James LaRue - myliblog

In 2012 the Colorado State Library (CSL) studied how to encourage parents of 0-3 year-olds to develop daily habits of early literacy. Part of that was identifying barriers to library use. Local resident Sharon Morris (MLIS, Ph.D.) worked at CSL and was involved on the team. She spoke at our Feb. 6, 2025 board meeting and described a focus group with teen mothers. One mom said she didn’t take her children to the library because she couldn’t afford it. Sometimes they couldn’t get the books back on time. Sometimes a toddler damaged a book and it had to be replaced. They opted to stay away. The second mom said she got that. But she took her kids to the library anyhow. The programs were free. They could hang out and read there. Her hack: just don’t check anything out. The third mom looked knowingly at Sharon as if to say, “I’ve got this, sister.” Not to worry, said the mom. I check out books but I put them on a high shelf at home so the children can’t get to them. That way they can’t damage...

I think I have now sat on every side of the table. I’ve been a senior staff member giving reports to a board. I was a director working with an advisory board. I’m once again a director reporting to a statutory governing body. From the other side, I’ve been a nonprofit and governmental board member, secretary, treasurer, vice president and chair. It’s work. But it’s worth it. Like any other human endeavor, serving on a board isn’t easy, particularly at the beginning. But we all have to start somewhere and there’s no shame in not knowing how to do something you’ve never tried before. Eventually, though, we can and should learn how to get better. For those of you just joining a board, here are 10 suggestions for how to do a good job. Understand the mission of the organization . At the library, we promote literacy, the right of Americans to investigate the evidence and make up their own minds. Our job is to inform citizens and communities. It is not to protect them from things they may not...

In the last two months of 2023, 63 library staff (and 3 of our board members) interviewed some 90 “movers and shakers” in the community. These were people representing many sectors of our community: business, civic (as in civic clubs like Kiwanis, Lions, Optimists and Rotarians), education, elected, faith-based, government (non-elected), news/media, and not-for-profit. The preliminary list was generated by our own staff. Then we sent out our people to meet with them at their own place of business. We asked them five questions: What’s your story? That is, how did you come to be here at this time in your life? What motivates you? What drives you in your life or work? As you think about your constituents (the people you represent or serve), what do you think will be their key issues over the next 18-24 months? What are your aspirations for the community? Who else should we talk to? The intent of the questions was twofold. First, we wanted to have some sense of the backstory of community l...

I like statistics. It matters to me how well we do and looking over the numbers helps me stay on top of change. This month, I’d like to take a look back at Garfield County Libraries use in 2024. Thanks to Jenn Cook, our technical services director, for pulling all this together. The main trend: we continue to see a sharp rise in the use of digital content. Some 75% of that use is downloadable/streaming services. Overdrive (or Libby app users) and Hoopla led the pack, coming in at a 26% increase over 2023 for the former, and 25% for the latter. Particularly interesting to me is the jump in newspaper use. NewsBank saw a 372% increase over the previous year. The Wall Street Journal jumped by 83% over 2023. (Incidentally, a personal subscription is about $500 a year. A library card is a heck of a savings!) Use of the New York Times grew by 32%. Other digital services include things like our Learning Express resource. This provides career preparation data, high school equivalency info, coll...

Where do the books in a library come from? How are they chosen? The short answer is that they come from various business markets. In America’s public libraries, most of our holdings come from just a handful of publishers, the so-called “Big Five.” They are Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan. On the one hand, the Big Five produce only about 10-20% of all new titles in a year published through conventional publishers. Add in self-published books, and the share of Big Five in global publishing shrinks to around 2.5%. But the Big Five still control over 80% of the trade book market in the US — and probably higher than that in public libraries. How do librarians decide which books to buy? There are three main sources: Publishers catalogs and purchase lists. Librarians usually buy things through jobbers–distributors who knows how to work with us. Those distributors are biased toward the bigger companies. Big publishers have the most ...

Recently I ran across an article from an international boarding school talking about U.S. traditions around Christmas. The “Top 10 holiday traditions” for families include: Decorate the tree. Bake Christmas cookies. Write a letter to Santa (and the reindeer). Look at the twinkly lights. Build a gingerbread house. Sing Christmas carols. Exchange gifts. Wear an ugly sweater. Watch Christmas movies. Spend time with the people you love. Institutions have traditions, too. My favorite has to be the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which has a website for the sole purpose of tracking Santa. The backstory is charming. In 1955 a child saw a newspaper ad from a Sears department store encouraging children to give Santa a call. But the child misdialed, reaching instead Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup. He happened to be the operations officer on duty for the old Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) in Colorado Springs. Colonel Shoup assured the child that CONAD would ensure Santa’...