THE LIBRARY
I’ve always loved libraries. When I’m looking for an apartment or looking to attend a new school its library access is often a deciding factor. I won’t live somewhere that is not within an easy drive of at least one good library. I’ve been very fortunate in that.
My favorite library was in the town of DeKalb, Illinois. It wasn’t the college library, but the small, slightly run down public library about 5 minutes from campus. They had converted an old stone church into a very cozy and fairly well stocked library. Every time I went there I felt like I was seeking out rare and unusual books hidden away in some dusty and forgotten alcove. In fact, they were the usual assortment of best sellers and non-fiction, but it felt special. The tables were scarred and ancient, the chairs uncomfortable, but it was by far the place I was best able to relax and really study or write.
After I got married we moved to a fairly rich area of Chicago where I was introduced to the high tech “super-library”. Most were multi-level sprawls of metal, glass and over polished wood. They had everything I wanted, but they felt so manufactured that I had a hard time relaxing. It felt like going to a mall; flashy and hollow. There were a few older libraries, but most have now been replaced by these new behemoths. None really stick in my memory.
I never really considered library science as a career. I’ve always been more focused on the creation of literature instead of its preservation. But given the limited opportunities for jobs in prison I decided it would be close enough of a fit to make me happy. Unfortunately, pretty much every mildly intelligent guy, who has seen The Shawshank Redemption, has the same idea. Especially here.
Most prison libraries are small. Some only have four or five shelves of fiction and non-fiction combined. Not us. At last count we have well over 15,000 books and each week we receive at least 20-30 books to process into our system. This is quite impressive when you learn that we have no money for the purchase of books. 100% comes from the inmates. There is a fund for magazine subscriptions and for the yearly update of our DVD library. (We get about 50 monthly magazines and our DVD count is around 1000 educational programs and close to 200 movies/TV shows).
Our books are extremely wide in variety. Of course we have all the new Patterson, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Tom Clancy and John Grisham novels, but we also have a great Historical Fiction, Mystery and Literature sections. Umberto Eco, Elizabeth George, Kurt Vonnegut, Neal Stephenson and Wally Lamb grace our shelves along with Dante, Dickens, Poe, Austen and Shakespeare. Our non-fiction section is well stocked with Biographies, History Books, Science (from Anatomy to Quantum Physics) Texts, Business and Investing Guides and True Crime novels. Really we have enough to keep an avid reader occupied for several years.
The first time I tried to get a job in the library I was shot down immediately. (I’ve since learned that is standard practice.) So for eight months, while I worked in the kitchen serving food, I came to the library and watched the guys behind the counter getting the books. Most were a little younger than me and none were your typical library worker stereotype. They were all big guys with sharp wit who were more fit to tend bar then a library counter. They had attitudes and often were aggressive towards the patrons.
I eventually came to realize that these inmates ran the library. The CO in charge basically followed the inmates lead and just did the bare minimum of supervision. Everyone who wanted a job in the library came to her when, in fact, the people they should be talking to were the inmates. So that’s what I did. I transferred to the Education Department and worked for a year as a tutor for the GED classes. I got to know the librarians and started hanging out with them. One thing leads to another and I finally got the job I had asked for 2 years earlier.
I learned quickly that the only way to survive as a prison librarian is to develop a personality and attitude that overshadows the rest of the population. We have no authority and no real avenue of recourse for those who don’t follow the rules, but we still manage to guide the other 1000+ inmates into order. Books mostly come back on time, they don’t get destroyed, and the library is fairly peaceful and safe for everyone. If someone causes problems we poke and prod them into shape with jokes, verbal jabs and sarcasm. If that fails we get mean and suddenly EVERY book they want isn’t available. Which works great since the librarians are the only ones who are allowed to search the shelves. Patrons use catalogs that we constantly update to find their books and we fetch them. It cuts way down on theft and gives us another degree of perceived authority that helps us do our job.
Those of us who work there is crazy dedicated to books. We are their guardians and we take it very seriously. It’s a unique aspect of this prison but everyone appreciates it. Everyday someone tells us that our library is amazing and it feels great to be part of that. It just goes to show that the right people can make something from nothing!
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