Prison Library Advocacy Online Organizations
From digmovements
Prison Book Program
Libr.org Supporting Progressive Librarians Since 1998
Books Through Bars
Women's Prison Book Program
Prisoners Literature Project
Books Not Bars
[edit] Group Reviews
[edit] Books To Prisoners
Books To Prisoners (Small Organization) Books To Prisoners is a Seattle-based, all-volunteer, formal and non-profit group that sends free books to prisoners in the U.S. Specific cause: Since they believe books are tools for learning and opening minds to new ideas and possibilities, they feel it’s their duty to fulfill the requests of information for the purposes of self-improvement and knowledge to prisoners in Seattle. It originated in the 1970s, and is funded by grants, donations and volunteerwork only. BTP has 501(c)(3) nonprofit status under the sponsorship of the New Society Educational Foundation and A W.I.S.H.
The Website is very simple. It’s organized in a very simple, clean way without clutter or stylization. It is simple to navigate because there is a lack of advertisements and only has links down the side of the web page. There is no blog or wiki, just a contact link that lists prominent volunteers for the organization. It seems the organization wishes to use the website not necessarily as a hub for the social movement itself to take place, but more as a tool to reach people for donations and volunteering.
It offers links to articles, similar organizations, and publications that all correspond to the work of prison library advocacy. It offers email links and addresses to these other organizations as well. It also has an email subscriber list.
Overall, I think because it is a smaller organization (though aparently a large one serving the northwest region) it doesn’t offer the same amneties as the larger organizations websites. However, since it is not functioning as their headquarters, it is unnecesary to be very elaborate. It conveys their message and goals consisely, and I think, overall, does a nice job of conveying exactly what they want to do, why they feel they need to do it, and the resources they need in order to do it.
I think if Books to Prisoners were to expand, it would need to add more features like a blog and such to compensate for growing interest and for organizational purposes. But for now, the website is an effective use of the web, but most likely is not the backbone of the organization.
[edit] The Prison Library Project
The Prison Library Project (Large Organization)
I’m a bit confused by this organization’s involvement on the web. The organization has been around since 1973, but I can’t easily find it’s personal web page. I’m finding lots of information about it on other websites, such as http://www.inmate.com/prislibr.htm or http://www.claremontforum.org/prison.html. Their mission and goals are to “provide reading material, free of charge, to prison inmates, chaplains, librarians, and study groups. We also provide books to recovery groups, survivors of domestic abuse, and other support groups in our community. Our goal is to address issues of literacy which deal with practical, real-life questions.”
It is funded by the Claremont Forum, and runs thanks to donations and volunteer work. The organization is very active, but from what I can see, does not use the internet or a website as an accessory to it’s existance - rather, it simply uses the web to distribute information. One page it is mentioned on, the Claremont Forum, uses very seren, pink, calming colors and is not particularly technical looking. It doesn’t offer many links except for contact emails and an e-mail newsletter sign-up.
Considering the size of the organization (it claims to mail out over 30,000 books a year to inmates) I find it odd that it doesn’t have an obvious personal website, but instead shares a community website. I think this organization doesn’t need to internet to serve its purpose, and is successful because it origionated before the internet existed.
