I suddenly wish I'd paid more attention in govdocs class...

From our "Librarians-pay-attention-to-it-so-you-don't-have-to" department:

A library blog entitled Free Government Information recently was featured by the ALA for its entry Best Titles Ever!, which details, predictably enough, some of the greatest titles in the history of the Government Printing Office. The moral of the story -- there are some astonishingly funny people in the Federal Govt.

I just thought I'd share with everyone the cover of my personal favorite:

Come to think of it, there actually is very little that I want to know about shipping high-level nuclear wastes.

If you don't want to read the whole list, here are a few of my other favorites:

• Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation: Are We Doing Enough?
• Do You Know Oatmeal? (Yes, but not as well as I'd like.)
• Fertilizers in a National Emergency
• Let's Use TV! (No thanks, I'm too busy getting to know oatmeal.)
  
• Identifying Sheep Killed by Bears (Hint: the giant tooth marks are a dead giveaway)
  
• Step into Action: A Guide for the Above-knee Amputee (I bet the amputees get a kick out of that one! See what I did there?)
  
• Vitamin A in War and Peace
  
• Know Your 8-Inch Howitzer (insert dirty joke here.)
• A Winning Combination: Wild Horses and Prison Inmates (insert Brokeback Mountain joke here.)
  

Other goodies on the list included a comic about Sprocket Man, the official superhero of bicycle safety. The comic is available online for those who want to learn more about toe guards and the dangers of wooden posts in the dark.

Of course, the USA may dominate the field of bureaucratic stupidity, but it's certainly not a monopoly. One of the documents was a report by the Canadian Centre for Health Services entitled "Who Are the Zombie Masters and What Do They Want?". An excellent question, if I ever heard one.

(NOTE: if you don't believe me about the Zombies, there is a PDF copy online. Beware of long load times.)

On a significantly less funny note, one of the documents was a 1946 report by the War Relocation Authority about the closing of Japanese internment camps. It goes by the amazingly Big Brother-ish title of A Story of Human Conservation.