Technology and science related posts are included in this category.
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.
Computer Typing Made Simple
Hutchinson and Hutchinson
1985
I will say, in my professional opinion, computer typing is not that different from regular typing. I can say that the exercises and drills, look very similar to my high school typing book. Other than function keys and some other small differences, I am not sure what makes this book specifically computer typing.
Answer the Phone
Mander
2004
I have a feeling that if this came across my weeding list, I would probably have a minor freak out at how “new” it looks. Weeding books for some 20 odd years, I am constantly surprised by how quickly time goes and I am always saying “Didn’t I just buy that?”
How Things Work
Dalgleish
2003
How does your camcorder work? Or your VCR? Does your mobile phone look like the one pictured below? (And do you call it a “mobile phone”?)
“The floppy disk drive works like a tape recorder.” What the what?
Encyclopedia of the Future
Kurian and Molitor, Eds.
1996
Submitter: I work at an academic library. While moving books that should have been put in Oversize instead of the general collection when they were moved from Reference several years ago, I came across this fascinating two-volume set: the Encyclopedia of the Future[…].
High-Tech Inventions: A Chapter Book
Packard
2004
Any book with “high-tech” in the title needs to be considered for weeding every couple of years.
Here we have a kid with a Palm Pilot type of thing with a stylus, a cockroach cyborg, and a flip phone.
High-tech? Notsomuch.
-Holly
Radiation Alert
Poch
1985
Remember 3 Mile Island? This began a serious discussion of radiation, nuclear power, and safety. This book was published a few years after and probably was a slam dunk as a library purchase in the 1980s. At the time of this writing, this book was circulating. The book also had an RFID tag affixed so I can only imagine the holding library felt that it was worth keeping into the mid 1990s, as that is when the library automated.
