Questions Needing Simple Answers

The librarians of the Newton Falls Public Library enjoy finding the answers to the questions asked by our patrons. During the day, many of the questions asked are of a similar type needing simple answers.

Some examples of these questions are:

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           “What is the phone number for AT&T corporate headquarters?” The www.att.com page for investor relations includes their main telephone number and a note explaining that “while corporate headquarters are in Dallas, the main telephone number uses a San Antonio area code.

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           “I need the plus 4 numbers following the 44444 zip code for my address.” The postal service website, www.usps.com, has a link to Look Up a Zip Code. Typing in the full street address with the 5 digit zip code brings up the additional 4 numbers specific to that address. The library’s full code is 44444-1608.

·         “I’m writing a paper and I need journal articles about substance and drug abuse.” The library has access to a wonderful online database which patrons can use to find a wealth of print resources stored electronically. This patron was directed to the library’s homepage, www.newtonfalls.org. Selecting the Ohio Web Library link, the patron next needs to select Resources; then in the section Magazines and Newspapers choose MasterFile Premier (EBSCOhost). By typing in the needed topic, expanding the search to related words and within the full text of the articles, and limiting the results to full text only the patron should be find all she needs. When citing information for papers, the bibliographic citations are also included. 

What Does This Odd Mailing Address Mean?

“I work for private agency. We are sending out some inquiries, and a few of them have an odd mailing address. It is a name, followed by a 6-7 digit number, then BCS LS MC Newton Falls, Ohio 44444. We can’t discover what that means. Can you help us?” This question from an out-of-state caller intrigued the Newton Falls Public Library staff.

First we telephoned the local post office and spoke with the Newton Falls postmaster. She informed us that while she didn’t know the meaning of the letters, the mail that came through with that designation was delivered to the Ravenna Arsenal [now named Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center]. Following our conversation with her, we spoke with someone at Camp Ravenna. The series of numbers is the unit designation, but she was not familiar with the meaning of the letters.

We next examined the books in our collection. Neither The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Abbreviations nor Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbreviations Dictionary gave abbreviations or acronyms which seemed to answer our question.

The search continued online. When the stewardship of the Ravenna Army Ammunition Plant was transferred to the Ohio National Guard, it became Camp Ravenna. We looked at their website www.ong.ohio.gov. While informative about the Ohio National Guard, we could find no pertinent information. The Military Postal Service Agency [http://hqdainet.army.mil/mpsa] has interesting details about the mailing of packages, FAQs, and some commonly used abbreviations. However, we were unable to locate any examples matching ours.

Abbreviations.com has an extensive listing of military abbreviations. There were 4 examples for BCS, 4 for LS, and 13 for MC. MC for Marine Corps or Medical Corps seemed to be only one that may apply as part of a military mailing address. None of the others seemed appropriate for this question.


We informed our caller by email of what we discovered.

Is 44444 Unique?

“Someone told me that Newton Falls wasn’t the only place to have a single digit zip code. Is that true?” The Newton Falls Public Library staff went directly to the United States Postal Service’s [USPS] website [www.usps.com] to check each single digit zip code and learn more about zip codes.

ZIP stands for Zoning Improvement Code. They began to be used on July 1, 1963 and were introduced by Mr. Zip. The trademark was designed by Harold Wilcox, son of a mailman and a member of the Cunningham and Walsh advertising agency, for use by Chase Manhattan Bank in New York for their bank-by-mail campaign. The first number in the code designates a general area, from zero for the Northeast to nine for the far West. The next two numbers refer to one of the Sectional Center Facilities used for processing the mail. The final two are for smaller post offices or postal delivery zones. The zip codes + 4 were implemented in 1983. The extra numbers help carriers deal efficiently with the many mailers sent out by companies. The USPS website has a great deal of useful and interesting information including about how mail has been delivered by steamboats, rail, Pony Express, air, missile, pneumatic mail tubes, and motorcycles. Two of their most memorable deliveries were the Hope Diamond and a chameleon sent from Fostoria, OH to Orlando, FL. The USPS has strict guidelines on the mailing of valuables and living creatures, so be sure to check their rules and instructions before placing items such as these into the mail.

Newton Falls is the only community to have a single digit zip code. The only other single digit codes are 22222, the Marine Corps Institute in Arlington, Va. and 55555, a post office box for Norwood in Young America, MN. As Young America, MN is often the address on rebate forms, we wondered if perhaps it is for a company. When the city was first given this zip code, it created the slogans Newton Falls has Zip 44444 and Zip City 44444, and the community celebrated Zip Day. We believe that our zip code has been used as both Jeopardy [television show] and Trivial Pursuit [board game] questions. Other interesting zip codes are 12345, General Electric in Schenectady, NY; 23456, Virginia Beach, VA; and 45678, Scottown, OH.

In the summer of 2001, David Rosdeitcher was named the Guinness World Record holder for the most consecutive zip codes identified at random. He can remember all the places connected to the 48,000 zip codes in the United States and many foreign countries [http://zipcodeman.com].