Category: Publications, etc.

Publications, etc., Resources

ALA Annual 2025 Programs on Incarceration and Reentry

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

Friday, June 27

2:30 PM: The PRISM Project: Outcomes, Impacts, and Room to Improve Jail and Prison Libraries

Saturday, June 28

1:00 PM: Library Services to the Justice Involved (LSJI) Annual Business Meeting

4:00 PM: Turning the Page: The Role of Libraries in Re-entry

Sunday, June 29

9:00 AM: Something’s Missing: The Need for Library Involvement in Prison Literacy Programs

9:00 AM: The Work of Prison Libraries and Why Further Investment is Needed

9:00 AM: Library Services to the Justice Involved and YOU! (Poster 30)

3:30 PM: Prison Mail: An ILL Model to Serve the Underserved (Poster 27)

Monday, June 30

1:00 PM: T.E.C.H. for Reentry: Digital Literacy and Public Library Programming for Formerly Incarcerated Community Members

2:30 PM: Bridging Justice: Legal Information Support for the Incarcerated

Publications, etc.

Augusta Baker Lecture

It was an honor to be this year’s Augusta Baker lecturer, and to have my work set within her tradition of advocacy and truth-telling. Her lifelong commitment to Black representation invited Library Science to reflect on its own shortcomings while also building resources, practices, and spaces for real people along the way. I hope that my own efforts can follow her lead in making actual change in the world, and can truly increase library services and information access within carceral facilities.

Here is a recording of my lecture–

My slides and a few other resources, along with the recording, are available here.

I am extremely grateful to Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair at the University of South Carolina, for inviting me, the coordination and events team at USC who have made this event possible (go #TeamBaker!), and the staff at ALA Editions for their promotion of this event.

Access, Incarcerated Adults, Incarcerated Youth, Publications, etc.

New Article and Survey Launch

Chelsea Jordan-Makely and I have been collaborating to locate information about academic, public, and special library services for people who are incarcerated or in reentry. Today, our article summarizing these services–Outside and In: Services for People Impacted by Incarceration–went live through the Library Journal website. It will also be available in print later this month.

We doubt that we’ve located everything, and can’t wait to find out about other libraries providing books, programs, or other library services for people who are incarcerated or in reentry. That’s why we’ve teamed up with the Library Research Service at Colorado State Library to create a survey about this type of service!

Academic, special, and public librarians and staff are encouraged to respond.

You can access the survey at Library Services and Incarceration.