One of the many exciting projects that we have underway is the development of an English and Japanese bilingual guide to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum and Library (BICLM). Our goal with this guide is to improve access for Japanese visitors to BICLM’s special collections, including its world-class manga collection. We’re also excited to share an informal version of our guide here, in this blog, so Japanese visitors can learn about Billy Ireland, without even flying to Columbus!
When we launched this bilingual project, we began by sending a small group of staff and student workers from East Asian Studies at Thompson Library to Billy Ireland to learn about the library and museum first hand. At the time, we visited with Professor Caitlin McGurk, one of BICLM’s main curators (and one of Alive newspaper’s people to watch!), who gave us a personal tour of the BICLM atrium, offices, vault, library, and museum gallery. As she showed us around, we asked questions and took pictures and notes so that we could later translate the contents of her tour from English to Japanese.
Atrium Showcase: Easel and Drawing of Cartoon Artist Billy Ireland
Following the tour, we drafted this blog, which, like our bilingual guide, is divided into three sections: the first part introduces what is readily accessible to the general public, specifically the entrance atrium and the BICLM reading room. The second part focuses on the behind-the-scenes work space and vault, or archives. These spaces are only accessible to staff or visitors who have scheduled a special guided tour. Finally, the third part describes the BICLM museum gallery, which showcases permanent and rotating exhibits from the Billy Ireland special collections. Like the entrance atrium and reading room, the museum is open to the general public and can be visited during regular hours of operation. For those visitors who would like to visit these spaces in person, directions, hours, and other details are available on the BICLM website.
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