I once received from a prison library an Interlibrary loan request for the book, How to Locate Anyone Anywhere Without Leaving Home. That conjured up a picture of a vengeful con trying to find the dirty rat fink who’d testified against him and gotten him sent up the river. It also made me wonder what went through the prison librarian’s mind when he submitted the convict’s request. Now there’s a book, Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, being published later this month (it’s on order at EPL) that will take readers inside a prison library and into the mind of the librarian. To get a sample of author Avi Steinberg’s experiences, take a look at an excerpt from the book in Sunday’s New York Times magazine.
Mary B., Reader’s Services
