Have always done it for the 23 years I've been librarianing here. I don't think the source of the question is salient unless there is some law we're not aware of that speaks to what information a prisoner is privileged to obtain. All questions from outside our cardholders are treated with respect, but limited to what is reasonable based on the limits of time and resources, understanding precedence is given to our taxpayers. We have less and less of the prison letters as time wears on, but they're always interesting! Kelli Perkins Head of Reference Services Herrick District Library 300 S River Ave, Holland MI 49423 616.355.3718 kperkins@herrickdl.org Listening: "Mr. Mercedes" by Stephen King Reading: "The Kraken Project" by Douglas Preston ________________________________________ From: michlib-l-bounces@mcls.org <michlib-l-bounces@mcls.org> on behalf of Cathy Sullivan Seblonka <cathys@pwpl.info> Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2014 2:11 PM To: michlib-l@mcls.org Subject: [Michlib-l] serving the incarcerated from a public library question Hello, everyone. How do you handle requests mailed to your reference department from prisoners incarcerated in Michigan prisons whether the prison is within your service area or not? When a prisoner asks for books we write a letter to the prisoner and suggest they use their prison's interlibrary loan system. We have been answering reference questions such as what is the address of a particular publisher, will you please send me a copy of a picture of a circus, etc., via return letter. Someone working at a Michigan prison is now questioning us as to whether the public library should answer reference questions from prisoners. Does your library have a policy about this? What do you do when you receive reference requests from prisoners? I suspect prison librarians are overworked and cannot answer all the questions they must get. Thanks for thinking about this and sending suggestions and comments. Cathy Cathy Sullivan Seblonka Collection Development/Reference Librarian Peter White Public Library 217 N. Front St. Marquette, MI 49855 906-226-4312 cathys@pwpl.info _______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list Michlib-l@mcls.org http://lists.mlcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l