library science Archives - Awful Library Books

WordPerfect 5.0 for the Savvy Librarian

December 7, 2021 Mary Kelly Bleeding Edge, Librarian's Choice 9 comments

Librarian’s Guide to WordPerfect
LaPier
1989

I know many of you are looking for some opportunities for continuing education. May I suggest the world of word processing? This timely topic is ripe for a librarian wanting to get ahead of all the new technology.

Over and over, Holly and I have seen some pathetic professional collections out there. They are often ignored and unused. This year, I decided to just integrate them into our regular circulating collection. This opens them up to more use and hopefully our staff will be able to see it regularly. Also, since it is on the regular shelf in the 000s, I know I will be better able to keep an eye on this collection.

NLW-Libraries and how they work

Libraries and How to Use Them
Hardendorff
1979

Another library book about libraries. Although geared to kids, it is pretty text heavy and the illustrations are just okay. As much as I could appreciate some definitions of library jargon, this book probably has more depth in some pages than a library science textbook. All in all, it isn’t the worst, but it is woefully dated.

I also kept looking at the cover and thinking it was some kind of pattern, like a stained glass window. It took me a while to realize that the groovy cover really was a bunch of books on a shelf. In 1979, this book is decent but in 2021. Somebody should weed this and submit it as supplemental reading for an intro to library science course.

Creative Reference Interview

April 22, 2020 Mary Kelly Librarian's Choice 2 comments

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.