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This is the first of a 2-part blog series, where students from the School of Information, Journalism and Communication at the University of Sheffield reflect on what they have learned about prison libraries during their distance learning Library and Information Services Management degree.

Jodi: Before starting the LISM course at Sheffield, I knew very little about prison libraries. My introduction to them came through a book listed in our advanced reading list – Books Beyond Bars, by Lisa Krolak. This gave me a better understanding of prison libraries and I was keen to learn more. I remember raving to my partner about how awesome it is that reading can reduce the rate of recidivism. On reflection, I realise that I was only really seeing the benefits of prison libraries to our wider society, i.e. less crime – great for everyone! It wasn’t until after an essay I wrote that I really started to see the true value of prison libraries. 

I chose an assignment question about the benefits of family reading programmes in prisons. I knew a little about them and knew they were remarkable, so I wanted to look deeper into this. Turns out, I found it emotionally difficult to write this essay. I was in kinship care from a young age and had no contact with my parents, so reading around this subject dredged up a lot of memories. The connection I felt to the subject truly added depth to my learning, though. I started to really see the value of prison libraries (and their wonderful librarians!) for incarcerated individuals and their families.

Another thing on the course I found to be particularly interesting and helpful was an interview with two librarians from HMP Swansea; having that personal insight into the role gave me a much better idea of the work involved, it was like having a mini work experience session!

I came into this programme wanting to become a school librarian, and now I am equally interested in prison librarianship. It’s interesting where new knowledge and understanding can take you.

Jodi Chaplin is in the first year of the LISM Masters course. She works as an editorial coordinator for a corporate publishing company and volunteers at her local public library on weekends.

Nicola: Prior to the prison libraries module on the MA Library and Information Services Management course I had no knowledge of prison library services or their operational management. An introduction to the sector earlier in the course sparked my curiosity and led me to selecting the module to find out more.

The module consisted of a variety of learning opportunities in addition to lectures and academic reading, which I felt contributed to  gaining deeper insights. Such as 

• interviews with prison librarians
• a virtual tour of a library at a men’s prison
• examples of current initiatives and projects. 

My key learning points about prison libraries were

• they are based on the public library model, facilitating the right to access information and meeting the needs of the community.
• provision and access varies.
• they are well used and valued by their users. Providing opportunities for self-development and relief from the prison environment, within a relaxing and welcoming space.
• they provide support during incarceration from adapting to prison life to release and re-entry. This includes informal and lifelong learning opportunities, such as developing confidence in reading and career support.
• I was particularly interested in  the wider rehabilitation and holistic support provided by the library in relation to services to support mental health and wellbeing, maintaining connections to family and the provision of resources and activities to engage in personal and cultural interests.

During the module it was intriguing to consider wider perspectives, in addition to librarianship, whilst exploring the role of the library in relation to rehabilitation. This includes educational and criminological perspectives, and learning from the lived experience of people in prison.

Overall the module enabled me to gain a fascinating insight into the wide variety services provided and the positive impact they have during incarceration and beyond, whilst also recognising the challenges faced.

Nicola Glynn is a 2nd year student on the LISM programme and currently works as a Subject Librarian supporting health-related courses.

Saki: Libraries have always been part of my life and in my work as a school librarian, I knew this module was going to be a brilliant one. Having Dr. Jayne Finlay as a Module Lead as well was cool too; I have a friend pursuing their MA in librarianship at a different university and they were a bit envious when they realised who would be leading our lectures! 

However, after reading Angela Y Davis’s writings and having spoken to an author who previously worked with prisoners and was less than favourable about the experience, I was apprehensive about the module. As I’m sitting writing this blog post, I think about my dissertation positionality statement; research and every professional interaction we have is touched by our lived experiences and assumptions. Needless to say, my biases were present.

But thank goodness I joined this module – those assumptions were dismissed almost immediately. Mandela’s quote ‘No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its’ jails. A nation should not be judged on how it treats its highest citizens, but its’ lowest’ resonated with me. Learning about the literacy programmes and Storybook Dads warmed my heart and made me realise that everyone should have access to information and stories. It made me realise that I constantly fight for children’s access to libraries, why couldn’t I do the same for incarcerated people?

