Technology

Welcome...

mash — Sun, 04 May 2008 10:16:29 -0600

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.

March 11, 2010 - it was 20 years ago today

Jamie LaRue — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:23:42 -0700

"It was 20 years ago today
Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play."

I have now held my position as director of Douglas County's libraries for 20 years. It was a different world back then.

The population of Douglas County in 1990 was about 65,000. We checked out 368,492 items a year. Today, we have close to 300,000 people, and check out nearly 8 million items annually.

February 25, 2010 - a new deal for schools and libraries

Jamie LaRue — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:12:31 -0700

After the 2008 election losses, followed by a recession, the Douglas County School District and the Douglas County Libraries had some cuts to make.

The school district chose to eliminate all of its subscription databases -- information resources offered over the Internet. At the same time, the library was looking at trimming its own subscriptions.

So we did something that doesn't happen very often between schools and libraries. We got together to talk about it. Library staff analyzed the cost per use of our subscriptions. Then we asked our colleagues at school libraries to tell us which resources were most useful for student assignments.

February 11, 2010 - the only windows in my office

Jamie LaRue — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:33:36 -0700

As an undergraduate, I spent a lot of time at the student billiard center. Occasionally, smooth, well-dressed pool sharks would come through on tour. They had great names, like blues singers or gangsters: Las Vegas Jimmy, Spats McDonough, Gentleman Joe, and so on.

At that time, we college players thought it was all about the equipment. We bought our own sticks, with fancy cases. We imagined that some tables were better than others. But then one of these outside jaspers would breeze through town, pull a standard pool cue off the rack, run the table, perform mind-boggling trick shots, and leave with a not-inconsiderable chunk of all our beer money.

I remember one guy saying, when we were discussing how tricky one of the tables was: "I bet I can still find the pockets."

January 28, 2010 - the mind changes the brain

Jamie LaRue — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:21:53 -0700

For a long time, scientists believed two things about the brain.

The first was the idea that you're born with a set number of neurons -- "brain cells." Then, you lose them all your life.

The second idea was that there are "hardwired" parts of the brain. Various experiments showed that one region was involved in visual processing, another in movement (controlling the arms or legs, for instance). If you went blind, the part of the brain set up to handle information from the eye just sat there, dark and quiet.

Both of these ideas, we now know, were wrong. And that's very good news.

January 21, 2010 - reading is both science and magic

Jamie LaRue — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:11:22 -0700

I'm a pretty fast reader. Because of that, I usually only read one book at a time. (That also helps me keep the characters and plots straight.)

But last weekend, I broke the pattern, in part because the formats of the books were so different.

One book was "The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science," by Richard Holmes. It's a non-fiction title. The other was "The Alchemy of Stone," by Ekaterina Sedia. It's a fantasy novel.

January 7, 2010 - build your business at the library

Jamie LaRue — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:51:43 -0700

Byline: The BizInfo Librarians at the Douglas County Libraries

One year ago, Douglas County Libraries launched a service called BizInfo as a way to support the business research needs of entrepreneurs and small businesses in Douglas County. “This initiative is one of the ways that Douglas County Libraries is demonstrating its commitment to adding value to our communities in measurable ways,” says Rochelle Logan, Associate Director of Douglas County Libraries and the project lead.

August 27, 2009 - defend your opinions!

Jamie LaRue — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:06:51 -0600

I subscribe to various Google services. When I log into one of them, I get quotes of the day. They're usually pretty funny.

Take this one: "An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it." - Jeff Mallett.

July 16, 2009 - DCL is number one!

Jamie LaRue — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:21:38 -0600

Two years ago, it took an average of 48 hours for materials returned to the library to make their way back to the shelf.

That's not surprising. Over the past five years, checkouts have jumped by 98% in Douglas County. More materials means more handling.

But I work with some remarkably insightful and innovative people. Case in point: my Associate Director of Virtual Services, Bob Pasicznyuk, put together a team that eventually involved almost everybody in the library and a good many community volunteers. That team tested, selected, and installed RFID tags, self-check stations, and behind-the-scene sorting systems.

In the past TWO years, we've seen a 31% jump in checkouts. That's almost a million new transactions every year. At the same time, since January of this year we've had a hiring freeze, thus we employ fewer people than last year.

And now it takes just 2 hours to get materials back on the shelf. In some locations, we have it down to 45 minutes.

Jamie LaRue — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:04:51 -0600

A friend tells me that the local political party dominating his hometown has a toggle switch: outrage ON. Outrage OFF.

Our experiment today is to see which of these real life library situations flips your switch.