PRESENTATION

Presentation Description:

While eLearning and the provision of digital information resources have expanded access to higher education, they have also widened the digital divide for incarcerated students. Each year, students undertake study programs at Curtin University despite systemic barriers intersecting with race, income, literacy and disability. Due to security protocols, students are forbidden from accessing the internet (and sometimes computers) and given little time or support to study. As many course materials are only available in digital formats, this presented a significant problem for service provision at Curtin Library. Library staff were in a reactive position, finding ways to deliver material in appropriate formats to students within tight timeframes. Additionally, our processes lacked clarity and cohesion, with service aspects scattered across teams.

A project team was created to review our incarcerated student services, with a focus on improving access to information resources. In our investigation, we discovered that “digital by default” approaches, licensing agreement terms, and perceptions of copyright risk can hinder student access to information. These findings revealed the drawbacks of digital collections, and raised questions about copyright anxiety, library ethics and advocacy for marginalised people. This presentation will illustrate the circumstances of incarcerated students in Australia, outline the barriers related to library services, and describe how libraries can face these challenges to empower this overlooked group.