Cartoon
Books is proud to donate materials to this worthwhile cause, partnering with
publishers: Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, Drawn&Quarterly and others!

Washington, DC;
September 12, 2017 – The Small Press Expo (SPX), the
preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels,
and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce that the
Philadelphia Free Library is the 2017 recipient of the
Small Press Expo Graphic Novel Gift Program.
 
This program, the first of its kind in the
United States, is an outright gift of graphic novels to the library as selected
by the library’s collections specialists, who this year selected 87 titles
comprising 310 individual books.

To date, the Small Press Expo Graphic
Novel Gift Program has given away over 1800 graphic novels and comics to
library systems from Virginia to Pennsylvania.
 
There was a formal presentation of the
books to the Philadelphia Free Library by Small Press Expo Graphic
Novel Gift Program Director Catherine Fraas on Saturday, September 9.
 
The books were selected by the library’s
collection staff from the offerings of publishers Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, Drawn & Quarterly, Cartoon Books, Adhouse Books and Koyama Press, all of whom support this program.

SPX’s
Graphic Novel Gift Program is an expansion of the philanthropic and charitable
endeavors that are part of its corporate charter, and is in addition to SPX’s
annual support to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The targets of this
program are public and academic library systems in the Washington, D.C.
Metropolitan area as selected by the Small Press Expo.

The
goals of this program are:
 
– to facilitate the availability of graphic
novels to readers of all ages utilizing public and school libraries,
– to promote learning and literacy through the
availability of graphic novels at local libraries, and
– to provide library systems with additional
resources by which they can purchase graphic novels and comics.