Providing Library Services to Inmates

Library Journal has recently released an article on library services for inmates. Though it does focus solely on the United States context, it provides an overview of a variety of resources and programs currently offered to inmates by public, prison, and jail libraries. Some of the services being offered include programs on the topics of self-employment, financial literacy, and Shakespeare (for more information on this initiative, see this video from Indiana State University). The article concludes with suggestions on how libraries can better serve inmates and released inmates, most of which are focused around building stronger partnerships between public and prison libraries.

In a more local context, members of the Edmonton library community (including some FLIF members) are currently involved in a number of projects at the Edmonton Institution for Women. The GELA (Greater Edmonton Library Association) Women’s prison subcommittee has a blog where readers can learn more about these various projects and find out how to get involved.

Welcome Back!

With the new school year comes another great year for FLIF! We are hoping for another successful year with many familiar and new faces. Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to our first meeting.

Here is a summary of some of the projects and events that we are looking forward to working on this year:

Edmonton Women's Prison Project – We are in a partnership with GELA for this project. FLIF is mainly involved in the Storybook Project (though volunteer opportunities exist for writing groups and book clubs). Inmates are recorded while reading a book as a part of this project. These recordings are sent, along with a copy of the book read, to the reader’s child, grandchild, niece, or nephew. 

Community Bookshelf – We drop off donated books to a variety of shelters and organizations in Edmonton. Deliveries typically take place once a month on a weekday afternoon. 

Homeless Connect - The Homeless Connect event is hosted twice a year at the Shaw Conference Centre. Various services are provided on this day for homeless and low income individuals. FLIF provides one such service by setting up a “library” to give away free books. The next Homeless Connect will be on October 21st. If you are interested in volunteering for this event, a sign-up sheet will be posted in the lounge.

If you have any questions or comments, or if you want to get involved, please email us at flifblog @ gmail.com. Email is also a great way of letting us know of any articles or announcements that you would like to see posted on this blog!

GELA-FLIF-APIRG Edmonton Women's Prison Tour Debriefing - TODAY!!

Update - **Cancelled**

Unfortunately the information meeting about the Edmonton Institution for Women (EIFW) prison library projects that was to be at 5:30 today has been canceled. If you are interested in participating in a discussion like this in the future please let us know and we will be happy to schedule a discussion date that works for the majority of people interested. 
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Don't forget that the GELA-APIRG-FLIF discussion about the Women's Prison Projects today at 5:30 in Humanities 4-42.

Happy Freedom to Read!

Edmonton Institution of Women Library Project Discussion - Wednesday @ 5:30

GELA, APIRG, and FLIF will be holding an open presentation and discussion about GELA's literacy and library projects at the Edmonton Institution for Women (EIFW) this Wednesday as part of Freedom to Read Week. This is a great opportunity for anyone who missed the discussion that took place in SLIS late last year or would like to hear more about these projects and getting involved volunteering with GELA and EIFW. The meeting will take place in Humanities 4-42 on Wednesday, Feb 29th at 5:30.


This is a great opportunity to talk directly to GELA and FLIF members who are involved with this project and a pertinent topic to think about during Freedom to Read Week. This is highly recommended for anyone interested in these projects or working with marginalized populations.

GELA-FLIF-APIRG Edmonton Women's Prison Tour Debriefing

Last week members of FLIF, GELA, and APIRG went on two tours of the Edmonton Women's Prison led by corrections staff members. 

GELA has worked very hard to implement several projects in the prison community including bringing in books from the Edmonton Public Library based on the requests of the inmates because they do not have access to library cards or the EPL library catalogue. Requests are varied and include materials in different languages such as Arabic, Chinese, etc.

GELA has a great relationship with the inmate librarian Cathy to develop and execute projects such as the children's storybook project, supporting and growing the prison's library, book clubs, EPL loans, fundraising, and information literacy initiatives. GELA is interested in starting a technology literacy initiative that is in the very early stages and welcome anyone interested in participating in this discussion. 

Volunteer Opportunities: 

GELA is always looking for volunteers for the storybook project. This involves completeing two training sessions and takes place one Saturday per month. You don't have to go every month, but having a larger pool of available volunteer is helpful. You would go into the prison and use a voice recorder to record an inmate reading a children's book and then burn the recording onto a CD and then the book and recording is sent to the inmate's child. Don't worry if you don't have a voice recorder or laptop or experience with audio editing - we are happy to support you in getting access to the skills and technology you need to participate in this project. 

There is a mentorship program that matches inmates with mentors that is looking for people to participate in this capacity. This program includes meeting with inmates in the prison as well as escorting partners to cultural and social events.  They are always looking for people with different perspectives and especially younger people for this project.

GELA is organizing an art show at the Latitude 53 community gallery in the spring of 2012 of works made by the inmates. Help organizing this project would be appreciated and is something that could be done outside of the prison facility.

The library is always accepting donations of books. Contact GELA for a list of specific requests for the library.

The technological literacy group led by GELA member Masha would be a great opportunity to share your expertise and get involved in this capactiy.

For library school students GELA has also supervised a practicum at the prison library - this would be a great opportunity for an unusual practicum and a very rare and valuable experience. If you are interested in community librarianship or working with marginalized communities this could be a great fit.

There are lots of opportunities for getting new projects started, lots of things are possible if you have a passion and want to start a project. Past examples have been a zine that was produced based on the writing of the prison inmates.

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FLIF would like to thank the volunteers at GELA (Sarah, Liz, Allison, Danielle & Anna) for organizing this tour and participating in this discussion, the prison facility staff, and APIRG for organizing the tour members and transportation to and from the facility. There was a lot of interest in these tours this time around and we could not accomodate everyone. If you are interested in these programs or possibly going on a tour in the new year please let us know and if there is interest we can work to organize another tour in early 2012. 

If you have any questions about these programs please check out the GELA blog - http://gela.ca/

or email us at flifblog (at) gmail.com and we can connect you to the GELA Google Group