Institutional Library Services

With support from the American Library Association (ALA), Library Snapshot day is a national phenomenon that has quickly spread across the US. Library Snapshot Day provides a way for libraries of all types across a state, region, system or community to show what happens in a single day in their libraries. How many books are checked out? How many people receive help finding a job? Doing their homework?

The following is a letter that was recently received in the mail at McNeil Island Correction Center Library. Sometimes there are good days, and this was one of those things that can make you realize, that maybe, just maybe you are doing some good in the world. To Earl Dungey: Nov 1, 2009 A former inmate, who worked in your library, came into my bookstore and spent $50 on SF and a few other things. He said he was sending the books to you (I did not catch his name, sorry). He made me think, a bit, of you and your needs.

Urban fiction, street lit, and “gangsta” fiction are all terms used to describe novels that deal with life on the street. Some may say that the books glamorize the criminal element of the world and are not appropriate for anyone to read, but especially not for inmates. I would have to disagree. Many of us, and inmates included, read material that they can relate to, and for them this could be the urban books of the gangster lifestyle. Yes there is crime in these novels but at least one character is paying the price, prison time.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="237" caption="Time"][/caption] What is time? It can be a short time, a long time, an easy time, or a hard time, but for an inmate it can also be a slow time. Time seems to pass slower in prison, for many a day can seem like a week or a month. Years don’t fly by in prison, they crawl and it can truly feel like an eternity.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="304" caption="Reading"][/caption] Reading takes on a new meaning for some inmates as they try to keep in touch with their children. Many of the inmates will try to read the same books that their children are reading at home. Currently one father is reading the Monster Manor series by Paul Martin, trying to stay one book ahead of his daughter.

In the prison branches of the State Library we have a form titled "Please Tell Us..." that allows the inmates to tell us what the library and its services mean to them. How does the library, its collections and staff, make a difference in their lives?

The last few months I have been reading the emails posted on the ALA Libary Service to Prisoners Forum, and I have been very interested in the different ways the libraries handle the material and what they are able to do in each library.