Book reviews are a great source for collection
development. Many librarians use the different publications and the reviews to
decide which books they might want to choose to add to their collection. They
also use the reviews to stay informed as to the award winning books and best
sellers. By professional publications limiting what materials they want to
review it does affect collection development. The less popular authors may be
forgotten because the lack of reviews and the collection is then weaken in the
process when a patron comes in that is not interested in that popular author
and the books are not available because a great portion of the collection was
built on the popular author reviews.
I have posted two more documents in the week five folder. One is two reviews of an ebook only romantic suspense novel, one from a blog and one from amazon. Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library? Is this ebook even romantic suspense?
No it doesn’t really sound like it is a romance
suspense. I would not buy the book based on the Amazon review. If I’m not
mistaken it from a customer that didn’t really convince me that this is
something that I would want to read. The Kindle review on the other hand was
well done and it would convince me to want to purchase it or should I say down
load it and read it for free on my Kindle. The review seem to capture more of
the romantic side of the store. Now the review that started off “This is a
short one” also made the book sound as if it would not be something that I
would want to read. I don’t know if it’s
the way she explain the relationship and how it forms it just doesn’t seem very
romantic. I like tear jerking romance. But because I read the one with the
Blurb I would buy it to see for myself.
The other document contains some reviews of Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, an incredibly popular memoir. These reviews are all from professional publications, feel free to find more on your own I just nabbed a few from the Book Review Digest database for you. How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?
Basically all of the reviews were very convincing and
I would most definitely add it to my collection. They were written more
professionally. All brought out some of the same important facts while they all
but their own twist on story from their own perspectives. With me not being familiar with Frank McCourt
work the reviews given for this book has made me inquire about more books
authored by him.
Do you think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed to death and other types of books get little to no coverage? How does this affect a library's collection? And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate? If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources?
It may not be fair that one book is reviewed more than
another but that’s how it works. I don’t think that books will ever be equally
reviewed. If that was the case we would be reading review encyclopedia instead
of publication. All books don’t make the best sellers and all books will not be
equally reviewed. I think that bad reviews and helpful. It give another side to
the book and let the viewer’s decide on their own. All reviews has a right to
be heard. I don’t really read review often at all. I don’t order for my library
but I catalog the materials so I get to review many myself by skimming through
them.
Hi Marla,
ReplyDeleteI think that you're right about the imbalance of book reviews, sadly! It would be great if a solution could be found, to ensure that there was a more balanced amount of quality reviews for all titles, but the amount of reviews needed would be staggering! I think that is why it's so important that there be specific blogs and lists out there, like Smart Bitches Trashy Books, which are aimed specifically at reviewing certain books types, especially those that tend to be less reviewed elsewhere.