Contact Us
Coming Soon
Newsletter
Read a Story
Meeting Rooms
Library Card
Research Help
Homework Help
June
Welcome...
I have been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1987.
For 3 years, it ran in the Greeley Tribune. Since then, it has run in various subsidiaries of the Douglas County News Press. I still have most of my columns in digital format.
For many years, I only gave myself one rule: try to work the word "library" into every piece. My intent was to think in public about just what librarianship means at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st.
June 24, 2010 - once upon a time there was a princess
Former county commissioner Melanie Worley told me recently about her first job. She was a fairy princess.
A local movie theater hired her, gave her a gown, cape, and wand, and instructed her to supervise the frequent hordes of children. Sometimes, she said, she had to bonk them with her wand.
It was excellent training.
June 17, 2010 - self-publishing on the rise
I went to library school at the end of the 1970s. A big change was taking place in the world of book publishing.
June 10, 2010 - would Google do evil?
Almost everybody uses Google, even librarians.
And it gets easier all the time. It used to be, if you wanted to find the location of the nearest chain restaurant, you would type in the restaurant name, then look for locations.
That still works. But now, on that golden first page of hits, you'll also find a map of the Denver or Douglas County area.
How does that happen?
June 3, 2010 - whom should you trust?
Years ago, a friend of mine adopted a dog from the pound. The dog, a beautiful German shepherd/Doberman mix, had clearly been mistreated. The first time I met him, I greeted him with a happy "hello!" and put out my hand to pet him. He was so frightened he wet the carpet. Other dogs so treated turn vicious.
June 25, 2009 - book bags belong in YOUR closet
Over the years, I've gone to a lot of conferences, workshops, and professional events. I know this because recently I ran out of closet space. The problem? Book bags.
Book bags, or "swag," come with virtually every event librarians go to. Book bags are to librarians what T-shirts and baseball caps are to sports fans. When my closet door would no longer close, it's because I now have a couple of dozen of these bags.
June 18, 2009 - beating the summer slide
For several years, I did 50 pushups, 50 abdomen "crunches" and 50 leg lifts every single day. It took me a minute and a half.
Part of the way I kept myself at it was by asking myself, "in 24 hours, you don't have a minute and a half for exercise?"
But then, with frightening suddenness, I suffered such intense shoulder pain that I could no longer raise my arms even to shampoo. I couldn't pull my wallet out of my back pocket.
The doctor told me it was tendonitis, no doubt brought on by my brief but intense daily regimen. Age may have had something to do with it, too.
I was bitter. It was like the time I threw out my back in my sleep. When you're doing something good (exercise is good, sleep is righteous), it seems to me you shouldn't be punished for it.
But there's the universe for you.
These days, I'm trying to put together a new system -- stress plus stretch. (My doctor prescribed physical therapy, not indolence.)
The reason I'm trying again is simple. When it comes to your body, you have just two choices: use it or lose it.
Which brings me to my actual point this week. Reading is the same way. The more you do, the better you get. The less you do, the worse you get.
June 11, 2009 - money matters
This week I'd like to do a roundup of some library financial issues.
First, effective June 1, we doubled the fines for overdue materials. We continue to offer a few days grace for such materials -- and if you give us your email address, we'll even remind you to bring things back the day before they are due.
In brief, fines for most materials went from a nickel a day to a dime a day. Our fines do max out for most materials at $5 per item. While this probably won't be a big money maker for us, we hope it will encourage people to help us keep our materials moving. There's a lot of demand for them these days.
June 4, 2009 - Colorado public libraries share ideas
Once a year, planned about 9 months in advance, the directors of Colorado's public libraries get together for an afternoon, an evening, and a morning to have frank conversations about what's going on in our operations, our communities, and our profession. This confabulation always happens around Memorial Day, when the rates of mountain lodges are cheap. (We hold our meetings on the Western Slope as a convenience to the many geographically isolated libraries who do such good work the other side of the Rockies.)
Most of Colorado's public libraries serve small communities. But big or small, there were some trends:
