Technology and science related posts are included in this category.
Your Oric
Hartnell and Shaw
1983
Submitter: This gem comes from 1983 and it’s great to know what type of technology this library was using when I was just 3 years old. Unlike the Oric 1 that I am sure was replaced 35 years ago, this book seemed to dodge that fate until today.
Holly: What the heck is an Oric?
(Which is exactly the point…your patrons don’t know or care either!)
The Story of Weather
Giles
1990
Submitter: It is mostly a moderately interesting book going through various weather phenomena, different climates and biomes, and some notable events in weather history. The fact that it is 30 years old is reason enough to weed it, but the real fun is in the final chapter: “Future Climate.”
Here, the book tries to spin climate change as a good thing, speculating that the British “perpetual moaning about weather may become a thing of the past” as the weather slowly “becomes similar to … the south-west of France.”
PC Format Magazine
0963-5521
Submitter: We weeded out several years of PC Format Magazine 0963-5521. Woefully out of date. Please accept these images from the June 1993 issue – a perfect issue for Mary. Take a walk down technology memory lane (spoiler alert – this memory lane ends in a dumpster.)
Holly: Leisure Suit Larry! If you know, you know. And if you don’t, Google it…but not at work. We don’t really need to discuss the collection management angle of this…right? Just weed it.
Internet After Hours
Your Guide to Finding Games, Entertainment, and Just Plain Weirdness on the Internet
Eddy
1994
Sounds like this newfangled Internet is a bit sketchy. This is still the infancy of the Internet for the general user. This book is highlighting the entertaining and/or weird parts of the Internet. (Note the interest in vending machines at certain universities around the world.) This is another one of those quaint books on the early days of the Internet. In 2020, I doubt one has to work that hard at finding weird stuff on the Internet.
Mary
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.
Designing Your Second Life
Tapley
2008
So who remembers having a Second Life? I do remember trying out Second Life and finding it kind of boring. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to “do” while in this virtual world. I also made jokes about trying to improve my first life before jumping into a second.
Get Ready for Robots
Lauber
1987
Submitter: I work at an elementary school library and recently weeded this gem of a book from the technology section. Get Ready for Robots by Patricia Lauber is from 1987, but the true awfulness is in the illustrations by True Kelley. I would hate a student interested in robotics to stumble upon this nonfiction book.
Hello, Mr. Chips!
Bishop
1982
Submitter: I think this was probably a fantastic middle school book in 1982. What makes it awful now is that my students have never even heard of the terms that make up the punchlines. Also, the illustrations of computers with massive CPUs and pin-feed printers are unrecognizable to our students. My favorite joke requires knowledge of both old pop culture and obsolete technology: “What’s a computer’s favorite Ella Fitzgerald number? A-Diskette, A-Daskette.” I just read it to a group of 8th grade boys and received only blank stares.
