Recently Asked Questions

Periodically, our library receives handwritten requests for information from individuals who are incarcerated at prisons and correctional facilities around the country.

We are an academic library at a private institution and our campus does not currently have a prison outreach program. As part of our ongoing social justice efforts within the library, we would like to be more purposeful about the way we handle these reference questions.

What are legal considerations we should keep in mind when providing reference services to incarcerated individuals? Ideally, we would want to treat these questions the same way we would questions from members of the general public. However, our team wants to be sure we understand whether there are ways we could unintentionally put ourselves or our institution at legal risk if we provide information that is somehow deemed problematic.

(Note: We are aware of the Prison Library Support Network and plan to participate in trainings they may offer.)
Thanks!

Local police walked through our Library earlier today with no explanation. Later on, we noticed 2 teens on premises, who we assume should have been in school. We thought the police may have been looking for them as truants, but that is not confirmed. The question is, if the police were to ask if we saw the teens, are we able to answer or is that considered a violation of patron privacy as it is with patron information and records?