Librarians’ Experiences of Censorship in Carceral Facilities

Abstract

This commentary reviews responses about censorship in a nationwide survey of academic, public, and similar librarians and library staff who provide information to incarcerated people.

For librarians who work with incarcerated people, censorship is often inherent in maintaining any kind of library services, whether the need to censor is communicated directly by carceral staff, invoked in policy, or shaped by a library worker’s interpretation of their role in the institution (Conrad 2017). While at times censorship seems to shape the entire library collection in a carceral facility, librarians have found many ways to build professional rapport with facility staff, subvert demands for censorship, and build robust collections despite prohibitions on certain types of materials (Arford 2016).