Brodart, and graphic novel consultant at library supplier H.W. Wilson. She also wrote the “Graphically Speaking” column for the library journal Voice of Youth Advocates.
In all these positions, she advocated for the literary value of comics and their ability to attract young readers to libraries.
In a 2011 interview with PW about her work, Kan said that she “never stopped reading comics” after beginning with newspaper comic strips as a child. When she first started as a librarian in the Hawaii State Library system, she said she “kept hearing so much talk about how could we get teen boys back into libraries, and thought, why can’t we use comics? However, at that time (mid-1980s), the Hawaii State Public Library System wouldn’t purchase comic books. That was the time that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elfquest were being published in trade paperbacks, though, and we could get those.”
Kan continued, “I saw how the boys loved finding comics in the library; and when they found out that a lady old enough to be their mom liked comics, they realized librarians did care about what they liked. It all started from there, and I ended up be<a href="https://comicvibe.com/gossip-tom-king-and-stephanie-williams-coming-to-marvel/” title=”Gossip: Tom King And Stephanie Williams Coming To Marvel?”>coming an ‘expert’ by default, because hardly anyone else in the library system back then wanted to read the comics.”
As the decades progressed, Kan’s advocacy paid off, and more and more libraries began stocking graphic novels. In 2005 she became the first librarian to serve as a judge for the annual Eisner Awards, and in 2006 she participated in the first ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference at the very first New York Comic Con.
