Articles

WALE CONFERENCE – Institutional Library Service from the Prison Perspective pt. 1

Earl Dungey - McNeil Island Corrections Center Library

And many have done a "little time" They include Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, St. Paul, Christopher Columbus, and writers Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Miguel Cervantes. How one gets inside a prison isn’t as important as what they do there and after they are released, or so this illustrious list of names would have you believe.

Never enough time, bored doesn’t exist here

From the time the door unlocks until it locks again at the end of the day the library drives the moments for self away. I need to write a blog entry, and have two requests for information, twenty-two Interlibrary Loan requests to search for and find, new books on the way, emails to answer and a four man crew to watch over and train. I am lucky to have the crew, or I wouldn't be able to process the circulation of items and the patron requests.

WALE CONFERENCE – Institutional Library Services from the Prison Perspective pt. 2

My Work Day: I unlock the library and start turning it on, taking off my jacket and stuff to stay awhile, change the backup tape, put a new battery in the radio on my belt, type in passwords for the computers and the level of user, go unlock the book return box and switch bins. When movement is called the crew will report in, I log the time and greet them, the talk dwells on whatever happened since the last we saw each other - dreams, visits, plans for today's work and adjustments in operations.