I also went to visit San Francisco later that year and visited Alcatraz Prison with my friend. We were stunned by the Library and the book bannings that were rife when it was operating.

This module taught me of the variance in librarianship roles, but the similarities in the issues that we face as LIS professionals (e.g. book bannings, access or the lack thereof to information and stories, the benefits of storytelling to EVERY person (not just the children).

Thank you for reading!

Saki Shibuya is currently in her second and final year of her MA Library and Information Services Management. She isn’t working at the moment but will soon be founding a Junior School Library for a brand new international school in Bangkok; any good author links you can send their way would be deeply appreciated! In their spare time, Saki loves reading adult literature (recent favourite: The Other Bennet Sister!) and eating; there are currently over 400 places that have the ‘Saki seal of approval’ in Bangkok.

Many thanks to Dr Josephine Metcalf and Dr Caroline Cauchi at the University of Hull for this guest blog post.

A man in his forties reads a poem by Luis J. Rodríguez on his in-cell laptop. He is taking part in the University of Hull’s Digital Book Club for Readers and Writers, and he is doing so alone, on his bed, in his own time. After finishing the poem, he writes three pages in response to a simple prompt: What does this poem allow you to say that you could not say before?

That moment, private, voluntary and reflective, sits at the heart of the project.

Led by Dr Caroline Cauchi and Dr Josephine Metcalf at the University of Hull, the Digital Book Club for Readers and Writers operates on secure in-cell laptops across more than 90 prisons. It was designed with one central question in mind: how do we support adults, including those in prison, to return to reading for pleasure in ways that are voluntary, confidence-building and adaptable to their routines?

As we move through the National Year of Reading, much of the focus rightly sits on children and early literacy. But reading for pleasure is a lifelong practice. The challenge of adult re-engagement, particularly among those whose reading confidence has been disrupted, deserves equal attention.

Many prison libraries run excellent in-person book groups. We know how powerful those shared spaces can be. But librarians also tell us about the challenges: limited places, clashes with education timetables, movement restrictions, and readers who simply prefer not to speak in groups. Some capable readers avoid book groups because they lack confidence. Others want to read privately. Some cannot attend even if they would like to.

The Digital Book Club for Readers and Writers was designed with those readers in mind. Delivered entirely through secure in-cell laptops, it offers a structured book group experience that participants can access privately, at a time and pace that suits them. There is no assessment. Engagement is voluntary. The aim is to make reading for pleasure feel chosen, not imposed.

Each text, whether poetry, short fiction or an extract from a novel, is accompanied by a short worksheet. The worksheets include five reflective “book group style” questions designed to encourage personal response rather than test comprehension. These are followed by a creative writing activity that invites readers to connect the text to their own experiences.

Three elements shape the design:

• Flexible entry points: Each text is supported by beginner, intermediate and advanced pathways. Readers can start where they feel comfortable and build confidence gradually.

• Reading and writing together: Creative writing is not an optional add-on. It is integrated into every worksheet, allowing participants to process what they have read and develop their own voice.

• Removing elitism: Recognised texts are used, but the tone invites participation as equals, not as remedial learners.

Most texts come from public-domain sources, but we have also secured permission to include extracts from authors such as Stephen King, Anthony Horowitz and Max Porter. When contemporary writing is available, the response is immediate and enthusiastic.

The project grew out of our research into reading for pleasure in prison, which highlighted two recurring issues: limited access to structured book groups, and the reluctance of some capable readers to join face-to-face sessions. The digital model offers one way to address both. It does not replace prison libraries or face-to-face groups. Rather, it creates an additional pathway, particularly for those who might otherwise opt out.

At its heart, our Digital Book Club for Reading and Writing is about restoring reading as something voluntary, reflective and personally meaningful. It recognises that confidence often grows first in private, before it grows in community.

That man on his bunk, writing in response to a poem, is not completing an assignment. He is choosing to read. He is choosing to think. He is choosing to write.

