Volume 6, October 21, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) SDL NEEDS ASSESSMENT SURVEYS

2) GO TO THE WEB AND SAY AHH

3) WSL STAFF REMEMBERED

4) BULLYING SURVEY CLOSES THURSDAY AT 11:00 P.M.

5) FREE PRESERVATION WEBINAR SERIES

6) GRANTSTATION SUBSCRIPTION RENEWALS

7) PUBLIC LIBRARY INTERNET USE STUDY DEADLINE

8) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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Do they catalog their pantries,
do they alphabetize the soup,
and make labels for the kitchen shelves
and arrange vegetables into groups?

Or perhaps it’s to the closets,
their attention they might turn…
and transform their wardrobe chaos
using skills they long ago learned.

No shirt will be uncatalogued,
No dress shall lack a space,
their undies, socks and ties will all,
have a Dewey inspired place.

Then of course there is the attic,
with items saved, set aside and hoarded,
the photos, knick-knacks, and sundries,
of course… must all be sorted.

But when these tasks are finished
and to leisure the bibliophile looks
The pot of gold, is their long amassed,
patiently awaited…
greatly anticipated…
glorious stack of unread books!

Lyla Brekke
Sept. 10, 2009

Over the last few weeks I have had a chance to get to know our new employee. Anna is smart and it has been great training her in the procedures for the library. We have the same schedule so we have been carpooling, which is really nice, but we have also been able to talk daily and all day. I no longer only have inmates to interact with and I find that I like having a coworker work the same schedule as me … in some ways it feels like a “real library”. It doesn’t hurt that we like each other and are getting along well. After years of working alone and then with a part time staff member it is really nice to have someone who is here at the same time of day as me. I no longer spend the three nights a week that I work alone with inmates, Anna keeps me company along with the inmates. However, I know this will not last long as soon Anna will be taking her permanent position in Monroe, but for now I will enjoy the company.

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. It’s inspiring to see how the Colorado Correctional Librarians are networking by communicating their day-to-day experiences in the form of a live tour.

If you type “prison” in the search box, you will get a narrower list of posts that is more specific to the topic.

http://www.coloradolibraries.org/

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.

Office or cell???

Sheryl, a long time employee with Washington State Library and the Twin Rivers Unit of the Monroe Correctional Complex is retiring. She will be leaving the the library after 15 years and 5 months with the inmates at Twin Rivers. Sheryl is a woman of amazing energy that has been put to use running the Twin Rivers library and teaching the inmates part time in the education department. Where she gets the energy I will never know. 

Her dedication to her work is amazing and she will be sorely missed by all of us in the Institutional Library community.