How do prison librarians stock their libraries?
Recently I went on a book buy with Kate, a prison librarian. I thought I should take advantage of this opportunity as it would mean I could see how a smaller organisation deals with stock management. I’ve already mentioned how in the academic library I work in books are often bought shelf ready with a catalogue record as this is the most cost and time effective method available to us.
Kate took up the position of prison librarian towards the end of the financial year and so had to use up the remainder of her book budget before March and also wanted to receive the new stock as soon as possible. The fastest and most cost effective way for her to do this was to go to Waterstones and pick the stock there; Waterstones then send the stock to Bertrams who back the books and assign dewey numbers (which will be changed at the library if it doesn’t fit with the existing collection) and send them onto the library. The system works with Waterstones taking payment from Bertrams and Bertrams from the library (with the library getting a discount).
The stock selection process was really interesting especially because Kate really knows her stuff! We had to find books on practical things like knitting and gardening as these are things the women do, books on education and beauty to help with courses, books on parenting and books for rhyme time and for the women to record as part of the storybook mums scheme. We then also had to buy books for them to read for pleasure! We had to get books that we knew the women would definitely want to read like Martina Cole, books we from genres we knew were popular and then some reader development type books which the women might not pick off the shelf but that with encouragement they may discover they like.
We chose a number of crime novels, a popular genre (I saw a couple myself that I mentally added to my to-read list!) and interesting unlike the private prison I visited whilst at library school, we could buy true crime novels.
Kate then also considered comments from readers and bought some children books such as those by Enid Blyton which some women remembered fondly and had requested. We also bought a number of young adult fiction, partly because young adult books can be good for readers who may be a bit less confident than others but mainly because there were a number of titles we thought would be good! We also picked up the new quick reads which again would be good for less confident readers.
We also looked for books that could would promote inclusion and diversity such as books with an LGBT theme.
It was really great to see the thought process that went into buying stock, such as buying multiple copies of books that are likely to be popular (and possibly stolen) and buying books that have been made into films and tv series (especially ones that the library had a copy of on dvd) and specifically buying the copy which had the tie-in cover as it adds an air of familiarity and safety.
I’m hoping to visit the prison so I can see the cat and class process and just generally see its daily running so I can view the whole picture. I really enjoyed my day and I think I learnt a lot, and Kate said she found it useful to have me there which was nice of her! She also bought some of the books I suggested such as Pretty Little Liars, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Mr Nice, Half Blood Blues and A Beginners Guide to Acting English (happily most of what I suggested Kate either agreed should be bought or informed me they already had!)
