In 1979, I worked at the Library Extension Service, a unit of the Arizona Department of Library, Archives and Public Records. I was the consultant who was responsible for developing library services in state-supported correctional and mental health institutions, and in the three training schools for the developmentally disabled. The Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind and the Arizona Pioneers Home were also included in the facilities I worked with.
In order to develop these libraries, our agency received federal library funding from Title I of the Library Services and Construction Act. These funds were awarded to the institutions as library grants. I was required to develop projects that improved library services to the residents of the institutions. The institutions submitted proposals to the agency, and they were evaluated and awarded funds to either improve the leisure reading collections, or hire professional staff to provide services to the clients.
I was also involved in advising the state's prisons on legal library services. The state was told that they had to give inmates better access to the courts. Many of them set up legal collections during the time I worked at the state library. This was emphasized after the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Gilmore v. Lynch decision on inmate access to the courts. While I was at the State Library, I was on a committee to develop legal library service standards for correctional institutions. Because of my service to this committee I had an impact on developing legal collections in prisons through the standards we developed. This was my first exposure to law library collections, and legal research.
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