The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a
difference in the resources and library services in men's and
women's state prison facility libraries, and to determine to
what extent the librarians who administer services to inmates
in prisons believe the resources available are adequate in giving
library service to the inmates.
A questionnaire was sent to the librarians in charge of
the library in all women's institutions in the United States and
to a random sample of men's institutions. A total of seventy-three
questionnaires were completed and returned; thirty-nine
from male institutions, twenty-three from female institutions,
and eleven from co-ed institutions. The data from the
questionnaires were tabulateds-using the Statistical Package of
the Social Sciences (SPSS-PC).
Major comparisons between the male and female
institutions included: 1) the size of the institutions with the
size of the library collection, 2) the size of the institutions with
the resources available to inmates, and 3) the comparison of
resources and services between the men's and women's
institutions. Based on the results of the study, the following
conclusions were reached: 1) men's institutions had much
larger inmate populations than women's institutions, 2) men's
institutions had only slightly more books and journals than
women's institutions, and 3) because there were fewer females
per institution, females had many more resources available per
inmate than men. A second analysis was performed to
compare male and female institutions within categories of
similar size to determine whether or not the differences in the
materials and services which were found to be outstanding or
significantly different in the first analysis would remain valid.
Data from both analyses indicated that women's institutions, in
most cases, had more resources and services available than
men's institutions regardless of the size of the institution. The
majority of librarians in both men's and women's institutions
believed they were able to support their goals and objectives,
and most were satisfied with the services they were able to
provide.
A review of the literature indicated that similar problems
have existed in prisons from the early 1800's to the present.
Those problems, still recurrent, are theft, insufficient funding,
overcrowding, and lack of administrative support for prison
libraries. / Graduation date: 1991
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/38040 |
| Date | 10 August 1990 |
| Creators | Glenn, Judith A. |
| Contributors | Jenne, William C. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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