• 1. SeniorNet's book club discussion of Couldn't Keep it to Myself has been taken back to the prison/ authors for feedback/ encouragement. (Wally Lamb and Dale Griffith)
  
  
• 2. A collaboration has been entered into with Joe Lea, Librarian at York Correctional Institution in CT, to find out what the needs are and brainstorm ideas for a grant. (ginny)
  
  
• 3. The Director of the Community Justice Assistance Division (CJAD) of Texas has been written (Babi)
  
  
• 4. Gaye Holman, Coordinator of Prison Education for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, has been contacted and has found a prison which would like to be included in our book donations (Nancy)
  
  
• 5. Dr. Curt Bergstrand, of the Books Behind Bars program in Louisville, KY has been contacted (Lou2)
  
  
• 6. Three other state jails/ prisons are being contacted to see what their needs might be as regards reading and literacy.
  
  
• 7. Janice Warren Library Coordinator of 42 librarians in 85 libraries, has replied on the procedures for donation of hardback and paperback books in the prison libraries she oversees: (Babi) More details - click here
  
  
• 8. The PEN/ FAULKNER Award has donated, through its Director, Janice Delaney, 220 new hardback books which have been shipped to the York Correctional Institution's Library: Joe Lea, Librarian. An additional 150 books were also donated by the PEN/ FAULKNER Award to SeniorNet's Prison Grant/Education Initiative, (Joan Pearson).
  
  
• 9. BaBi contacts Janice Warren again.
  
  
• 10. Nancy found these contacts
  1. This first link concerns a program called Books Through Bars Books Through Bars Granted this is an organization in and of itself; however, you’ll note one method they use for tackling the problem of funds for postage is to solicit donations, not for money, but for postage of varying increments. Could we do something like that -- maybe set up a post office box address for donations to be mailed to? This seems to our greatest short-term problem; we have books but no resources for mailing them out, right?
  2. This site offers some other ideas to draw from and (perhaps) might even be a potential liaison between us and some prisons with book needs: Prison Activist Org
  3. This last one includes actual contact addresses for prisons that accept book donations, including what types of books, etc..: contact addresses for prisons that accept book donations--Ginny will contact this one.
  
  
  
• 11. Ginny has found out:
  1. Books Through Bars, in the heading here, does not want hardcover fiction!
  2. Women's Prison Book Project, and as you can see they really only want paperbacks, but they do send helpful information which I appreciate, look at this: Post
  
  
  
• 12. Ginny has contacted Daisy Lindler (called her but her voice mail was full, wrote her a letter) in Columbia SC to see if any of her prison systems would like the books. South Carolina seems well set up, there are several prisons listed with librarians and I hope that this may also allow us to expand, so far we've touched base with Connecticut, Texas, Kentucky and South Carolina.
  
  
• 13. Nancy suggests cataloging the paperbacks she has and having a database of titles so as not to duplicate mailings and costs.
  
  
• 14. Ginny (WarehouseA) has many hardcover books all waiting for distribution. Money to mail is the problem...Our next task will be to get money for the postage, because really other than that we're pretty well set up and there is a possibility that if the books here go to SC I can hand deliver them, myself, and that will eliminate the postage entirely. Or to NC for that matter.
  
  
• 15. Ginny is concerned about senior women in prison.
  
  
• 16. Nancy has submitted several articles/info, concerning aging populations in American prisons:
  • http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/pblct/forum/e062/062j_e.pdf
  • http://www.doc.state.ok.us/INSIDEC/ic9711/ic971102.htm
  • http://journalism.medill.northwestern.edu/docket/01-1127aging.html
  • http://www.msccsp.org/publications/aging.html http://www.state.tn.us/correction/pdf/aging.pdf
  
  
  
• 17. We have entered into a collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Corrections. 367 books now being held in SC are being catalogued, including 135 left from the PEN/Faulkner Award, and will be distributed throughout the entire prison system of South Carolina. South Carolina is very well organized, almost every prison has a library and librarian, and this should prove a very profitable collaboration for years to come. 8/22/04
  
  

• 18. Dr. Janice Delaney, head of the PEN/ Faulkner Award, has decided to donate future books to our project, and we are proud to be associated with this prestigious award. 8/22/04
  
  
• 19. Nancy Birkla has e responded to a request from a professor (who teaches college English at the KY Correctional Institute for Women) for 15 copies of Couldn't Keep it to Myself, for use as the assigned course textbook in her ENG 101 class. They are ordered and will be sent on behalf of Seniornet's Prison Literacy Project :0). 9/14/04
  
  
• 20. Patwest is able to access and pay for books donated to the library where she volunteers before they hit the sales floor. She is willing to watch for and pull books specifically requested by prison librarians through our inititative.
  
  
• 21. Ginny met with the Library Advisory Council of the SC Department of Corrections and the Superintendent of Education for the SC Department of Corrections, and they are tremendously excited over our initiatve and ready for the books! Let's get rolling!
  
  
• 22. Nancy has arranged for 250 textbooks to be donated to the SC Dept of Corrections.
  
  
• 23. Many individuals have sent donated books for distribution to the prisons. In the early days of the project, Janet Damon donated 82 and Stephanie Hochuli has donated many books and paid the postage to ship them to the SeniorNet Library. Since those beginning donations, many individuals and one church are named in this listing of donors and items donated. Others have donated money to pay for the reimbursement of postage. Many have donated the cost of shipping as well as the books they've sent.
  
  
• 24. Supt. Blanton and the Librarians from nearby SC prisons have come to the Anderson home where the books are warehoused and picked 1548 books as of July 14, 2005.
  
  
• 25. Collaboration with the Friends of the Spartenburg, SC, County Library is being established. The Friends group is interested in donating materials to the SC prisons.
  
  
• 26. The The PEN/ FAULKNER Award has donated again this year its collection of prize submissions to the South Carolina Prisons Libraries.