If you are interested in exploring how this model might work in your setting, whether through sharing feedback, trialling materials or contributing readers’ writing, we would love to hear from you.

Dr Caroline Cauchi – c.cauchi@hull.ac.uk

Dr Josephine Metcalf – j.metcalf@hull.ac.uk

Many thanks to Emily Pickard and James Ripley for this guest blog post.

Last Christmas, Edinburgh’s Oxgangs and Mobile libraries partnered with Saughton Library to deliver Secret Santa to HMP Edinburgh. The programme brought gift-wrapped library books to incarcerated individuals to combat loneliness.

Why Secret Santa?

The aim of this project was simple: extend kindness and empathy to isolated populations in hopes of inspiring kindness and empathy in turn. This goal complements Edinburgh libraries’ promotion of Empathy Lab’s Read for Empathy series and various wellness programming by extending provision to a vulnerable and unengaged community. This project uses the concept of Blind Date with a Book to reach a ‘hidden’ population with a goal to rehabilitate. The holidays are a challenging time of year among excluded and imprisoned populations, and by providing an opportunity to receive and open a ‘gift’, we hoped to spark joy, alleviate loneliness, and encourage empathy for one another. We strived to treat some of the root causes of mental illness and criminal behaviour: trauma, apathy, and isolation.

The focus is often on developing empathy in children, implying the mistaken belief that it’s ‘too late’ for most adults. This is in stark contrast to what research has revealed about human beings’ capacity for empathy. We know that a mere 10% of empathic skills are genetic and, contrary to popular belief, 98% of us can develop empathic skills at any point in our lives (Empathy Lab UK). We also know that study after study has shown direct correlation between reading fiction and improved empathy skills in adults and children alike. This foundational evidence, alongside the basic principles of bibliotherapy, informed our project. We grounded our Secret Santa programme in these principles to bolster empathy and compassion among the prison population to facilitate rehabilitation and offer them skills for release. This, we hope, will offer them a leg up in seeking employment as employers list emotional skills and teamwork as important as or more important than experience (Empathy Lab UK).

Further to this, we enabled a framework of reading as that which sparks family bonding. Family relationships have a significant impact on reducing rates of re-offending and generational incarceration. Not only does this happen through an increase in empathy, which then improves understanding for one another within a family unit, but reading also improves communication skills as well as emotional awareness for oneself and others, and offers conversational talking points to support family visitations and phone calls. Furthermore, we hope that by reframing reading as a positive, inclusive activity it will encourage active reading habits in the families and children of prisoners. This helps prevent generational incarceration.

How Did We Deliver?

The design of the programme insisted upon a unique partnership between three of the main branches of library provision in Edinburgh: prison, mobiles, and public. Saughton Library sent out registration cards to the entire prison population, including non-library users. Prisoners used these slips to register interest and select preferred genres. Saughton librarians informed the population that these books would be coming from public libraries, selected by public library assistants. This would mean a wider range of reading material, thereby greatly increasing the appeal of the programme. We also wanted to make known the connection to external public libraries to encourage registration upon release and to help the prisoners feel that they are being cared for, included, and considered.

Oxgangs and Mobile libraries teams then made selections based on participants’ requests. We were pleasantly surprised at the variation in genre requests as it disrupted our conception of prison reading trends, with a surprising number of participants requesting historical fiction, fantasy, and history texts. The books were tagged, added to the spreadsheet, and Mobile services then delivered these books, with pre-cut wrapping paper, to Saughton Library. There, the librarians finished processing and wrapping the books for delivery on 24th December. Each book contained a holiday card explaining the book choice from the library assistant who had selected it and a homemade bookmark with Christmas cracker jokes from the Saughton librarians. The project cost £20 in materials (recyclable wrapping paper and tape, and holiday cards).  

Approximately 16% of HMP Edinburgh’s population registered for the programme. Of these, 15% were first-time borrowers to the library and 15% were on remand.

