Kodansha Manga Now On OverDrive
Kodansha Advanced Media, the digital content unit of the manga publisher Kodansha, and its partner Media Do, a Japanese digital distribution network, have reached an agreement to distribute Kodansha Comics manga to North American libraries via the library digital vendor OverDrive.
Beginning December 1, the new agreement will make more than 400 Kodansha Comics titles (Kodansha Comics is the U.S./English language subsidiary of the Japanese publisher) across 50 series available to North American public and school libraries via OverDrive. OverDrive delivers a wide variety of digital media to more than 34,000 public and school libraries around the world. The Kodansha titles include the wildly popular bestselling Attack on Titan series which has sold more than 52 million copies around the world. Other Kodansha series included in the agreement are Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima and Genshiken by Shimoku Kio.
Library patrons will be able to read the comics via a browser-based Media Do digital reader.
Alvin Lu, general manager of Kodansha Advanced Media, said “Manga and libraries have always been a great fit, because of the crossover with younger readers, and because of the amount of manga out there, digital distribution through libraries presents great opportunities to build readership.”
