In one office in which I worked, head office had just directed the whole organisation to adopt the Macquarie Dictionary as its standard. The trouble was, there weren't a lot of them around.

So I bought one, a fairly cheap short paperback but useable for 99%+ of the enquiries you might have, and put it in an eye-level spot on an open bookshelf in my workstation. Next to it on the shelf, I had a Bible, again a cheapish paperback version. I gave away a steady stream of Bibles, all of them to people who had asked to borrow it because they were interested in reading it and didn't know where to get one.

At my next job, dictionaries were not an issue. The organisation didn't care which you used. So instead I acquired a pocket guide to the city, one with maps that showed all the commercial buildings, addresses that people in my area were always needing to look up. I also acquired, free in a tourist guide, a map of the city showing similar information but in much less detail, which I put up on my workstation noticeboard where it was in clear view and right next to the shelf containing the pocket map book and a Bible.

The only problem with this was that every so often someone would race in and tear down the map while I wasn't there and they were in a hurry and needed directions! Sometimes they would later return it apologetically, but I'd tell them to keep it as it was easily replaced.

And I'd show them where the pocket guide was for whenever they needed something more portable and detailed. More than once the next words were "You're a Christian, aren't you?", and again I gave away a steady stream of Bibles - each one to someone who had asked me where they could get one.