Looks That Work Wallach 1986 Time for a working wardrobe circa mid 1980s. This book has a few themes for that gal on the go. First, we have role models: Nancy Reagan, Elizabeth Dole, and a few more. It’s all
Boy Today, Man Tomorrow
A Boy Today, a Man Tomorrow
Hayes
1959
Submitter: I found this 1959 puberty manual when cleaning out an old closet at a public library in North Carolina I worked at a couple summers ago. It had long been weeded–I brought it home to read aloud to my 12-year-old, who was sufficiently horrified!
Holly: What were they saving it in the closet for?? It warms my heart to know it got a second life through your tween.
Just the VD facts
VD: Facts You Should Know
Blanzaco
1970
It was kind of disappointing to do a statewide as well as a local search in catalogs and find that there are quite a few public libraries around that still had some of this old material about venereal disease. Of course everyone knows that medical information is probably suspect after a good 5 years or so. I think that when we are talking about STDs or STIs and other health issues, it’s important we keep this information up to date.
Another disappointing aspect of some of these older materials, especially when we’re talking about sexual health topics, is the not so subtle judgment on moral behavior that really serves no purpose. Today’s young people need up-to-date information, especially on health sexual health topics. Weed these when we get back to work. We will need shelf space for the COVID-19 books.
Mary
Internet for Christians
Internet for Christians: Everything You Need to Start Cruising the Net Today
Schultze
1998
Evidently this book is the secret to a more sanitized Internet.
In actuality, it really is a guidebook for Christian oriented sites. Regardless, since this is about the Internet circa late 1990s, I think we can safely let this go.
These subject/group specific books were all the rage as people were starting to navigate the web. Now it seems ridiculous that one would use a book to guide them to certain sites. They would be out of date before they even went to a publisher.
Remember Actor’s Guide to the Internet? How about Internet after Hours? or as a companion book, Catholics on the Internet. I’d be curious to know how many sites have lasted over 20 years.
Go surf with God,
Mary
Library Reference Activities for the Kids
Reinforcing Reference Skills
Activities that go beyond the encyclopedia
Benjamin
1986
A librarian pal of mine found this gem in the supposed “professional collection” as she cleaned out a cubicle for a new employee. Obviously no one had touched this in years, given the amount of dust and grime present. This one was catalogued and sat around for decades, unused.
Let me go back and harp on using a shelf list. Your system should allow you to dump your catalog into some kind of report. Do not run the shelf list for the entire library. Pick collections carefully. Even the largest libraries can break out collections into small chunks. Reorganize your list of books by date (oldest to newest) and take a look. Even this one small activity can yield some surprising results. (By the way, if you do this, please send us some pictures of any of your ridiculous finds.)
Happy National Library Week and stay well,
Mary
Creative Reference Interview
The Reference Interview As A Creative Art
Jennerich and Jennerich
1987
As it is National Library Week, it is time to do some professional development. Let’s start with improving our reference interview techniques. Are they creative enough? This is the book for you.
For the most part this is standard stuff we learned in library school. If you are old enough, this could have been one of your old texts from library school. However, if you had this in a professional librarian collection, I don’t think anyone would find it helpful. By the way this was weeded from a public library pro collection. (In actuality, I bet someone dumped a textbook from library school into the collection and I’m willing to bet after the cataloger put it in the collection, it never moved until it was weeded in 2019.
Library Skills for the Kids
Teacher’s Portfolios of Library Skills
Weisburg and Toor
1985
Happy National Library Week, everyone. Over the years, we here at the ALB home office like to use NLW as an annual reminder about professional collections. Yes, I realize most of us are sequestered due to COVID-19, so take a note for when we get back to the books and patrons.
This little gem is from 1985. It was weeded in February 2020. If this is something you are using in 2020, I think it might be time to update your lesson plans. For those of us of a certain age, this is a nice nostalgic visit to libraries of yore. Note the entire chapter on those fun card catalogs.
Better Sex Naturally
Submitter: I tend to browse the non-fiction of my local library and always seem to find something interesting. I did the self-checkout but I’m pretty sure when I return it and they are checking it back into the system they will be curious to know who the patron was. I guess that’s one of the perks of the job? I agree it probably has its place in a public library, I just didn’t expect my small town library to have this in their collection. I actually flipped through it […] and there are specific chapters for men and women. The [last] picture was submitted because of the dog-eared page. I’m guessing someone wanted to circle back to that section?
Holly: The only real issue I have with this book is its age. It’s 20 years old. It’s dog-eared, as submitter says, and while some (even most) of the information *may* be accurate twenty years later, anything remotely health-related should at least be looked at regularly after about five years. For example, there’s a section in the second image below about Yohimbe. A quick search of the googles tells me that “Yohimbe products containing man-made yohimbine hydrochloride as an ingredient are not legal to sell as a dietary supplement in the US.” I didn’t double-check the Physician’s Desk Reference as the page below indicates…but patrons won’t either.