Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal February 2009 Volume 7(1)

Aiming higher

Different audiences

I was recently invited to the launch of the refurbished library within the HM Prison in Edinburgh, with a number of other library colleagues. The library’s printed content was displayed on the bookshelves. Access to the internet, to source electronic content, was not permitted.

SCURL is actively involved in procuring electronic content for our users and part of my responsibilities are to focus on the electronic environment. I was therefore genuinely astonished, and perhaps naïve, not to have realised that the users of the prison library would be entirely reliant on their printed collections. I had a few conversations with the young men who had recently benefited from this magnificent new library and their pride and joy in this new resource was evident.

The footfall through the door of the library had increased substantially since the refurbishment which is testament to the Librarian who has given the young men confidence in themselves and their ability to take part in a scheme in which they have access to the books that their children read. Thus the library provides support to the inmates endeavouring to strengthen their relationship with their children, through reading the same books. 

The libraries which I visit and in which I work are often multi-storeyed and multi-sited with many library members of staff and thousands of users moving in and out of the building. The prison library was one room, with a locked door, bars on the windows but providing the same sort of sense of escape that you can get from reading, regardless of the environment in which one finds oneself.

One of the young men told me that he wished to train to become a librarian when he was released. He explained that he had been given the responsibility to develop the library’s registration process and book issue system. This had provided an opportunity to develop his skills, his confidence, and gain expertise. I left the prison library after the hour’s visit feeling extremely humble, and very grateful for the privilege to have had an opportunity to meet a group of young men who perhaps are benefiting from reading for the first time in their lives. I was invited by one of them to return to visit him in ‘his’ library in a year’s time and I promised to do so.

A librarian colleague who serves on the SLIC Further Education Working Group on Quality Standards also advised me that Carnegie College in Dunfermline, since April 2000, has provided four prisons with education and learning services. The aim is to give offenders the opportunity to develop basic and core skills qualifications working with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). As we know, the Scottish Government’s Homecoming Scotland initiative is celebrating Scottish culture and life. This is also reflected in the teaching and learning within prisons as the SQA announced that each prison will “receive a full class set of books which will be backed up with teaching resources and online support.”

I referred earlier to the multi-sited education libraries where I work and to the thousands of users. The Scottish Higher Education Digital Library (SHEDL), a SCURL steering group, in liaison with JISC Collections and Content Complete Ltd, has successfully negotiated a contract with three publishers for access to their electronic and print content for the use of the SHEDL institutions and their users. Access was made available on 1 January to nearly 1,500 titles thus ensuring equitable access for the Scottish HEIs and the Small Specialised Institutions (SSIs). This is a remarkable achievement for SCURL and the members of the steering group must be congratulated for their tenacity and vision while working through the procurement process with its potential risks and which was, often, unknown territory.

I look forward to the next round of negotiations with the potential publishers from whom we would wish to have access to content, and to widening both the audience and the partner institutions. 
Jill Evans

More about the HMP Edinburgh library

Information Scotland Vol. 7(1) February 2009

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