Spreading Cheer and Inclusion

Edinburgh Libraries are dedicated to wellness and inclusion and the Library Secret Santa programme was a natural evolution of this. Individuals in custody cannot research new authors or the next ‘big book’. We took this as an opportunity to introduce them to new and contemporary authors and we believe this broadening of their range to be key in inspiring a love of reading. Additionally, this welcomed prisoners into the wider Edinburgh community by allowing them to partake in shared reading trends. It further contributes to increased use of the prison library by promoting it as a space of learning, community, escapism, and inclusion.

As of February 2026, participating prisoners have started returning feedback forms, with mainly positive results. The act of opening the ‘gift’ has been listed as the highest appeal. Two examples in particular highlight the programme’s success in deepening prisoners’ bonds with their families and supporting their mental health. An individual who registered for the programme waited to open his ‘gift’ until 26th December, despite receiving it on 24th December. This surprised us, as it contradicted our initial concern that most would open their ‘gifts’ immediately upon receipt. When we asked why he waited, he explained that it was tradition in his family to unwrap gifts on Boxing Day. In this way, he was able to participate in his family’s traditions for the first time since his imprisonment. The second notable example is an individual who expressed that he only recently began reading, and thus far had relied on his sister’s recommendations. He enjoyed our selection for him and now has a book to recommend to her. It is significant that many individuals within HMP Edinburgh are long-term prisoners. For others, this was their first holiday season away from their families.

Other feedback included:

• ‘had something to read over xmas helped my mental health’
• ‘I hadn’t read it [the book] or anything by the author before. I liked the card with info + thoughts on the book a lot. It was sweet + simple.’
• ‘A new genre for a change, deeply engrossed in it.’
• ‘Thank you for the Christmas book. It was excellent the way you wrapped it and added a card. It gave me a bit of normality. It was hugely appreciated.’

A Team Bonding Exercise

What we found within our teams has garnered further optimism about the project’s success. Our team was able to engage in a unique opportunity for teamwork on a single cross-city project. Team members actively spoke to one another to offer advice, brainstorm options, and research authors and genres. The team took seriously the challenges of safe content, while choosing high-quality, good condition books that were often outside their personal reading preferences.

One team member expressed their enjoyment in selecting books that were not crime and romance as is the norm for programmes like Link, Housebound, and personal shoppers. Similarly, another team member expressed the joy they felt in researching authors outside their usual sphere of interest and have gone on to read some of the authors they discovered. Another felt it helped them feel the spirit of the holidays, and all expressed their gratitude for the team collaboration they felt in helping one another in their selections. Moreover, Oxgangs Library’s team grew a deeper understanding and appreciation of the work of the Mobile and Prison library services and expressed a stronger sense of collective goals. 

In February 2026, this project was announced as a finalist for Library of the Year – Scotland (British Book Awards 2026). To date, all teams and participants are eagerly anticipating the 2026 holiday season when we hope to run the programme a second time.

Emily L. Pickard is the supervisor at Oxgangs Library, Edinburgh. She has a doctorate in Scottish Literature from the University of Glasgow with a focus on gender and labour inequality. The Secret Santa programme stemmed from her concern with mental health in vulnerable populations and her aim to boost empathy in adult communities. Pickard has published numerous scholarly and creative works. This is her first project with the prison library.

James Ripley (BA, BFA, MLIS, PhD) has been the Librarian at HMP Edinburgh (aka Saughton) for the past 4 years, but has 25+ years’ experience in academic, legal deposit, and special libraries. In addition, he is an Au’Oral Narrative scholar, a published poet, the editor of Diesel (the Saughton Poetry Journal), and a prolific Letterboxd reviewer. 

Rebecca Pulsipher Breinholt lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and completed a Librarianship MA last fall at the University of Sheffield where she loved learning about the English prison system and the impact of the library services they offer.

This blog post offers a summary of Rebecca’s dissertation research, which explored the implications of the Ofsted and HMIP Reading Education reports in prisons in England.

Background

In 2022 Oftsed and HMIP conducted a review of reading education in prisons, and a follow-up review in 2023*. The resulting reports asserted that reading education was poorly organised and under-prioritised by prison regimes and included a number of recommendations that have impacted the work of prison education providers, prison library services, and the many voluntary organisations that offer reading support services and materials to incarcerated people. 

