Library and Information Science Miscellaneous

This weblog in the field of Library and Information Science contains news, comments and everything that its bloggers think could be useful for LIS professionals and students. It is maintianed by a number of students mainly Research students and Iranian. Our email is lismisblog at Yahoo dot com.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

The Shawshank Redemption and prison library

Last night I watched the The Shawshank Redemption (1994) directed by Frank Darabont, stared by Tim Robbins as Andy. I think It is one of the best Hollywood classics. The story was about an innocent man (Andy) in the Shawshank prison who has some advantures with some other prisoners. All of them have been sentenced to life. Andy is an educated, patient and industrious man who believes in hope, opposite of some other prisoners who think "hope is a dangerous thing". But, why am I writing about a film here?Andy in the library

After some years, the prison governor put Andy in charge of the library and he made the library one of the best prison libraries in the New England. In the beginning, the library was like a store. He kept sending one letter per week to people in charge and asked them for books and budget for the library. He didn't get any reply for 6 years but he didn’t quit. Eventually, they gave him many books and some money for the library. They did that just because they wanted to get rid of his letters not because they believed in the value the library could add to the prisoners' lives. I was thinking about the patience of Andy. He could be a paradigm for some librarians to copy. Sometimes it is very hard to convince the mother organization to give enough budget to the library. It needs lots of patience!

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