January

Recently, library staff began work on a handout for parents to help them select books for their children. I just got the latest draft of it from Andrea Logan, one of our Youth Librarians, and I thought some of the research she cited deserved a broader audience.

Not long ago, a provocative opinion piece by author John J. Miller appeared in the Wall Street Journal. In essence, he was alarmed when a nearby library removed a book by Hemingway because nobody was reading it.

Finally, he concluded that today's public libraries were "welfare programs for middle-class readers who would rather borrow the hot new potboiler than spend a few dollars for it at the local Wal-Mart." Not surprisingly, the article generated a lot of conversation among librarians.

Some of my best friends are library directors. I suppose that isn't surprising. By definition, they tend to share both my values and my interests.

Two of these friends are Douglas County neighbors. Eloise May is the director of the Arapahoe Library District. Bill Knott runs the Jefferson County Public Library System.

Both have held their jobs for quite a while. Eloise has been director for over 20 years, Bill for over 30.

Both of their library systems are excellent, well above national averages in virtually every category.

For those of us who do a lot of reading, it's hard to imagine a life without books. But sometimes, life surprises us. We sustain a sickness or an injury, and suddenly, we have trouble with our vision.

That trouble may be temporary or permanent: a cataract, or macular degeneration. A detached retina. Blurred vision. Congenital blindness. Or simply the advance of age.

Some of my friends have faced these issues, bravely, right up to the moment when they realize they won't be able to read anymore. Panic!

By Rochelle Logan, Associate Director of Support Services

[Note: I'm going to be on vacation the first two weeks on January. So this column is from Rochelle Logan, my Associate Director. Next week's column -- which I will send next Thursday, will be from Mark Weston, President of the Douglas County Board of Trustees. I'll be back in the saddle the week after that.]

By Mark Weston, President,
Douglas County Libraries Board of Trustees

[Note: I'm going to be on vacation the first two weeks on January. This column is from Mark Weston, President of the Douglas County Board of Trustees. I'll be back in the saddle the week after that.]

For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to wrap up a book I've been writing.

Most of it was done, but I wanted to do some in-depth research on a topic near and dear to me: the First Amendment. I've learned a lot.

There are two ideas about the United States Constitution. One of them is that the Founders were unanimously wise, prescient, and intended to give us precisely the rights we take for granted today.

Years ago I worked with a woman just a few years from retirement. Betty Lou was smart, competent, and efficient. She was also very dour.

No matter what people said to her, you could tell from her face that Betty Lou thought it was a Bad Idea. Or could you?

Aware of the way people perceived her, she bought a big poster of some animal with a fierce expression. The caption: I AM smiling. Some people have bad attitudes. Some just look like they do.

I have written before about the theory of the expanding universe. Now, post-holiday, I have proof: all my pants are too tight. My tentative hypothesis: living matter expands faster than cloth.

But that's just denial, isn't it? After about the age of 35, Americans tend to put on 5 pounds a year. Do the math. They'll have to bury me in a piano box.

My grandfather used to say one simple exercise could peel off the pounds. Then he would demonstrate. Carefully and deliberately, he would push himself away from the dining room table.