Aims & Methods

This small-scale study set out to look at the impact that these reports and their recommendations are having on the work of key reading stakeholders by aiming to do two things:

1. Identify what has taken place to implement the recommendations, and 
2. Examine what the implications have been for prison library services in England. 

Nine in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a combination of prison library staff and people who work in partnering voluntary sector organisations that support reading across the prison estate. Findings speak only to a subset of institutions represented in the study and are not representative of the whole prison estate. Nevertheless, they offer useful insights into the success and challenges of implementing report recommendations.

Findings

Findings concerning the first aim, identifying efforts to implement the Ofsted/HMIP Report recommendations, highlighted four areas of focus: creating Reading Strategies, embedding reading and books throughout the prison, establishing new positions and roles, and increasing library access for prisoners. Of these, increasing prisoners’ library access has proven the most elusive. 

Concerning the second research aim, examining the implications for prison libraries, the study found an increase in the profile of reading and libraries, particularly at the management level, but that libraries continue to be underutilised and that there remains a significant need for improved collaboration between reading stakeholders and greater consistency in provision across the prison estate.

Recommendations & Conclusions

The findings of this research align with existing research concerning several of the most pressing challenges that prison libraries face, strengthen arguments for the very things the Ofsted/HMIP Reports recommend, and add urgency to calls for their effective implementation. 

They also support several of the recommendations put forward in Finlay and Neri’s 2025 report, particularly their calls to: 

• Establish national standards for prison library provision; 
• Integrate library awareness into prison officer training and development; 
• Prioritise strategic ways of increasing access to prison library services; 
• Strengthen cross-departmental communication and collaboration; and 
• Commission a comprehensive review of prison library provision. 

If implemented, these five recommendations would make a significant impact in addressing some of the issues identified in this research. The findings also reveal areas where further research is needed. While this study examined the perspectives of library and voluntary sector staff, the perspectives of education providers need to be explored to discover what can make library-education partnerships more effective and research that engages prison staff and prisoners themselves would be particularly valuable in learning how to enhance prison staff perceptions and in gauging the effectiveness of implementation efforts.

You can read a longer summary of the research below:

*Since this research has been carried out, a third report was published by HMIP in January 2026 called ‘Reading for Rehabilitation’.

Since coming to prison, I have read over fifty books. Reading has saved me, even during the most stressful times in my sentence so far. It has melted away hours of time and brought my racing mind to a zen kind of calm. I read books that appealed to me – books on mental toughness, money, public speaking and leadership. I read books that I thought would help make me a better version of myself.

Then I opened my mind and decided to read fantasy as a genre. Fantasy never intrigued me, and I was shocked to find that fantasy books helped me so much. They consumed me in a positive way and, while reading, I wasn’t in jail. I was lost in a world of make-believe. Surprisingly, reading fantasy also improved my understanding of people as authors dissected characters down to their very core.

Even more surprising, reading in general has provided me with unseen benefits. It has improved my general fluency in speech and broadened my vocabulary. I believe it to be a form of meditation. Both my focus and my patience have improved massively. My social awareness is more acute. The benefits I have gained since being in prison are monumental. The knowledge I have gained from reading in prison is unparalleled.

Mac (HMP Swansea)

Thank you to Mac, a library user in HMP Swansea, for sharing their reading journey.

Oliver arrived in HMP Swansea as a very timid and shy individual with limited reading, writing and numeracy skills. On completion of his Induction, it was recommended that he engage with the Shannon Trust Literacy and Numeracy mentoring programme. As the Shannon Trust Co-Ordinator, I explained what the mentoring sessions entailed and Oliver was eager to start. He sought me out during every association period and we completed a mentoring session. Oliver’s belief in his own ability to read and write grew and he was capable of completing his own food and canteen orders.

Oliver had never written to his parents from prison but as his literacy and writing skills improved he started to send letters to them. His parents were separated so he wrote to them individually. This resulted in them agreeing to visit him in HMP Swansea together. They hadn’t been in the same building together for thirteen years! The Shannon Trust programme not only helped Oliver to read and write but also improved family relationships in a massive way.

