[This column originally appeared in the Oct. 23, 2024 edition of the Sopris Sun.] When I was a child, my mother did three things that turned me into a reader. First, she signed me up for a library card. Later, she enrolled me in the Landmark series of American biographies for children, aimed at kids 10-15. There were similar series: Bobbs-Merrill’s “Childhood of Famous Americans,” which ran from the 1930s through the 1960s, had famously orange bindings and were also popular. Third, and maybe most important, my mother belonged to the Book of the Month club, which resulted in a modest home library. My mother knew what she was doing. It happens that there’s a lot of research about all of this. I often cite a University of Nevada, Reno study conducted back in 2010. It examined 27 countries over a span of 20 years. The surprising finding was that regardless of parental income or education, just having 500 books in the home was as good as having two parents with Master’s degrees. Early expo
[This column originally appeared in the Post Independent on Oct. 25, 2024.] In 2017 a sudden drop in tax revenues from oil and gas properties precipitated a library crisis. Almost overnight, a third of the staff lost their jobs. In 2019, Garfield County voters approved an ongoing mill levy of 1.5. Included in that ballot language was a series of promises: restoring library hours; keeping our libraries well-maintained and in good repair; retaining qualified staff; providing books, technology and materials; providing educational classes and events, including literacy programs to help children and teens learn to read and do homework, train veterans and job seekers for new careers; prepare students for college and careers; help seniors fight isolation and prevent the effects of aging; and finally, to do all that “with citizen oversight and an independent annual audit of expenditures.” I thought it would be interesting, just as today’s crop of election-seekers are making their own promises,