It came as a great shock to us here at the library when the Spokane, Washington newspaper, "Spokesman Review," decided it would no longer mail its publication; home delivery or the Internet will be the only options.
For anyone interested in the Institutional Library Services category, I'll share a link to the Colorado Libraries blog, which has some similar content. You will also see accounts written by people from outside the field who were allowed to go inside some of the prisons and get a sense of what this work environment is like and how offenders use the libraries.
Most of the time working in a prison library does not feel like a prison. However, this can no longer be said for those working at the Washington State Penitentiary, East Complex Library. For years staff have been asking for an office to be built in the library that will allow staff to have a computer with Internet access readily available to use. Over the years road blocks have jumped up at every turn, this is no longer the case. East Complex Library now has an office in the library, but did they have to make it so prison like? You be the judge.
Today I have the pleasure of meeting a new employee for the prison library profession. Anna will begin her training today at Stafford Creek Corrections Center and over the next month and half get a look at the profession.On Thursday, July 16, District #28 representative Tami Green and the new hospital superintendant toured the Western State Hospital Library. Washington's legislators serve the state during legislative sessions. But legislators also have jobs or businesses. Representative Green was, and is, a psychiatric care nurse. She worked the night shift on the forensic wards at Western State Hospital and at the Child Study and Treatment Center at the hospital before accepting the challenge of lawmaker. Dr.
If you read this blog regularly, you may already know the Washington State Library provides outreach library services to all the public prisons in the state (except for the minimum centers.) The benefit of this cooperative agreement between agencies is that incarcerated populations in Washington State have access to fantastic libraries and are served by the certified Librarians and
[caption id="attachment_1481" align="alignleft" width="384" caption="SCCC Greenhouse"]
At first glance, this post may seem to have nothing to do with prison librarianship. The rural, conservative, and isolated location of most prisons is something people outside the profession may not always think about.
