Making a Living Archives - Awful Library Books

Women and Taxes

September 14, 2021 Mary Kelly Ladies only!, Making a Living 3 comments

Women and Taxes
Leynse and Kamensky
1984

According to the back of this book, women can improve their life by understanding taxes. I wonder if men have the same life improvement experience.

I am a huge advocate of financial literacy for everyone. I am a fan of a book that helps explain all the financial ins and outs of being a working person. Too bad the advice in this book is about 3 or 4 major overhauls to the tax code. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 made almost every item about tax shelters, expenses, etc automatically made this an instant candidate for weeding.
Almost every year, Holly and I run into tax advice books for sitting on library shelves from the 1980s and 1990s. Unless you committed fraud, you won’t be on the hook for anything after 7 years. Keeping consumer tax information around is a waste of space. Personally, I would weed tax info after 3 years.

It’s Labor Day Weekend! Start off with some books about work.

September 3, 2021 Mary Kelly ALB Announcements, Making a Living, Working 9-5 2 comments

Labor Day (Monday, September 6, 2021) is one of my favorite 3 day weekend holidays. For me, it is the unofficial end of summer. Back when I was in youth services, I felt like I had maybe 15 minutes of a break in late August before I started all over with summer reading planning for the next year and getting ready for the next round of students. The Labor Day weekend was almost sacred in my book.

To celebrate Labor day, I have selected a few “labor” themed posts. To add on this, we would like to give a shout out to the Reuther archives. Just about everyone back in our day made a trip to the Walter P. Reuther Library/Archives as part of the intro to libraries course. The Reuther archives is the largest collection of labor archives in North America. If you are a history nerd, take a peak at some of the exhibits available.

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!

When the Ladies Run the Show

August 31, 2021 Mary Kelly Making a Living Leave a comment

Feminine Leadership
or How to Succeed in Business Without Being One of the Boys
Loden
1985

The basic theme of this book is that women can use feminine traits to succeed in leadership roles. The ladies are evidently really good at feelings and can be more intuitive leaders than the guys. The 70s and 80s were loaded with this kind of literature as women started entering professions previously off limits. I was one of those who would suck these books up like they were water. Most of the time, these books were little help in navigating a career in the real world. It’s not like senior management grabbed on to these concepts and welcomed women with open arms.

Teen Money Advice

August 11, 2021 Mary Kelly Making a Living, Talkin 'Bout My Generation 18 comments

The Teen-Age Consumer’s Guide
Dollars and Cents
McGough
1975

This is something from my teen years. It’s actually the kind of thing my parents would want me to read. I just want to chuckle at the prices of the mundane items. 25 cents for school supplies? Since I was 15 years old in 1975, I feel confident in comparing my budget strategies from then.

DIY Bankruptcy

June 8, 2021 Holly Making a Living 7 comments

Bankruptcy: Do it Yourself
Kosel
1980

Submitter: When I pulled this sad book off the shelf and read the title – I thought “Bankruptcy : do it yourself? Honey, us Millennials have been doing that for years…” This book comes with a disclaimer that it will be old, out of date, and should no longer be consulted at some point. Bankruptcy laws change frequently enough that this book is well past its shelf life.

Holly: It has that “typed on a typewriter in 1980” font, too. And look! A form copyrighted 1979. That oughta hold up in court.

Business the Amazon Way

June 7, 2021 Holly Making a Living 7 comments

Business the Amazon.com Way
Saunders
1999

Submitter: It’s an ancient book on Amazon. This book was written before Amazon was a verb, and when it was still focused on books. Does the book accurately predict the future? Probably not.

The business section ought to have books on how current companies do business, how to do business, small business information, and how to get grants, not really old books that are ridiculously outdated.

Holly: Amazon is a whole new animal 22 years later – and so are libraries.

One man’s loss is another man’s groin

November 23, 2020 Mary Kelly Making a Living 3 comments

Keys to Mortgage Financing and Refinancing
Barron’s Business Keys
Friedman and Harris
1993

Okay, I admit I picked this one just for the cover. Then I sent it to Holly and she came up with a brilliant title. See above. Although Holly and I are professionals with more than 20 years of experience each, we still have the sense of humor of your average 12 year old boy. Seriously, Barron’s did you not take this to a focus group? Maybe they were hoping some subtle design would make mortgage information sexy.

Saving your business

March 17, 2020 Mary Kelly Making a Living One comment

Saving Your Business
How to Survive Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and Successfully Reorganize Your Company
Caplan
1992

I really have an issue with business materials this old in a public library collection. This particular book is closing in on 30 years. Even if the process hasn’t changed much, that attorney billing rate in the second picture below is almost cute. There have been changes to bankruptcy laws since 1992. Notably, the Bankruptcy Act of 1994 and the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer protection act (BAPCPA) of 2005. It truly is important to consider the impact of out of date information. Choosing to file bankruptcy is complex. Chapter 11 might not be the best answer for some kinds of businesses.

Weed. Like yesterday.

Mary