Japanese cartoons, virtual child pornography, academic libraries, and the law

Many academic libraries are adding comics and cartoon in print form to their collections. Japanese comics, called "manga," are a large part of this collecting. However, in some of these items, there are drawn images of people seemingly under eighteen years of age engaged in highly graphic, uncensored, sex acts. The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether collecting such materials may violate anti-obscenity laws of the United States and expose the collection developer and the library to criminal liabilities. It also suggests that these concerns can lead librarians to self-censorship in their collection development duties.