Prison Library News: Two Stories of the Locked Up

Ah, prison.  The place to get away from it all, let your guards down, and take time to focus on your past mistakes without the rest of the world to distract you.  It is like a spa that you can not leave.  You know, except for all the violence and stuff.

Today we look at two stories, one heartwarming and one legal.  Let's get to it.

A program in the Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin allows inmates to record audio books for their children.  The program is meant to connect children with their incarcerated parents and has been a success.  Nothing says "Goodnight, Moon" like 3 to 5 for B&B.  ABCNews

An Alabama prison refused to allow an inmate to read a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the grounds that it was a security threat.  Mark Melvin, the inmate, has sued the prison to allow him to read Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon, citing censorship.  We can only assume that the inmate found nothing good on cable tv after Charlie Sheen was kicked off 2 1/2 Men this summer.  PCMag

Detroit to Lose Libraries, Lions Next?

He'll check out your library...

Six of the 23 branches in the Detroit Public Library system may face closure after March layoff's leave the system stretched too far thin.  Detroit News reports:

"These are very difficult times," [executive director Jo Ann] Mondowney said. "We have not taken this lightly."
Mondowney said commissioners knew closures could be recommended once staffers analyzed the impact of layoffs. She said they stretched staffing to get through the summer reading programs.
"This is in response to the reduction in work force," Mondowney said. "We made it through the summer. We said we'd have to come back and adjust."

No shit.  Really?  "We fired a bunch of people and now we can't stay open.  Durrr.  Whoops, we thought we would open more branches with the money we would save on staffing.  Guess we made some fudge in our pants."  

It gets better, back in April they proposed closing up to 18 branches because someone messed up the math.  Yeah, bookkeeping and shit.  I assume these people have degrees in something and not just half partnerships in their brother's used car lot.  Hell, that would at least be something.  I would like to envision a world where library directors fire people and then fudge the books in an elaborate money scheme to set up used car lots.  Only in Detroit, am I right?  Hell, let's go all out and say it was all a plot to take down the Detroit Lions and move them to Cleveland in a goofy Major League sequel.  Charlie Sheen would be all over that.

Twitter: Celebrity Endorsed #BPLRAMPAGE #WINNING

You said it, not me.

What do the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Boston Public Library, Harvard Library, and Charlie Sheen all have in common?  Not their amount of Twitter followers, I can tell you that.  In one day, Sheen managed to get to 1.2 million followers, something these library systems have not even a passing shot at (LoC and NYPL are the closest with around 100,000 followers each).

What hurts more?  Sheen is also a verified user, meaning that the social network took the time to claim this is the one and only ranting maniac.  They have not bothered to do that with the Library of Freaking Congress, an organization who is archiving the entire Twitter catalog.

So, does this speak toward our society or simply to the cult of personality?  I have a proposition, the next time the Red Sox win the sporting competition by making more touchdowns (whatever), BPL needs to go freaking ballistic.  Just stark raving nuts.  Give away beer at the Circ desk, keep hookers at the reference desk, have a congressman speak to minors, all of it, just go freaking nuts.  I would read that Twitter feed, and I bet America would too. #BPLRAMPAGE #WINNING

Update: @librarycongress is now verified by twitter, sorry @nypl @BPLBoston and @Harvard_Library, you all might still be spambots