Rural libraries, rural jails: Outreach to incarcerated community members in western Massachusetts

It's Freedom to Read week! Like anyone I am concerned with the exponential increase in challenges, and attacks on libraries and library and information workers. We know that the number of challenges to books in libraries far exceeds those reported to the ALA. Did you know though, that PEN America recognizes censorship in jails and prisons as the greatest example of censorship? The Freedom to Read is a Constitutionally protected right, established also by IFLA and the Nelson Mandela Rules, and the ALA’s Prisoner’s Right to Read.

This slide deck is from a presentation that Sarah Hertel-Fernandez and I gave to the MBLC on October 5, 2023, about the $9,700 grant we received from the LSTA towards our pilot project to expand library services at the Franklin County Jail in Greenfield, Massachusetts.