Blog

Uncategorized

ALA Annual 2024 Programs on Incarceration and Reentry

I’m looking forward to seeing colleagues and friends at the ALA Annual Conference in San Diego this June! Here’s a list of sessions related to my work (all times Pacific):

Friday, June 28

1 PM: Meeting of the Library Services for the Justice-Involved interest group, with Estelle Yim

Saturday, June 29

9 AM: The PRISM Project: learning about prison library services from people who are or were incarcerated

2:30 PM: The Prison Archives: Addressing the access gap

4 PM: Expanding Library Services to Incarcerated Youth

Sunday, June 30

2:30 PM: How Your Library can Support Users Impacted by Incarceration: Standards Launch

Monday, June 1

9 AM: REFORMA’s Children in Crisis Project – Creating Immigrant Youth and Library Connections

Access, Incarcerated Adults, Incarcerated Youth, Resources

Censorship in Prisons & Prison Banned Books Week

Censorship is common in prisons–from blanket bans on vendors to specific titles. In preparation for Prison Banned Book Weeks (which begins today!), colleagues and I discussed the realities of censorship inside. You can view the recorded training on censorship in carceral settings by registering at

https://www.everylibraryinstitute.org/censorship_in_carceral_settings.

Interested in joining the campaign against pervasive book bans inside? PEN America has released a new report and toolkit for raising awareness of these practices and engaging in advocacy. Their report and action steps are located at

https://pen.org/campaign/prison-banned-books-week-2023/.

The toolkit for a Banned Books Week social media campaign is at

https://pen.org/prison-banned-books-week-toolkit/.

Want to see what books are banned in prisons in your state? The Marshall Project is continuing to collect this information and to make it publicly available at

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/12/21/prison-banned-books-list-find-your-state.

Access, Incarcerated Adults, Incarcerated Youth, Resources

White Paper on Technology in Carceral Facilities

As part of San Francisco Public Library’s “Expanding Information Access for Incarcerated People” grant project, we have recently released a white paper titled “Technology in Carceral Facilities: Trends, Limitations, and Opportunities for Libraries.”

This white paper covers relevant literature published from January 2020 to December 2022. It glosses emerging and continuing trends in the use of technology in carceral facilities. It provides an overview of trends in recent publications in library and information science and similar fields about how technologies inside shape people’s experiences of incarceration and reentry. It closes by highlighting work by libraries that may indicate possibilities for supporting incarcerated people and people in reentry through making library services and programs that utilize technology available within facilities, and by offering some examples of how libraries can support patron’s digital literacy development after they are released.

The white paper is freely available online at

“Technology in Carceral Facilities: Trends, Limitations, and Opportunities for Libraries.”

or through the grant page at

“Expanding Information Access for Incarcerated People.”