So You Want to be a Prison Librarian? : An Interview with a Corrections Librarian | INALJ

So You Want to be a Prison Librarian? : An Interview with a Corrections Librarian

by Josh Rimmer, Senior Editor


* special note the author had permission from the interviewee to publish this as long as she remained anonymous


While
I was writing my last article about librarianship and service, one of
my inspirations came from research I was conducting on prison
librarianship. How many times do you see a posting for a corrections
librarian position on INDEED, or other big job boards? I’ll be honest,
I’ve notice quite a few; however, it seems that discussions about the
line of work and its issues are not given enough of a spotlight.




I was able to locate materials for immediate consumption, e.g., an old ALA column from a prison librarian and a neat NPR piece, but I didn’t feel as if I had an “understanding” of the work. Mintern, a corrections librarian who runs the blog, So You Want to be a Prison Librarian
was kind enough to grant me an interview. We’ll call the interviewee
Mintern, and here she talks about her background, why she chose prison
librarianship and provides INALJ readers insight and perspective on the
profession. Read more...