How IMLS Funding Cuts Will Impact Prison Libraries; Medium, June 11, 2025

Lauren Triola , Medium; How IMLS Funding Cuts Will Impact Prison Libraries

"With the recent chaos surrounding the future of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), people are concerned about libraries around the country losing vital government funding. Most of the uproar against the proposed cuts has centered on how important public libraries are to their communities. However, there’s another type of library that will also be affected by these funding cuts — one that is indispensable to the community it serves.

Prison libraries are a lifeline to many people who are incarcerated. They depend heavily on IMLS grants, and if IMLS is dismantled or suffers severe funding cuts, then prison libraries will struggle to exist."

Locked up in an Egyptian prison, I found solace in the library; The Washington Post, November 2, 2023

 Ahmed Naji, The Washington Post; Locked up in an Egyptian prison, I found solace in the library

"My family has a record when it comes to getting rid of books. When I was very young and we lived in Egypt, we had a ritual that took place at regular intervals. My father would throw open the cupboards and drawers and make an inventory of all the books, magazines and notebooks stored inside, a task that could take hours. The most important items were the journals containing his notes on the books he’d read; next came his collection of books by Islamist leaders such as Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna.

First my father would sort the books into groups, then distribute them among a number of hiding places. Some would be stored in cardboard boxes on the roof next to the chicken coop; others would be left for safekeeping with neighbors who weren’t involved in any political activism. Finally, he would decide that some books were too dangerous to keep — dangerous for him and for us. He could always get hold of another copy of them if he really needed to, and so he would burn them and painstakingly dispose of their ashes."