Thanks to Matthew, the Shannon Trust Co-Ordinator at HMP Swansea for this blog post contribution.

This is a guest post by Léia Santos, PhD Visiting Researcher at the University of Sheffield.

What is sentence reduction through reading?

Sentence reduction through reading is one of the alternatives for reducing sentences in Brazil, in addition to sentence reduction through study and work.

Sentence reduction through reading was adopted nationwide starting in 2013 and nowadays it is guidance by the Resolution 391/2021

When the purpose is sentence reduction, the incarcerated person can read one book per month and write a review (or perform an activity that proves the reading). If the review is approved, 4 days will be deducted from their sentence, potentially reaching up to 48 days deducted per year.

How does it work?

Those interested in reducing their sentence through reading receive a different book to read each month. After reading, they must write a review that will be evaluated and, if approved, will be granted 4 days of sentence reduction.

The review’s correction is confirmatory, not evaluative, and can be carried out by a committee of reviewers, usually in partnership between the prison unit and a university or by the team responsible for the sentence reduction project of each prison.

The established evaluation criteria are: adherence to the topic, aesthetics, not plagiarism, clarity, and comprehension.

One experience

In the Viajar sem sair do lugar [Travel without leaving the place] project, each month the group of participants chose a title (from a set of 48 titles) and the activities took place over 4 weeks (that’s one possibility, other formats exist):

1st Week: Presentation of the book and the author. Distribution of materials: book, pen, pencil, eraser, notebook paper and reading supplement (Created by us, specifically for each book, and focusing on social issues and imprisonment), and a screening of the film based on the book read the previous month (a session with popcorn and soda).

2nd week: Discussion about first impressions of the reading, explanations about the structure of the review and discussion of the first part of the reading supplement.

3rd week: Discussion about the reading, discussion of the second part of the reading supplement, a playful activity about the book read, and delivery of the draft of the review.

4th week: Participants receive the corrected review and write the final version.

Some results:

The “Travel without leaving the place” project, in its latest version, was carried out at the Santo André Provisional Detention Center, a male unit, between 2022 and 2025.

We started with 11 book titles (20 copies of each) and 3 years later we had 41 titles, all the 30 titles (20 copies of each) were donated.

Our first group had 20 participants, but by the end of the project, we had 4 groups of 20 participants each, totaling 80 places. There were just over 700 male inmates in the prison.

The main comments from participants about the benefits of the project, beyond sentence reduction, were: “I write better letters,” “I understand what I read,” “My handwriting is nicer,” “I’m communicating better”, “I discovered I like to read”, “Reading helps me with anxiety”, “I’m learning new things”, “Participating in the project helps me get out of the prison routine a little”, “Now I want to go back to studying”.

We also held literary teas and Christmas gatherings, and at these events we collected children’s books for parents to give as gifts to the children in their families on Children’s Day and at Christmas.

All this work was done voluntarily by a team that at one point had 9 volunteers, coordinated by the librarian and volunteer Léia Santos. The resources for carrying out all the activities were also donated or paid for by the volunteers.

The prison unit was responsible for: the classroom infrastructure, the movement of inmates within the unit, and sending the results of the book reviews to the judge every month.

Now that the project is over we are keeping in touch with some participants by letter, since after so many months of work, we established a relationship between the reading facilitators and the readers.

Léia Santos is a PhD Visiting Researcher at the University of Sheffield in the UK. She is a Master’s and PhD candidate in Information Science from the University of São Paulo in Brazil. She is a librarian and a researcher of libraries in prisons. Léia is coordinator of the sentence reduction through reading project “Traveling without leaving the place” between 2022-2025.

In October 2025, we launched a new Community of Practice (CoP) for public and prison library staff in the UK. This initiative was pioneered by the British Library’s Living Knowledge Network, with support from the CILIP Prison Libraries Group and the University of Sheffield. We see it as an exciting first step in deepening collaboration between public and prison libraries to better serve communities impacted by incarceration. The CoP is intended to be a participatory and collaborative forum to promote discussion between public and prison libraries, to share ideas and to develop positive, proactive relationships.

