Iurgi Urrutia is a passionate advocate for comics, literacy, and community engagement and -----in the LIS sector. He has been the Convenor of the ALIA Graphic and Comics special interest group since 2019, overseeing some of the group’s most successful and popular initiatives including the ALIA Graphic Notables, Creator Chats podcast series, and the monthly new release roundups. Iurgi is soon to be stepping down from the Convenor role to focus on new ventures, so we thought it was the perfect time to chat to him about his journey into libraries, the impact of the ALIA Graphic group, and what he sees as the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the profession today.

First, could you tell us about the first job you ever had?

My first paid job was working for the Fantasy and Horror Film Festival in my hometown. Donostia is a small city in the north of the Basque Country and it's a city that has always invested a lot on art and culture programs. I had been going to the festival for years as a fan of the genre and working for the festival was an incredible experience. There was a lot to prepare before the festival, as it wasn't just film screenings. We had lots of international guests, actors, directors, producers... I was in charge of calling them and making arrangements for their flights and accommodation. The festival also had exhibitions and after screening parties. During the festival, we had to ensure the smooth running of all the events, the satisfaction of the festival guests and, of course, that they were present at the press conference and the screening of their movies. It was a small team that really punched above its weight, and I learned a lot about mentoring, working as a team, project management and customer service. 

How did you find your way into the LIS workforce and what motivated you to do so?

When I was at university, I had to decide what to do after my Bachelor in Media Studies. It was hard to decide between teacher and librarian. I went with education and I was a teacher for a few years. Then, when I was in between jobs I saw the opportunity to work at a library and I thought I should try it. I was enjoying the classroom work, I enjoyed working with teenagers but what if I was in the wrong career? It became very clear to me after a few weeks at Frankston Library that I had to go back to university and complete the Diploma of Information Management. I've never looked back. I think I've always been attracted to working in a team, serving the community and involved with arts and culture. The library just brought the best in me and allowed me to pursue my interests. It also allows me to combine all the skills and knowledge I've gained from my backgrounds in media studies, education and information management. 

You spent a number of years convening the ALIA Graphic and Comics special interest group and have been instrumental in making that group one of the most prolific we have. Why was it important for you to take on this work?

I felt libraries could do better when it came to comics in their collections. I could see what was happening in North America and I thought we could replicate that here while also promoting and raising the profile of Australian creators and titles.

Raising the profile of comics in libraries was and is necessary because old prejudices die hard and there is a profound misunderstanding when it comes to this medium. For far too long, and still today, comics are seen by many as less than art and less than prose. They're often seen as a visual candy for reluctant readers but something that they will, hopefully, outgrow to read 'real' books. However, comics are multimodal texts and readers must use multiple literacies to decode them. That's exactly the kind of literacy we need nowadays. Most of the texts we consume everyday are multimodal and, thankfully, the school curriculum is placing more of an emphasis in these kinds of texts. There are ample studies that show comics readers associate reading with pleasure and become life-long readers and it's been shown that readers recall more of what they've read when they read the same information in a comic, in contrast to prose. Which is most likely due to its multimodal nature.  

We were also very aware that we have really talented creators in Australia but they very often went under the radar and both library staff and patrons had no idea they were Australian. That's why our Creator Chat series on our podcast focuses mostly on Australian creators and titles. We also highlight any new Australian comics for libraries in our monthly roundups and we also created the ALIA Graphic Notables, with the aim of highlighting and celebrating the best Australian graphic novels of the year. 

The idea was always to get a group of people who saw the same need and to share our resources with the whole sector. I'm proud of all we've achieved as a group. A lot of work is invisible, but invaluable. For example, helping people who email us with requests for information on graphic novels about certain topics, developing relationships and partnerships with the Perth Comic Arts Festival and the American Library Association's Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable (GNCRT), putting the Perth Comic Arts Festival in contact with the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. 

What have been some of the highlights of your time as group convenor?

This has been one of the most beautiful and fulfilling experiences of my life. Creating the special interest group was about raising the profile of comics and graphic novels in libraries and promoting Australian titles and creators, and it's been incredible to see how well the group's work has been received.

For example, we started the notables a bit flippantly but we've been getting better at it and creators have really embraced it. Last year my wife and son attended the comic con in Melbourne and when they saw Mat Groom, a writer who has published with Marvel and Image Comics, among others, they were so happy to see that he had an ALIA Graphic Notables sticker on the comics he was selling. She mentioned to him that I was the convenor for the group and she said that his eyes lit up, he was so happy and proud to receive that recognition from Australian librarians. That definitely made my day and gave me the impulse to make the notables even better this year.

And, just recently, I was told by a Canadian librarian that the creation of the group and our work has raised the profile of Australian comics creators and titles in North America. She said more libraries and librarians in North America and in the GNCRT are aware of Australian creators and are buying those titles and promoting them in their book lists thanks to our work. That's fantastic, again it made my day.

But, at the end of the day, the most important thing is people and the biggest highlight is the committee itself. The ALIA Graphic group has become a second family to me. We're all volunteers and we support each other, share resources, frustrations and laughs. It's been incredible to be the convenor for five years. 

Even though I will soon be stepping down as convenor, I will continue to be involved with the group, and I will still continue to produce the podcast as long as the group wants me to. I look forward to see how the group evolves with a different convenor. 

How have your networks, both here and overseas, helped or shaped you in your career to date?

As a teacher, I learned how valuable and important it is to share resources and idea, to collaborate. I wanted to bring that spirit of collegiality to my library work and networking and building relationships has been absolutely essential. ALIA Graphic exists because the American Library Association's GNCRT. The group was formed around 2010 as a special interest group and then it was formally established as a roundtable in 2018. I followed what they were doing there and made contact with them. After presenting at NLS9 in Adelaide, we had a small group of people who were interested in starting a similar group here in Australia. Thankfully, James already had experience working with ALIA and had some contacts. So it all fell into place really quickly. With his ALIA network and my contacts with the GNCRT, it became clear that we could not only establish a special interest group but one that could collaborate with U.S. and Canadian librarians. Just a month after the group was formed, we were already doing webinars, podcasts, and collaborating with the American group, sharing resources and ideas. All these contacts not only made ALIA Group possible and better but have also been an invaluable resource for professional development and constant learning.

In your view, what are some of the biggest challenges facing the profession at this current moment?

It may be my background in media studies but I have long been concerned about low information and media literacy. Libraries have a huge role to play in this area and I feel that despite our awareness of the issues and our best intentions, we're not doing enough in the sector to raise these literacy standards in the community. Schools are doing good work in this area. It could be better though. We are surrounded by media, it's all around us and in my view Media Studies should be a core subject, like English and Maths, starting from, at least, Year 7. But what about public libraries Australia wide making a concerted effort to develop programs for adults focusing on information and media literacy? Similarly, I'm very concerned about AI and the devastating effects we're seeing in the creative sector. AI goes against the core principles of our sector, it's trained through the theft of written and visual art and it's already infecting libraries with poorly produced AI books and audiobooks. We can't let that stand and we must fight it.

Finally, what are you reading/watching/listening to at the moment that you would recommend to our readers?

I can't read two books at the same time but I usually read a book and a comic at the same time. In terms of books, most of what I read is non-fiction. I'm currently reading Grace Blakeley's Vulture Capitalism and I have Anna Funder' Wifedom, next in the line. In terms of comics, I'm currently reading Blade Runner 2039 and I have Rachel Ang's I Ate the Whole World to Find You to read next. She's a huge talent and I'm so glad to see her first graphic novel.