Prison Library Support Network Volunteers Meet Incarcerated Information Needs with Grassroots Reference by Mail Service

The Prison Library Support Network, established in 2015, works to meet the information needs of people who are incarcerated through a nationwide letter-writing project. Since the reference by mail program started in 2021, the New York City–based collective of librarians, graduate students, and activists has responded to nearly all of the 3,000 queries it has received from people in prisons across the United States, with the majority of letters coming from Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Florida.

storefront exterior of Interference Archive in Brooklyn, people inside working around a table visible through window
Interference Archive is a volunteer-run archival collection and study center that hosts public programs about the history of social movements. It also serves as the mailing address for PLSN letters from people who are incarcerated.
Photo credit: Claire Kelley

People who are incarcerated can’t check social media, read any book they want, look up the latest basketball game score, surf the web to look for new shoes, or use online search engines to research a legal question. Traditional library reference services assume patrons have basic freedoms—the ability to check out books or to access the internet. This isn’t the case for prison reference, where answering even simple questions can become surprisingly complex, especially when responses must also meet prison surveillance requirements for length and content.

Willie Kearse has seen how even these constrained reference services for prison inmates are in high demand. Formerly incarcerated for 24 years over a wrongful conviction, Kearse is now the Community Engagement Specialist for Parole Prep, an organization that advocates for the release of people serving life sentences in New York State. "Libraries inside are often limited by strict rules, censorship, and resources going missing,” he said. “If you put in a book request, it’s not even there. You have to go to an outside organization, like [the Prison Library Support Network] PLSN, to get help.”

Established in 2015, PLSN works to meet the information needs of people who are incarcerated through a nationwide letter-writing project. Since the reference by mail program started in 2021, the New York City–based collective of librarians, graduate students, and activists has responded to nearly all of the 3,000 queries it has received from people in prisons across the United States, with the majority of letters coming from Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Florida.

These letters have increased in volume over the years—from about 10 to 30 per month in 2021 to about 200 per month in 2024. At the end of last year, PLSN raised over $138,000 with a fundraising campaign and is working to scale up its work to expand capacity and to meet the demand for its services. This is all part of PLSN’s mission to bridge the gap between incarceration and access to information.

As collective members, PLSN cofounder Mia Bruner, a reference librarian at New York Public Library (NYPL); Manuela Aronofsky, a middle school librarian; and Dr. Rachel Rosekind, a teacher, writing coach, and activist, noted in an email interview, members of PLSN think of reference as relational: “The goal is not just to address the immediate question in a letter but to establish a dialogue—one that reminds people inside that their voices matter and that their curiosity, needs, and dreams deserve to be met with respect and resources.”

Through a blend of advocacy, education, and work to stay horizontal and transparent in its organizational structure, PLSN continues to reimagine what reference services can look like. There are some other notable differences from established reference projects associated with library systems with a similar mission in the United States, such as NYPL Jail & Prison Services (JPS) and St. Louis County Library’s Reference by Mail program.

For example, PLSN volunteers don’t reject legal questions outright. Instead, they partner with law librarians to try to answer a question no matter how long it takes to research. And unlike other prison reference by mail programs, PLSN does not have any paid staff members. The group operates with a consensus-based decision-making structure, engaging volunteers nationwide through virtual and in-person efforts. For PSLN, it’s a model that demonstrates a commitment to making sure that equitable library reference services are available to all through grassroots collaboration.

As an abolitionist organization, PLSN doesn’t collaborate with Departments of Corrections in any state—another significant distinction from some other prison library reference programs in the United States. The reference project is just one aspect of PLSN as an organization, whose founding and operation has been explicitly grounded in abolitionist principles. “No cops, no saviors” is one of the guiding values volunteers follow.

MISSION AND VALUES IN ACTION

PLSN logo: illustrated hands holding book with organization name on the front, in a ring of barbed wire, blue on hot pink backgroundOther values central to its mission are accountability, sustainability, reciprocity, and accessibility. PLSN volunteers are taught to approach the reference services they offer with the understanding that people who are incarcerated know best what information they need, rejecting saviorism and paternalism. A commitment to anti-capitalism and anti-racism also informs their work—volunteers avoid directing people to paid resources and are trained, for example, to resist white supremacist ideologies by declining to answer certain types of questions.

In a PLSN reference training on a Sunday afternoon in November 2024, a volunteer trainer explained, “We assume, with limits, that people writing us know what kind of information they want, and we respond in kind.” This means that PLSN coordinators also describe their organization as “sex-positive, meaning we’re willing to send pornography if it’s allowed by the prison.”

Volunteer Mai Tran joined PLSN to help friends with information: “I was looking for more ways to support incarcerated people and I had friends inside who were always asking for random information, like reference photos for art projects, beading patterns, official Monopoly rules, and stock market prices.”

Questions can also be more urgent. A common information need for prison inmates is related to medical and health issues, said Kearse. “We call it medical violence on the inside. A lot of questions deal with health—how to get information to challenge the system. I’ve seen questions about the contaminated water and the pipes in prisons. People inside want information to understand their conditions and advocate for their rights.”

