secretarial training Archives - Awful Library Books

The “New” Secretary

January 4, 2022 Mary Kelly Making a Living 4 comments

The New Secretary
How to Handle People As Well as You Handle Paper
Booher
1985

The “new” secretary is now kind of old. It even seems a bit old for 1985. I believe that now they are administrative assistants. I haven’t heard the word secretary unless it is in reference to a presidential cabinet post.

The advice presented is so outdated it’s laughable. Boss making the move on you? Just say no! It’s cute how they just assume that a no and a professional demeanor is all that is required to keep a predatory boss in check.

A Forgotten Skill

November 30, 2018 Mary Kelly Making a Living 23 comments

A New Review of Pitman Shorthand
Coombs
1970 (reprint 1975)

I took shorthand a century ago and nearly failed. The scratches never looked like anything sensible and I never got near to the speed classmates seemed to manage. I dropped the course. I can’t think of the last time I remember anyone talking about or using shorthand. Even when I was doing office work in the 1980s, it was starting to fade as a required skill for administrative or secretarial jobs. This book seems to be more about refreshing skills for a dictation test rather than hard core instruction. I remember when every woman was given a typing test, regardless of the position. Shorthand was also always around as well. Anyone out there still able to take dictation with shorthand?

Type this up!

June 4, 2014 Holly Bleeding Edge 16 comments

Century 21 Typewriting Lessenberry, Crawford, Erickson, Beaumont, Robinson 2nd Ed, 1977 Holly: The best/worst thing about this book is its cover. I’ve included a picture of the back cover (below) because it, too, is spectacular. Sure, people still need to

Dictate this!

November 14, 2009 Holly Working 9-5

Applied Secretarial Practice
Gregg
1968

Typewriters? Dictation? “The Scrubbed and Shining Look”? I can see certain university libraries hanging on to a copy of this for historical purposes. Gregg is, after all, the guru of all things secretarial. I can see in WorldCat that several public libraries also own this book. Why on earth would your basic, community library need this book? I guess it does have some pretty groovy pictures, so there is that…