Author: Holly
-
Smoke if you got ’em!
The Cigarette Shortage Federal Trade Commission 1945 Submitter: I found this as I was weeding the government documents at [a university library]. I am glad I did not grow up in the forties. Holly: Want to know more? Here’s the FTC’s annual report for 1945. I couldn’t find this exact…
-
I found them in the yellow pages
I Found Them in the Yellow Pages Farber 1973 Submitter: Why is this awful? First, yellow pages – does anyone under 45 know what they are? Second, only males have professional occupations. Third, the florist appears to be a predator. There are so many reasons this alphabet book needs to…
-
Collection Management and Interlibrary Loan
A submission came in to Awful Library Books recently from a librarian who said they had an interlibrary loan request for an item that they were embarrassed to have in the collection. Rather than fulfill the request, they weeded the item. Plenty of commenters thought that the ILL request should…
-
Drink Up!
Urine Therapy: Nature’s Elixir for Good Health Peschek-Bohmer and Schreiber 1999 Let’s not dismiss this book just because its subject seems controversial or taboo. It wasn’t the worst choice for a public library in 1999. I think the authors could have done a better job of differentiating between “treatment” and…
-
Grandma Style
The Doubleday Book of Interior Decorating and Encyclopedia of Styles Kornfeld 1965 The examples in this book look even older than 1965. The more contemporary designs are from the 60s, but they feature several that look much older. There is a whole section on how to panel a room, as…
-
Mouthing Off
Mouth Sounds: How to Whistle, Pop, Click, and Honk Your Way to Social Success Newman 1980 Submitter: We recently stumbled upon this book in our public library stacks and are unsure how this book slipped through a previous weeding project. We use the Dewey Decimal System and this book was…
Awful Library Books 