Making a Living Archives - Awful Library Books

Old School Office Management

November 29, 2021 Mary Kelly Health and Safety, Making a Living 6 comments

The Paper Office
The Tools to Make Your Small Psychotherapy Practice Work
Zuckerman and Guyett
1991

This book is one of those oddly specific titles. It is basically a primer on the business side of setting up a psychotherapy office. They have sample intake forms, an outline of ethics/guidelines (most of it devoted to “don’t sleep with clients”), malpractice (again, this is usually because you shouldn’t sleep with clients), bill collecting (be sure to see the script for collecting unpaid fees), patient files, etc.

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

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.

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.

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

Telemarketing: Magic or Evil?

February 6, 2020 Mary Kelly Making a Living 7 comments

Telephone Magic
How to Tap the Phone’s Marketing Potential in Your Business
Weitzen
1987

This book is all about telemarketing to increase your business success. Evidently, this guy must have one of the people that started us on the path to robo calling and all sorts of other awful phone technologies. Given the topic, my first instinct is to pull the book, set in on fire, and then grind the ashes into the ground. Excuse my personal tantrum on the evils of telephone abuse that have been heaped upon me since I was old enough to hold a phone.

1-900-Kind of Sketchy

December 9, 2019 Mary Kelly Bleeding Edge, Making a Living 4 comments

Opportunity Is Calling
How to Start Your Own Successful 900 Number
Bentz
1993

900 phone numbers were quite the thing in the 1980s and 1990s. Every minute on these lines cost the caller upwards of several dollars a minute. These numbers were mostly known for phone sex or psychic hotlines. If you are of a certain age, you will probably remember Dionne Warwick’s Psychic Friends Network.

I nabbed this copy from a library and it looked absolutely untouched when I checked it out. I have no idea how good the content, but the book design is boring. Unfortunately, I don’t have any circ data but I feel pretty confident in guessing this book hasn’t seen much action.