Different kind of library

The library here has one amenity that no other prison library I've seen has - inter-library loan. I'm surprised any libraries at all would lend books to a prison, but we have an agreement with the local high school library, which doubles as a community library.

I used the Tex-share program when I was going to community college to visit the nearby university for research materials. Just like that community college, our prison library has weak selection of books. The agreement we have with the local library effectively quadruples our collection, quite a boon for a reader like me with different tastes than the usual guys.

I gave the system a try this week. When I asked my boss to check on the availability of a few books, only one of the five was in the local library's collection. My coworker had better luck with a few books targeted for young adult readers. Apparently they still favor high-school reading over sci-fi and non-fiction for an older audience. The book I got is on the bestseller's list anyway, so it wasn't a surprise to find that they had it. I guess other guys will gain more from the inter-library loan agreement than I will. It's just cool that it's in place.