Libraries Bring Free e-Resources to Incarcerated Patrons

***BEFORE YOU REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR PLEASE REVIEW IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFORMATION BELOW***

In 2022, San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) partnered with hoopla Digital to bring electronic books and media to people in San Francisco's county jails. Incarcerated patrons can now use free tablets to borrow free e-books, audiobooks, music, movies, and TV shows. This removes financial barriers, standing in stark contrast to the expensive tablets available to incarcerated people elsewhere. Free tablets with free content allow incarcerated patrons to access public library e-resources just as patrons do on the outside. This partnership between the public library, the sheriff's office, grassroots community groups, and hoopla is the foundation for a national model for bringing e-resources into jails and prisons. During this webinar, staff from SFPL and hoopla Digital will share models for initiating partnerships with local jails and prisons that can lead to digital library access in the future.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Understand the limited, expensive model usually followed when e-resources are offered to incarcerated people;
• Recognize first steps to bringing free e-resources to incarcerated patrons in their community; and
• Develop strategies to advocate for making public library e-resources freely available at their local jails and prisons.

Who Should Attend

This webinar is intended for all public library staff and interested students.

Panelists

Rachel Kinnon (she/her) has been the jail and reentry services manager at San Francisco Public Library since 2017. Prior to that, she received her MLIS from San Jose State University and worked as SFPL’s librarian at the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center for ten years. She is co-principal investigator for the Mellon Foundation-funded project, Expanding Information Access for Incarcerated People. Rachel is committed to ensuring incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people experience their public library as a welcoming resource during reentry and beyond.

 

Amanda Ulrich (she/her) is a senior account executive at hoopla Digital with nearly ten years of experience supporting public libraries. In her role, she learns about libraries’ needs and strives to provide creative workflow solutions for digital products to enhance the library staff and patron experience. When Amanda isn’t talking with libraries, she is spending time with her two children, listening to romance audiobooks, and tending to her indoor plants.

 

Important Registration Information

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Accommodations

This live webinar will be captioned in English (United States). Zoom desktop client or mobile app is required to access captions.

Attendees using screen readers are advised to turn off speech prior to joining the Zoom event because PLA webinars make extensive use of chat functionality. Attendees who find chat distracting may wish to disable it in the Zoom event, as PLA moderators will verbally highlight important topics raised in chat and chat transcripts will be provided post-webinar.

If you have a physical or communication need that may affect your participation in this webinar, please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752) at least two weeks prior to the webinar. Without prior notification of need, we may not be able to provide appropriate accommodations for the live event.

Archived Recording

If you're unable to attend this live webinar, an archived recording will be available to all registrants typically within 1–3 business of the live event. Access to closed captions will be provided in the webinar recording.

Tech Requirements

This webinar will be presented using the Zoom platform. Please review Zoom technical requirements and support information, and test your connection.

Once you've joined the webinar, there are two ways to connect your audio: via computer (VoIP) or via telephone. No microphone is required. PLA works with its webinar platform provider to assure the highest quality audio is being delivered to attendees. However, variables over which PLA has no control—such as the speed of your Internet connection or traffic on your local network—can affect the end quality of the webinar audio delivered by your computer. Each webinar’s audio is also available by telephone via a toll number, so we recommend you have access to a long-distance enabled phone as a backup in case you experience audio issues with VoIP. If you do encounter any problems during the webinar, you will receive a link to its archived recording within a week of the live event and can review anything you missed.

Contact

This webinar is presented by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

Questions about this webinar? Please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752).