Help support the Prison Library Support Network (PLSN) an organization that is trying to provide New Yorkers living in shelters, jails, and transitional housing access to library collections that reflect their needs and interests.
The Prison Library Support Network is an information-based collective founded in
2016 to support incarcerated people by organizing networks for sharing resources
and building community around prison abolition in libraries, archives, and other
knowledge-based institutions. Past and ongoing projects we have organized include
volunteer reference-letter writing to incarcerated New Yorkers, a prison abolition
book club at the New York Metropolitan Library Council, the rejuvenation of a
Brooklyn Public Library space used by families for BPL’s TeleStory program, and
book donation drives with NYPL’s Correctional Services division. In the spring of
2020, PLSN received the Special Library Association’s New York Chapter
Organizational Spotlight Award.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, an abundance of online public library programs and outreach efforts have been established to ensure remote access to library collections. Internet access is still not universal and thousands of people in New York City are unable to access these resources in a time of crisis.
To confront this, PLSN and a team of library workers from all five boroughs are working to build outreach collections that secure equitable access to books for everyone, including those in shelters or transitional housing, and who are currently or formerly incarcerated.
That’s where you come in!
Donations to this fundraiser will allow NYC public library workers to acquire books, shelving, and other supplies necessary to build and maintain book collections in New York City shelters and jails. Our goal is to make sure all New Yorkers have a way to read library books that they want to read regardless of their housing status or interaction with the criminal justice system.
If you are interesting donating to this fundraiser, please visit their fundraising site, which you can find here. They are just $4,000 away from their goal.
