Written by Alondra D. Thomas, Blogging Assistant
In October 2025, I volunteered with the Men’s Library at Elmwood Correctional Facility, a project led by SJSU alumnus Kristi Kenney. Kristi had previously worked with Seattle’s Books to Prisoners program, the San Francisco Public Library’s Reference by Mail service, and founded the Friends of the San Quentin Prison Library nonprofit. In 2025, the West Valley Mission College’s Rising Scholars program hired her to rebuild and manage the Men’s Facility Library at Elmwood Correctional Facility, which officially reopened on May 7, 2026. The revitalized library now includes more than 3,500 books, expanded hours, comfortable furniture, and creative programming.
My Experience
Like many MLIS students, I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to gain hands-on library experience. However, balancing school with full- and part-time work makes finding internships difficult. When Kristi’s call for volunteers reached my inbox, I was excited by the chance to contribute to a meaningful project in my community. Although the work took place on-site during business hours, I arranged with my employer to use my lunch break and an hour of vacation time each week so that I could volunteer for a month.
During that time, I helped weed, catalog, and process materials to prepare for the reopening. I learned to use TinyCat, LibraryThing’s small library platform, evaluated books for their condition and relevance, and even curated a multicultural romance list for the residents. The month passed by too quickly, and though I couldn’t continue volunteering during the workday, I still wanted to find a way to stay involved.
Around the same time, I began working weekends at a local used bookstore. I’d noticed that many customers, rather than taking their unsold books home with them, wanted a way to donate them. I saw the opportunity to connect the store with Elmwood and with the owner’s support, customers could donate appropriate unsold books. At the owner’s suggestion, the store also began purchasing new titles from a list provided by Kristi. Customers who wished to donate these new books could purchase them at half price. To date, we have contributed more than 170 books to the Elmwood Men’s Library, including history, fiction, self-help, comics, and art technique titles in both English and Spanish.
Prison Librarianship
“Providing informed, professional library services inside is a way to ensure that incarcerated people have the possibility to maintain a sense of self through access to information, explore new areas of interest, support their educational goals, and, when relevant, plan for a future among the larger public that libraries serve.” Jeanie Austin, Preface for Standards for Library Services for the Incarcerated or Detained (Boyington et al., 2024, pp. ix).
Most people know that incarcerated people have the right to legal assistance and law libraries (Boyington et a.l, 2024). But they also have the right, and the need, to access recreational, vocational, and educational materials. Research suggests that greater literacy and improved access to information among current and former detainees support successful rehabilitation and reentry. Libraries play an important role in meeting the literacy, recreational, and self-development needs of incarcerated people.
If you’re interested in learning more about prison librarianship, you can:
- View the ALA’s Libraries and Incarceration LibGuide
- Take Info 282 – Prison Librarianship Management
- Intern – Browse the iSchool Internship Database. Organizations (like the San Francisco Public Library) often recruit interns to work on cataloging or Reference by Mail.
- Volunteer – Keep an eye on your email for opportunities to work with incarcerated patrons through library hours, programming, or reentry resources.
References
Boyington, E., Horton, R., James, E. R., Olmeda, S. & Van Hyning, V. (Eds.). (2024). Standards for library services for the incarcerated or detained. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/Standards%20for%20Library%20Services%20for%20the%20Incarcerated%20or%20Detained%20PDF.pdf