James LaRue - myliblog

A famous Wyoming bumper sticker reads: “Lord, Please Give Me One More Boom — This Time I Promise Not To P*ss It Away.” Boom and bust defines the West. Some of us get caught on the wrong side of each end of the cycle. The smarter ones learn from it. They hedge their bets. They invest their money in things they can sustain. I’ve been a library administrator for almost 45 years. This is the first time I’ve worked in a district that got 50% or more of its revenue from the natural gas sector. It makes you cautious. It encourages you to save. In 2026, library revenues fell by over $830,000, all due to a decrease in natural gas valuation. In 2006, Garfield County voters approved a 1.0 mill levy for libraries. Its purpose was to build or renovate branches in each of the county’s six municipalities. The money also provided some operational support. That’s why we have six beautiful libraries, one in every town in the county. We keep them up, too. In 2027, those bonds (basically mortgages for pub...

In my last job I took a required workshop on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. One of the exercises paired me up with a young woman whose parents were born in India, although she’d been born and raised in the States. We were supposed to talk about where we’d grown up. Who did we feel comfortable around? And who not so much? She grew up in Dallas, Texas. At first, she lived in a neighborhood with a bunch of other brown children. She liked it. Then her parents moved her to a “better school.” She was the only kid with brown skin there. So she said she felt most comfortable with people who looked like her. She felt least comfortable with (looking at me) old white guys. I said I totally got that. I’d grown up north of Chicago, on the shore of Lake Michigan. My mother was consistently kind and competent. My father was often mean and drunk. I was raised on the dividing line between the Black and white parts of town so was definitely aware of race. I’m comfortable with people who are kind. I’m ...

Before I came to Garfield County, I lived in two big cities: Chicago and Denver. I was surprised to learn that I did a lot more walking and biking there than I did in the more rural and suburban settings I’d lived in before. Cars are a hassle in the city. In the country, you have to have one. That means you spend more time sitting. Foolishly, I did a little too much biking in Denver despite the wildfire smoke trapped in the heat inversion. It led to adult onset asthma. Since starting my job here, too much driving and sitting behind a computer edged me over into Type 2 diabetes. (I’d been borderline most of my life but kept it under control through exercise. My siblings, all younger than me, slipped over years ago.) Let’s not even get into sleep apnea. Or dental issues. The story is old as time, because it IS time. I’m getting old. Last May, I started thinking about retirement. I’m just one year younger than my father when he died. Four of my six best friends have died in the last coupl...

Recently I took a train trip from Chicago to Glenwood Springs. I sprung for a roomette with a fold out bunk bed for the night. (And sleeping on a train was just as much fun as I hoped it would be!) As I left Chicago, there was a winter storm coming. But the train just shrugged that weather aside. During the over thousand mile trip, Amtrak passed right through the heart of many downtowns. I caught a glimpse of many libraries. That's not surprising, since there are more than 16,000 public libraries across the nation--more than there are McDonald's or Starbucks. Isn't that good news? In almost every town across the Great Plains, there are those earmarks of place. A library. A Post Office. A school. A town hall. These spaces represent something we don't think about too often: a public investment in knowledge and civic participation. These are the pillars upon which our nation stands. As I sat in my little room and watched the miles fly by, I also listened to an audiobook (B...

When my grandfather died, I inherited his collection of “The Story of Civilization” by Will and Ariel Durant. This 11-volume series, 50 years in the making, stretches from “Our Oriental Heritage” (volume 1) to “The Age of Napoleon.” The prose is magisterial. The Durants were shrewd, probing, superbly balanced in diction and idea. They did more than sum up the past. They sought wisdom. I confess I have not read the whole thing. But I have flipped through the thousands of pages to consider what my grandfather underlined or commented on. And I did read the companion volume: “The Lessons of History.” (It only has 118 pages.) Two big lessons stick with me. One of them is the wry observation that human beings are reliably violent and crazy. To try to rein in our more destructive influences, we create institutions. The family. Religion. Work. Nations. But institutions, founded by human beings, take on human flaws. One in three women and one in four men have been physically abused by an intima...

 I think very highly of the publisher of my On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US.  They just sent out this link  to put together a little holiday bundle of books. Support your Colorado publishers!