The first online event took place over lunch time and was attended by approximately 30 people working across both sectors. Katherine Blamire, Head of the Living Knowledge Network, kicked off the session by discussing the goals of the CoP and motivations behind setting it up. Victoria Barnett and Jayne Finlay then gave a short presentation outlining the potential benefits of collaboration between public and prison libraries and discussing some examples of excellent work already happening in the UK and around the world. You can download the presentation slides below.

Using an online whiteboard, participants then contributed their ideas and experiences around the following three questions:

Many innovative existing collaborative activities were noted, including:

• Interlibrary loans and stock sharing
• Reciprocal training between public and prison library teams
• Prison based reading groups
• Artwork or creative writing of people in prison showcased in public libraries
• Participating in the Summer Reading Challenge and Reading Ahead
• Author events
• Sharing cultural content and exhibition materials

This is only a snippet of the examples shared – it was exciting to hear about all the great work already taking place!

Alongside the successes, participants also spoke honestly about the barriers that make collaboration difficult. Unsurprisingly, many of these comments were around a lack of funding, limited training opportunities and pressures on staff time. It was noted that there is often limited awareness among public library staff of the operational realities and security restrictions inside prisons. We hope this Community of Practice becomes a space to discuss ways of library staff working together to address some of the barriers noted, to share good practice with each other, to make new connections and to encourage each other in the work that we do.

The event ended on a hopeful note, with attendees noting the wide range of opportunities that collaboration could lead to, such as sharing staff skills, training and capacity. Within prisons, collaboration would increase access to shared stock and existing public library initiatives, as well as extending digital access (pending IT approval!) A key benefit would be strengthening community connections, signposting to community services and a continuity of support during and after release from prison. The importance of co-creating services with prison library users to give them agency and voice was also highlighted. As one participant noted, there are ‘endless opportunities’.

The next CoP online event takes place on Wednesday 28th January from 12pm – 1pm. Please get in touch with Katherine Blamire at the British Library if you are interested in being added to a mailing list to receive more information about this and future events: Katherine.Blamire@bl.uk

We’re excited to see where this growing community will lead and we would love you to be a part of it!

Thanks to the librarian at HMP Coldingley for sending through the top 10 loaned fiction and non-fiction books of 2024! Keep reading for a library user’s review of The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Top 10 Fiction books of 2024

• The Painted Man – Peter V Brett
• The Desert Spear – Peter V Brett
• Faces – Martina Cole
• The Family Man – Kimberley Chambers
• Jack Reacher: One Shot – Lee Child
• Night School – Lee Child
• Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
• That Peckham Boy – Kenny Imafidon
• Black Book –  James Patterson
• The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

Top 10 Non-Fiction books of 2024

• Banco (Papillon ‘part II’)  – Henri Charriere
• The Betrayer – Guy Stanton
• Banged up Abroad Hellhole – Miles & Loseby
• The Brain Fitness Workout – Philip J Carter
• Cardiovascular Training 4 Fitness – Southwater
• The Chimp Paradox – Professor Steve Peters
• The Life Inside – Andy West
• Middle Age: A Natural History – D Bainbridge
• Official Theory Test for Large Vehicles – DVSA
• Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work – John Gottman

Borrower’s Choice – Mr K

Their library has a “Waterstones says” and “Borrower name says” for their newsletter book reviews. Below is a review from a library orderly.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Waterstones says:  Building an ever-darkening atmosphere of ominous tension, Donna Tartt’s ground breaking college-set thriller casts profound questions of morality and desire in a gripping reverse-murder mystery steeped in allusions to the ancient classics.

Mr. K says: This is a phenomenal story about six college students studying under an eccentric, mysterious professor. They go down some treacherous paths leading to a tragic accident. The characters are fascinating and brilliantly thought out, it’s intelligent, entertaining and has a great ending. If you like mysteries you should read this; it’s one of the best novels I’ve ever read!