Meeting the "Justice Initiatives" Team
Brooklyn Public Library

Brooklyn Public Library's "Justice Initiatives" program provides incarcerated patrons access to virtual telecommunication, library materials, research, and correspondence tools. PEN America sat down with the team at BPL that plays a crucial role in helping incarcerated people maintain connections to their loved ones on the outside, improve their literacy skills, and prepare for successful reentry into their communities.

Brooklyn Public Library’s relentless commitment to serve people who are incarcerated transcends its direct services, and can be seen through its collaborative work with various criminal justice nonprofit organizations and programs, such as PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program.

To shine a light on the needs that libraries and librarians help address for people involved with the American carceral system, PEN America Prison and Justice Writing Fellow Valentina Flores spoke with Diego Sandoval-Hernandez, Supervising Librarian for Jail and Prison Librarians at the Brooklyn Public Library, about the history and importance of the Justice Initiatives Program.

Read the interview on PEN America.

L.A. County Library Expands E-Book Access
L.A. County Library

On June 27, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors authorized the expansion of the digital library card from just L.A. County residents to residents of all cities and counties in the state.

“Book banning and book restricting is on the rise across the country, and it is certainly happening in Southern California. If other areas of California are restricting access to materials, the L.A. County Library would be there to provide that access,” said Wendy Crutcher, L.A. County Library’s collection development director.

The Los Angeles County Library system wants to give people living outside of the county a way to get around book bans. The library is planning an expanded, digital library card that grants e-book access to users throughout California, a first for the library. The launch is planned to coincide with Banned Books Week in early October.

The expansion of the digital library card from just L.A. County residents to residents of all cities and counties in the state was authorized by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors on June 27. The library is working on the logistics and will report back to the board at the end of July.

Read the full article on Los Angeles Daily News.

What 150 Years of Service 'Looks Like'
Columbus Metropolitan Library

In celebration of its 150 years, the Columbus Metropolitan Library asked 24 artists to create works that in some way pay tribute to the resources, work and impact of the library.

Stephanie Rond, director of the Carnegie Gallery at the Main Library, selected the artists and asked them to consider “what public libraries mean — specifically how they’re open to all — and what 150 years of service looks like.” Tiffany Lawson references a poetry collection by Rita Dove (another Ohioan) in her three-dimensional assemblage “Book Fairy.” The 150 mini-books Lawson created honor the fairy of the title who leaves books in public places for others to find.

There are many more such intriguing works in this exhibit, all accompanied by panels that discuss the artists’ thoughts and processes. “Columbus Metropolitan Library at 150” continues through Sept. 16 in the Carnegie Gallery, second floor of the Main Library.

Read the full article on The Columbus Dispatch.

Celebrating Ballroom at the Renaissance Ball
Enoch Pratt Public Library

Baltimore photographer SHAN Wallace, whose year as the Enoch Pratt Public Library's first artist-in-residence came to a close last week, wanted to mark the occasion – and the end of Pride Month – with a celebration of Baltimore’s ballroom scene and the queer community with the first-ever Renaissance Ball. The ball was part of the library's new Final Fridays series, with the Central Branch library hosting a different after-hours event on the last Friday of every month.

Black LGBTQ+ people in New York City founded ballroom culture in the 19th century to create a safer space for community gathering and artistic expression, especially as they faced discrimination from both cisheteronormative society and cisgender white members of the queer community who sought to exclude them from their own spaces.

“I think the library is one of the most democratic places that we have,” Wallace said. “I deeply love the Pratt because the Pratt really does open its doors to everybody continuously…. Libraries tend to show up for communities and show up for cities in a way that most institutions are not.”

Read the full article on Baltimore Fishbowl.