New at Central Library: a dedicated space for our manga collection
Published on 06 October 2025
We've had a busy few weeks at Central Library recently. Alongside the buzz and general busyness of the school holidays, work was under way to install shelving for a dedicated manga collection area.
(Please note: This new collection space is for our adult manga collection. Children's and teen manga continue to be available for browsing and borrowing in the children's and teen collections, respectively.)
Why have we created this new collection space?
Manga are one of our fastest growing collections. Increasing popularity and improved availability of quality translations have opened up a whole new world of captivating stories and characters to readers.
Meeting demand, we decided to highlight this up-and-coming story format, and to make titles easier to browse and discover. Both keen manga fans and customers making first forays into this genre will enjoy the new collection space, housed right beside the graphic novels.
Reading across formats: why manga matter
Manga are a Japanese storytelling format combining writing and visual art, similar to comics and graphic novels. Like chapter books, they cover an incredible range of genres, from light-hearted humour and slice-of-life human experiences to supernatural epics and complex narratives.
Readers of all ages find joy in following stories told in pictures and text. And this format doesn't only promote a lifelong love of reading – it boosts literacy, scaffolds understanding, and builds confidence to branch out and give new content a go, as pointed out in an article by the National Library of New Zealand.
Browse manga now
On the bus, by the river, at the beach: explore Comics Plus
Ditch the hold queue on popular manga, comics, and graphic novels, and explore thousands of titles in the Comics Plus app!
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