Why I’m Donating Part Of My Manga To The Drexel Libraries

If you’re a “hardcore” manga collector, that title may have made you cringe. For those who know me, you might be thinking I’m nuts right now. But, it’s true. As of today, the Drexel University Libraries are the owners of a portion of my manga collection. Why?

A couple of reasons. For one, next year is my last year at Drexel and I expect any of my remaining free time to be virtually gone. The other reason is I came to the decision I’d much rather see my manga being enjoyed by patrons of a library than collecting dust on my bookshelf, read once, maybe twice. I also trust that it will be in good hands at Drexel, especially after sitting down with the curator of the graphic novel collection.

Not all of my collection is going, and what isn’t I’m working on putting in my own library system. I’m in the process of finding one that will work well. What has been transferred is my entire collection of Sgt. Frog, Bunny Drop, Yotsuba!, and Nausicaä, Japanese versions included for all but Nausicaä (I never managed to make it part of my collection).

I don’t know when it will become available, nor where in the libraries it will be, but I trust the libraries judgement.