LaRue's Views
This digital archives comprises Library Director Jamie LaRue's newspaper columns from January 3, 1996 - August 26, 2010.
In general, they appeared on the dates shown in various Colorado Community Newspapers.
April 15, 1998 - Monica Lewinsky and Patron Confidentiality
The adventures of Monica Lewinsky have chewed up a lot of newsprint lately. Among the latest is the March 26, 1998 edition of the New York Times, which had a news item headed "Lewinsky's bookstore purchases are now subject of a subpoena."
April 8, 1998 - Staff Training
My first real library clerk job paid the whopping sum of eighty-five cents an hour. On my first day, I received about half an hour training from one of the nice older ladies who worked there.
April 1, 1998 - Porn Again
Recently a woman walked into one of our libraries and saw a sexually explicit image on one of our Internet workstations. The man who had called it up seemed oblivious to his surroundings.
The image deeply offended her. So she confronted the man. She even filed a complaint with the police.
Well, the police came. They determined that no crime was committed. But the man hasn't been back to the library since.
March 25, 1998 - Service to Daycares
I don't get many complaints about the library. But when I do, I'm mostly grateful. Complaints are useful. Sometimes they point up areas of my own ignorance. Sometimes they highlight a shift in public use or attitudes. Sometimes they just give me the opportunity to fix something that went wrong.
This week -- between a full moon on Friday the 13th and the Equinox (which may not mean anything, but does feel inauspicious) -- I got two complaints on the same day. Both of them got to me, bothered me in a way that doesn't usually happen.
March 18, 1998 - Family Literacy
I get irritated by the assertion of some schools that their job is to teach kids how to think. I'm quite certain that I was thinking before I attended school. The real surprise is that even after almost 2 decades of schooling, I can STILL muster a thought, if I work at it.
But the purpose of this week's column isn't to say what America's schools should or should not be doing. It's to focus on just four things YOU can do to help your kids grow up literate.
March 11, 1998 - Testifying at the Legislature
Recently I spent most of an afternoon sitting in a Colorado House Committee hearing.
March 4, 1998 - Lying on Surveys
I hate to admit this so soon after Washington's birthday, but I've decided that I cannot tell the truth.
It started when I got three "survey" phone calls in two days. The first was at work. Someone was calling to ask for the name of the person who orders our computer supplies. It wasn't a sales call, he explained. He was just updating his company's database.
February 25, 1998 - Punch And Judy
Last summer my wife and I enjoyed a visit from her English cousins (2nd cousin once removed, to be technical). Hamish is a consulting engineer. His wife is a teacher. As we talked about our countries, Hamish told me that two things really surprised him about America.
February 18, 1998 - SearchBank
The basic resources of the Douglas Public Library District are print materials -- books, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets. A second category is audiovisual materials -- mostly tapes and videos.
February 11, 1998 - 10 Warning Signs of Institutional Arrogance
Institutional arrogance is the key characteristic of organizations that provide bad or indifferent service, are unresponsive to customer concerns or a changing environment. Typically, such organizations labor under autocratic leadership that withholds or stifles information both internally and externally.
Is your organization institutionally arrogant? Here are the 10 warning signs.
1. You never seek the advice of the people you serve.
