“Books beyond bars” is not an ordinary systematic review around the world, but an evaluation work that highlights selected prison library systems, summarizes problems, describes sample projects, and demonstrates best practices in library service in a prison environment. Based on the impressive experience of 38 countries, the transformative power of prison libraries is revealed as an information, educational and entertainment environment, as well as library space as a protected space for meetings and recreation, for self-discipline and professional skills. Evidence is given that using a prison library can be a transformative and powerful experience with long-term and long-lasting effects. Bulgaria is one of the few countries that is present in the Chapter “Policy environment and guidelines for prison libraries” and in all sections of the Central Chapter of the book “Experiences from prison libraries around the world”.

{"references": ["Krolak, Lisa, and Peschers, Gerhard (2019). Books beyond bars: The transformative potential of prison libraries. IFLA WLIC 2019: World Library and Information Congress: Session 113c Poster Session 1, Athens, Greece, 26.08.2019. Available from: http://library.ifla.org/2836", "Krolak, Lisa (2019). Books beyond bars: The transformative potential of prison libraries. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. 50 p. ISBN 978-92-820-1231-4", "Tsvetkova, Milena, and Andrekova, Sashka (2016). The right to read behind bars: Access to books and libraries in the prisons in Bulgaria. Russian Journal of Sociology, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 62-73. DOI: 10.13187/rjs.2016.4.62"]}

This publication was made possible by a grant from the Sofia University Science Fund through the contract number 80-10-205/17.04.2019.