On late night TV talk shows, every show begins with the host inevitably saying something like “We’ve got a really good show for you tonight!” whether the guest is Tom Hanks or that guy who made the funny noises in the Police Academy movies.

My Friday Fun Links are sort of the same thing - sometimes I have really good ones, sometimes they’re kinda “meh”.

But to be completely honest, this week’s FFL feels like the librarian equivalent of Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts sitting down on the couch (or Tom Cruise jumping on it).

Here’s a link to a great discussion at MetaFilter on the development of the history of alphabetization.

All kinds of topics are covered - the idea that alphabetization developed long after the alphabet instead of soon after as you might expect. Other related issues that librarians face every day - do you use a person’s last name or first? How do foreign cultures with different naming conventions fit in? How about foreign alphabets in general? Does a word with a space (”sea foam”) come before a compound word (seaborne). And so on.

Anyhow, folks, we’ve got a really good link for you this week…enjoy the know!