After decades leading public libraries across Colorado, Garfield County Libraries Executive Director Jamie LaRue has announced he’ll be retiring in early April.
LaRue led the local library district, which has locations in all of the county’s six municipalities from Carbondale to Parachute, for the past four years.
His love for books and libraries started young. In seventh grade, he founded his school’s first library club, and he was a public library assistant through college. Later, he built an all-volunteer library in Arizona while hitchhiking around the country.
LaRue eventually earned his library degree, and in 1982, he got his first job as a professional librarian in Springfield, Illinois. He moved to Colorado several years later to take a position as a library director in Greeley, and then he turned his attention to creating a library district in Douglas County where he was the director for 24 years.
Before taking on his current role in Garfield County, LaRue spent three years working as the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, and he has become known by many in the community for taking a stand against local and national efforts to censor books.
“We are here to serve everyone, and anyone of any political persuasion is more than welcome to use our services,” LaRue said. “But we also have an institutional mission and values that we try to adhere to, and intellectual freedom and curiosity about the world is one of them.”
Although some conservative county residents who have been pushing to remove or restrict kids’ access to certain adult books consider LaRue too liberal and have advocated for his resignation in recent years, he maintains that’s not why he decided to retire.
“In fact, I think I probably stayed longer because of it,” LaRue said. “During my last evaluation with the library board, I said, ‘I’ve been thinking maybe it’s time for me to retire, but I'm staying because so many people were trying to get me fired and I didn't want to let them do that.’”
But several of LaRue’s friends recently passed away and he has been dealing with his own health issues, so he decided it’s time to let someone else take the helm.
“It all just has to do with getting old, as I’m 71 now and my father died at the age of 72,” LaRue said. “I'm feeling the need to spend a little more time attending to my health. … And I would rather keel over on a mountain than over a desk.”
Protecting ‘intellectual freedom’
The current library board will be in charge of launching a search for, and eventually hiring, LaRue’s replacement, and he hopes they will choose a qualified candidate who also stands up for the First Amendment and the freedom to read.
“We're seeing a lot of pressure on libraries and library directors not just here, but in Mesa County, Meeker, Colorado Springs and other places,” LaRue said. “It's happening all across the country, but I think our board is in pretty good shape.”
The Garfield County Library District and the Garfield County commissioners first started receiving complaints about a series of adult graphic novels with sexual content shelved at some of the libraries several years ago, which prompted the commissioners to take over the appointment process for district board members in 2023.
At the start of last year, the commissioners declined to reappoint two incumbent library trustees who had applied for another term, and instead, the commissioners brought three newcomers onto the board. Although the current board has considered certain actions such as creating a library card for kids that would restrict access to some adult content, the trustees ultimately voted against the idea and no books have been removed or restricted. Some board members have also expressed in recent public meetings that they are beholden to a Colorado law passed in 2024 that limits book restrictions at public libraries.
Despite the challenges and opposition that LaRue has faced from some in the community because of his advocacy against restricting books, he said that he has also received a lot of support and that leading Garfield County Libraries has been a rewarding experience overall.
“Ninety-nine percent of my job is wonderful. I'm very, very proud of the work we do,” LaRue said. “We do so many wonderful things to make the community stronger, to invest in early literacy and to have a more informed citizenry.”
‘A rewarding experience’
During his tenure, the number of people using local libraries increased and staff turnover decreased significantly — to 11% last year from 51% in 2020.
“If there's anything that I'm proudest of, it's listening to and supporting our staff and encouraging them to grow,” LaRue said. “I am constantly amazed by the creativity, passion and intelligence of our staff.”
According to the library board’s annual budget presentation to the Garfield County commissioners Jan. 5, visitor numbers in 2025 were up 31% from the previous year, with 411,071 patrons served and 40,847 people participating in library programs.
“We had people check out a quarter of a million titles this past year, and we’ve had a big surge in the use of our children's programming and children's materials,” LaRue said. “By any measure that you look at it, the library is a success.”
In addition to expanding early-literacy programs and resources for kids such as its partnership with the national Raising a Reader program, the library district also increased its Spanish-language offerings and hired more Spanish-speaking staff under LaRue’s leadership.
“When I got here, I think we had two or three people who spoke Spanish on the whole staff … . Now we have almost 30% of our staff that can speak Spanish, and we’ve increased the size of our Spanish collection,” LaRue said. “We've also done a lot of events to bring our Spanish-speaking community and all of our immigrant communities forward to tell their part of the American story.”
In a written statement provided to Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism, library board president Adrian Rippy-Sheehy praised LaRue’s community-oriented leadership and said he will be missed by many.
“He has turned a very discouraging library climate into a vibrant, fully staffed district,” Rippy-Sheehy said. “We now have more community partnerships than ever before and he has always advocated for a community centric library system.”
“The library district is financially stable, our employees are happy to come to work and Jamie has empowered us all to be better, to be kinder and to continue the excellent work we are doing,” Rippy-Sheehy continued. “We wish him good health and happiness in his deserved retirement.”
LaRue plans to spend the few months before his retirement getting the library district ready to transition to new leadership.
He said that includes ensuring that new board members have the tools and information they need to succeed and that all the staff understand the district’s long-range plan and vision for the next five years.
“I'm also interested in launching a library advocacy series with library ambassadors around the county to answer questions and share information about our libraries, including our finances and budget,” LaRue said.
The district has also launched a new partnership with the Lift-Up food bank at its Rifle branch, and in the coming year, the district will be doing a community survey as a follow-up to a countywide poll that LaRue oversaw in 2023 to see what people want from their local libraries.
