Cell Phone Handbook

This is your face doing isometrics
Sexy Hair

Cell Phone Handbook - coverCell Phone Handbook
2nd Edition

What a great purchase for 2002! Not so great for 2012. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that perhaps the cell phone has undergone some changes in the last decade.  I would also like to know why this particular library felt it necessary to keep it on 14 day loan. Probably because the hold list is so LONG! (Insert sarcastic eye roll here.) I would also love to bust on tech services for processing the book this way, too. Actually, this is a perfect example of why we need to weed. The book, aside from the crappy processing, is in good shape and doesn’t look that old. The title is also a slam dunk. Of course people would pick this up! The idea that someone could explain cell phones to my seniors would be outstanding. I bet the circ numbers are good on this title. However, there are probably more things wrong in this book than right. This is my best example of when circ numbers and condition might not flag this for a weed. Gotta look closer, my friends.


Cell Phone Handbook - back cover

Cell Phone Handbook - Subscribing to a center

Cell Phone Handbook - phone format


  1. I’m just saying that the 14 day loan may be the standard for that library – it is for ours. And from what you show of the book, not much has changed except the prices have gone up enormously. Data is also not a big point and the iPhone isn’t the be all and end all. Probably more understandable for seniors who may not care if cell phones are up to date – they just want a phone they call (gasp) call people from.

    1. This particular title just slipped through the cracks. 14 day lending was for “new” books. The standard lending period for the library in question was 30 days.

  2. WRT bag phone, I remember the first “cell phone” I ever saw was a “Comcast Metrophone”. It didn’t work, like many later services from that company.

  3. How about the poor possessing? They couldn’t have lined that label up to the left off the picture and the text? Never mind, libraries who do this style of processing. We do a full pocket, barcode and label on the inside back cover of every book. We will even do “tip ins” not to cover important text.

    I it comes down to cost, but the just look awful. There has to be a better way to do this style.

  4. Honestly, this was pathetically out of date when it was published in 2002. I’m thinking they barely updated this for the “second edition.” I remember getting a Sony Ericsson T610, a small bar phone with Bluetooth, a 65K color screen, and a camera, in the summer of 2003. The last time I remember any reference to a true car phone was my mother’s 1988 Toyota Camry whose previous owner had wired with an antenna and power for a car phone. My pediatrician also used to have a bag phone in the 80s and early 90s.

  5. “There is a typo on the back cover. Who can find it first?”

    I’m pretty sure this isn’t what you’re thinking, but I’ll mention it anyway. The last sentence of the author bio uses a comma despite the “and” not being a coordinating conjunction for an independent clause.

  6. “The last sentence of the author bio uses a comma despite the “and” not being a coordinating conjunction for an independent clause.”

    Never mind. I think the comma is to separate the appositive.

  7. The car phone reference is very outdated for 2002 (as is the photo of the author). My Mom dated someone with a car phone in 1998 and I remember being surprised they were still around. There are so many more options these days and anything that doesn’t discuss smart phones is not going to be helpful for someone purchasing a new phone, because they’ll try really hard to sell you one!

    Gretta- and and

  8. Was 2002 really that far in the dark ages of cell phone technology? Were bag phones and car phones even still a thing in 2002!? I don’t remember seeing either of those much beyond 1996 or so.

  9. We gave a class on Facebook for Seniors. Some brought their own laptops, but about half had smartphones and wanted to learn how to use the Facebook app.

  10. I worked at a small town electronics store in 2004-2005, and once saw one guy come in with a bag phone. We still had batteries for it, and it still worked.

  11. Well, this seems to be a lighter depth consumer oriented purchasing manual type of a book. A technical reference for GSM from 2002 would not actually be completely unusable; it would even know about 3G, the bread and butter of mobile internet of today.

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