Each year, MCEL produces an online Directory of State Prison Librariansfrom a questionnaire
sent to each state prison.
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The directory lists the name, qualification, address, and employing
authority. Prison libraries may be staffed by librarians with a degree in Library Science or an
undergraduate degree, or by technicians under the supervision of an off site professional librarian.
The libraries and education departments may be under the jurisdiction of the Division of
Correction (DOC), or they may exist through the collaborative efforts of the DOC, and other
agencies. For example, the Maryland State Department of Education employs MCEL librarians,
but that agency receives a subvention from the Maryland’s DOC to implement most of the library
programs. In this case, funding includes an off site online legal database service that serves to
provide inmates with access to the courts. While this writer is aware that private contractors
operate a number of prisons, none of the librarians responding to the survey indicated private
contractors employed them.