> Even if they're graphic novel format, you'd have a hard time unless the library itself has a progressive YA librarian.
I don't know if the librarian's "progressivism" is the only issue. I know a number of YA librarians whom I'd consider extremely progressive and who adore graphic novels, but collection development is a complicated issue. It takes library staff's time and effort to add something to a collection, and TPBs, being paperback, can be difficult to deal with. It costs money to catalog each item (the cost of the item itself is definitely not the only or often even the major cost of adding an item to a collection), for example, and graphic novels generally get heavy use (so they fall apart faster) and are also more likely to be stolen, so the investment of initially cataloging it has limited return. That doesn't mean a librarian will automatically refuse to acquire it, because if it will bring in patrons, especially YA patrons, it may be worth it even if the item won't last long in the collection -- which is why many libraries do acquire paperbacks and tape them up heavily and resign themselves to the reality that they may be stolen if they're popular targets -- but what if funds are very limited? They'll have to decide if there are better investments for those funds. Also, there are other things to be considered, like, if it's part of a series, does the library have the rest of a series? All that said, relatively few libraries seriously increase their collections through donations of items anyway. Space is not infinite and donated items are not all that likely to match up with collection development needs. They'll take anything in really good condition that they were looking to purchase anyway, but the majority of donated items end up in Friends of the Library Booksales, and the money goes to address that "limited funds" issue, which is a win-win situation for everyone. TPBs are likely to sell well in such a booksale so would probably make a good item to donate. They probably have their donation guidelines available somewhere.
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I don't know if the librarian's "progressivism" is the only issue. I know a number of YA librarians whom I'd consider extremely progressive and who adore graphic novels, but collection development is a complicated issue. It takes library staff's time and effort to add something to a collection, and TPBs, being paperback, can be difficult to deal with. It costs money to catalog each item (the cost of the item itself is definitely not the only or often even the major cost of adding an item to a collection), for example, and graphic novels generally get heavy use (so they fall apart faster) and are also more likely to be stolen, so the investment of initially cataloging it has limited return. That doesn't mean a librarian will automatically refuse to acquire it, because if it will bring in patrons, especially YA patrons, it may be worth it even if the item won't last long in the collection -- which is why many libraries do acquire paperbacks and tape them up heavily and resign themselves to the reality that they may be stolen if they're popular targets -- but what if funds are very limited? They'll have to decide if there are better investments for those funds. Also, there are other things to be considered, like, if it's part of a series, does the library have the rest of a series? All that said, relatively few libraries seriously increase their collections through donations of items anyway. Space is not infinite and donated items are not all that likely to match up with collection development needs. They'll take anything in really good condition that they were looking to purchase anyway, but the majority of donated items end up in Friends of the Library Booksales, and the money goes to address that "limited funds" issue, which is a win-win situation for everyone. TPBs are likely to sell well in such a booksale so would probably make a good item to donate. They probably have their donation guidelines available somewhere.