Gilles Poitras - Anime Convention Personality of the Week - Aug. 20, 2000

Librarians are supposed to be quiet, bookish, inhibited people who would never be caught watching an animated cartoon or a comic book. Not so in the case of Gilles Poitras, which may show that Californians (or native Canadians) are different. Poitras is a librarian who happens to be an anime fan. He wants to enjoy this special art form, and he wants others to enjoy it as well. And, understanding that young people aren't interested in the conventional literature that conventional educators push on them, he wants to draw youth to libraries by offering them anime and manga. Poitras aims to achieve that goal by teaching other librarians about the value of manga as modern popular literature. He has written a book to teach fans and students about the Japanese cultural references in anime and manga, and has started a program to certify Web sites with an "Onsen mark" to show that they are valuable references to anime and manga series.

Teaching at FanimeCon	Making a literary point
With author Carl Horn...	...and with author Helen McCarthy