[Bookstoprisoners] what books most popular in the jail?

Wed Feb 22 10:55:03 CST 2006

The only categories I would add to Suzanne's list: self-help/  
psychology and religion are also popular. And graphic novels.
Susan

On Feb 22, 2006, at 10:28 AM, Suzanne Linder wrote:

> Holley--
>
> The Mystery/Thrillers are the most popular (Dean Koontz, Jame  
> Patterson, Grisham...the usual suspects) but the most requested  
> books (as in the ones we don't have nearly enough of) are books by  
> Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim, popular press fiction by African- 
> American authors and poetry by African-American poets.  Also very  
> popular are the Chicken Soup for the Soul books and the Left Behind  
> series.
>
> Thanks for filling those special requests!  It's great that you can  
> send books directly to inmates now--Jay did a great job with the  
> website :)
>
> Suzanne
>
> On 2/21/06, Holley K <hollymn1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Without anyone taking a lot of time tabulating book by book,  I am  
> just curious as to the categories of books that were checked out  
> most often.   You're doing a great job there!
>
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. Jail "statistics" to date (Susan Porter Bruce)
> 2. Books to Prisoners in Illinois (Sandra Ahten)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 13:34:07 -0600
> From: Susan Porter Bruce
> Subject: [Bookstoprisoners] Jail "statistics" to date
> To: BTP Libraries , BTP
>
> Message-ID: < 0C1E6232-97A1-44C3-895D-B77624BDC808 at yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
> Jail Librarians and others interested in Books-to-Prisoners:
>
> As you may know, the jail check-out cards were sorted last week, with
> the cards of those who have been released or sent to prison put in
> the back of the box. (Librarians did this using a print-out that a
> helpful guard brought in.)
>
> I decided to take these home Friday so I could count up whatever was
> easily countable.
>
> I estimate we've been going to the jail for 20 weeks, and during that
> time we created about 220-240 cards which are now retired. (I know
> there were more than I have, because we had quite a few smaller cards
> before we switched to the larger ones.) We probably have another 100
> currently in the box, i.e. people still at the jail and using the
> library.
>
> Of the 220 I have, 52 were women (23%.) That seems higher than I
> might have thought, but there may be more turnover for women.
>
> Some cards show only 1-2 books checked out, some have as many as 40.
> (We all know several who are on their second cards and who check out
> 6 books each week.) Of course, it depends on the length of their
> stay, and how often they choose to come to the library.
>
> I'll hang onto these, as we may want to sometime take the trouble to
> list the books checked out. If anyone wants to see these or do
> anything with them, let me know.
>
> In sum, we've served something like 350 or 400 people.
>
> Jay, perhaps we might share this with Nancy?
>
> Susan Bruce
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 21:45:30 +0000
> From: "Sandra Ahten"
> Subject: [Bookstoprisoners] Books to Prisoners in Illinois
> To: jdicianni at ilsos.net
> Message-ID:
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> To: Illinois Literacy Foundation
> From: Sandra Ahten, Coordinator, UC-Books To Prisoners Program,
> www.books2prisoners.org
>
> Hello, I am coordinating a Books To Prisoners Program for prisoners in
> Illinois Prisons. We have been active for nearly two years and have  
> put more
> than 4000 books into the hands of inmates at no charge to them. We  
> collect
> books from the community; sort and store them; and then answer  
> individual
> inmates specific requests. We supplement our stock with  
> dictionaries that we
> purchase. More than 85% of our first time requests are for  
> dictionaries.
>
> We have more than 20 volunteers participating each week.
>
> In addition we have piloted a program that stocks and staffs our  
> county
> jail.
>
> We have done our own funding through books sales (selling excess  
> donated
> books) and community solicitation /donations. We are supported in-kind
> through our parent organization the UC-Independent Media Center.
>
> I am interested in meeting with you in person or by phone and  
> discussing the
> possibility of the Illinois Literacy Foundation funding a few specific
> projects. Could you tell me how to reach you -- or what you believe  
> our next
> step should be?
>
> Sandra Ahten
> 217-367-6345
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of BooksToPrisoners Digest, Vol 9, Issue 14
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***********************
Susan P. Bruce
1501 N Coler Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
217-384-2002
217-840-9120 (portable)

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