The earliest efforts of PLSN focused on supporting public librarians working within New York City prisons who were facing resource constraints. Between 2016 and 2018, PLSN partnered with institutions like the Brooklyn Public Library and NYPL to host volunteer reference letter-writing events and book donation drives.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 marked a turning point for PLSN. When public library workers were locked out of correctional facilities and unable to access letters, the group launched its own national reference-by-mail service in 2021. Today, PLSN operates with a network of volunteers across the United States and has evolved from a localized initiative to a national force addressing systemic issues of information access.

This move into reference expanded the scope of PLSN’s mission, allowing volunteers to directly respond to the letters from people who are incarcerated who send mail to the Interference Archive in Brooklyn, where the physical pages are scanned. Once they are in digital form, letters are uploaded to a secure database, protecting privacy by redacting personally identifiable information.

Coordinators summarize their content, which ranges from queries about reentry resources to requests for song lyrics, role playing manuals, educational opportunities, and questions about creative projects. Letters are classified into categories in Airtable (for example, legal, medical, news and celebrities, government info, research and learning, games and hobbies, arts and writing, business, or spirituality and religion), and coordinators provide facility-specific mail policies.

Volunteers sign up for letters from the database, based on their interests or expertise, after reviewing summaries and the full text of each letter. The inherent lag in mail processing makes quick responses difficult, requiring volunteers to anticipate the patron’s changing information needs over weeks or months when they write back.

OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO INFORMATION

The response delay is just one example of how incarcerated people face significant restrictions that shape their information-seeking behavior. Librarian and influential 20th-century information theorist Elfreda Chatman’s foundational research on the concept of “information poverty” highlights the power imbalances and institutional constraints that impact access to information in prisons. PLSN organizers explained that their reference training program emphasizes the way in which “information access is wielded as a disciplinary tool against people who are incarcerated. Knowing that, we work to meet their needs despite the surveillance and restrictions they face.”

The American Library Association (ALA) has been working to make standards for prison reference programs comprehensive and inclusive. Most recently, ALA announced its first update in 32 years toward that goal. It's notable that PLSN has developed an approach that relies on a diverse group of volunteers—many without MLIS degrees—to respond to information requests.

For Library and Information Science (LIS) students and master’s programs, prison reference training provides a critical opportunity to engage with questions of power and inequity in information services. Jeanie Austin, a coordinator at San Francisco Public Library Jail and Reentry Services, has written about how this training for MLIS reference courses is important: “this project is not to simply attempt to ‘solve’ racism or implementations of whiteness in LIS services, but to encourage LIS students to sit with the tension and discomfort of the awareness of power.”

Emily Drabinski, who served as ALA President from 2023–24, will be asking students in her “Information Sources and Services” course at Queens College this semester to take a PLSN training and answer letters from the database. She said she assigned this reference project in her course because “students learn how to find and share high quality information with patrons experiencing significant barriers to access. They also learn about the systems that produce and maintain those barriers, a crucial first step toward dismantling them.”

PLSN cofounder Bruner and organizer Aronofsky both attended Pratt Institute for their MLIS degrees. They were introduced to reference by mail in a core reference course that had been previously taught by Drabinski with Dr. Debbie Rabina, and noticed its potential as an organizing project. But instead of founding PLSN through libraries, collaborations with groups outside libraries—Books Through Bars, ABO Comics, and Archive-Based Creative Arts—allowed them to sustain their work using mutual aid.

Inmate reference work, just like traditional reference services, can come with compassion fatigue or burnout, especially among unpaid volunteers. Rachel Jones, a PLSN volunteer of three years, reflected on this reality: “People often share deeply personal and traumatic details in their letters about harm they’ve caused or experienced. Prisons and jails are brutal, particularly for the disabled and elderly. It is important for me personally to remember that that I can’t ‘fix’ their problems. But I can offer help and support through our reference service.”

To address these emotional challenges, PLSN has created structured spaces for ethical reflection and mutual support. The Accountability Working Group, for instance, provides a forum for volunteers to discuss their experiences, grapple with ethical questions, and refine their approach. “We engage in an ongoing process of reflecting on our work and trying to improve,” Jones said.

Ultimately, the mission of PLSN goes beyond simply answering reference queries—it’s about addressing the barriers of the prison industrial complex. By creating alternative information systems, the collective is hoping to challenge the inequities in the carceral state and promote equitable access to knowledge. Whether responding to questions about legal rights, curating materials for self-directed education, or connecting individuals to reentry resources, PLSN’s work reflects a broader commitment to collective liberation. “Our goal is to empower people,” the organizers explained. “This isn’t just about access to books or information—it’s about giving people the tools to advocate for themselves and build better futures.”

PLSN’s abolitionist commitment has been deeply personal. Kearse, the PLSN collaborator who was formerly incarcerated himself, said that reading books like The New Jim Crow and Mariame Kaba’s We Do This ’Til We Free Us reshaped his understanding of justice. “Reform patches the problem while keeping the system intact,” Kearse said. “Abolition made me realize that laws don’t prevent crime—they just create more hurdles to freedom and rights”

From its inception, the coordinators noted that PLSN has focused on the intersection of librarianship and abolition. “When PLSN was founded we asked ourselves, ‘What does it mean to say we’re librarians and abolitionists?’ Our reference project and our value statement are our best attempts to answer that question.”

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