Sunday, February 15, 2015

Week 5 Prompt: A Time for Book Reviews and a Time for Everything Else

Different publications review different types of books and they allow different types of conversations. For example, Booklist will not publish negative reviews, while, as you have all seen, Kirkus has no problems with it. Ebook-only books, which are increasingly popular especially in the romance genre, see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author, and then still it's usually only RT Reviews (formally Romantic Times) or other genre heavy publications. How does this affect collection development?

The “genrefication” of review outlets allows for purchasers to have access to reviews for a wide array of publications in now multiple formats. However, it is troubling as to how much more time is necessary to purchase for print, audio, and electronic formats. A purchasing librarian in a small to medium sized public library has to pay attention to dozens upon dozens of review outlets to make educated decisions to the direction of the collection, on top of programming, administrative, and other professional duties. As a full time, 40-hours-a-week, librarian, I have approximately two to three hours a week to develop two full size collections. And in many cases, server and client PC maintenance, YA programming, one-on-one technology instruction, book clubs, and professional meetings take up all 40 hours.

As libraries are relying upon ebooks to shore up and expand the all-important circulation numbers, longstanding resources like Booklist and Library Journal must make the effort to reviewing ebook-only titles for the sake of libraries, who need to realize and accomplish their multifaceted vision for their communities.


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?

I do not feel that they are both reliable. Without checking the Amazon user’s other reviews and based upon this sole review, I feel that “Deborah’s” review is poorly written, with numerous grammatical mistakes, and is missing any whiff of criticism, which should be apparent in a four out of five star review. The blog review at least lends written criticism worthy of a three out of five star review. The author has also taken time to create a blog where readers can go who value their opinion. The Amazon review is swaying the book’s aggregated score, which can impact its placement on bestsellers lists without any critical merit.


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?

These reviews obviously help illuminate the importance of having this memoir in any public, academic, or secondary school collection. Any library that didn’t purchase this book when it was released in 1996 probably purchased it when it won the Pulitzer Prize. Unlike some books that have films made from them, the film Angela’s Ashes probably did not have people clamoring to read the book for the first time (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/angelas_ashes/).

Whenever there is unanimity in reviews, purchasers should take note that a book is a worthwhile purchase due to timelessness, popularity, and/or literary value.


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?

I think that with the expansion of the “blogosphere” (I apologize wholeheartedly for using that horrible term), the number of books being reviewed is more than ever. I do feel that books from established authors whose books are required purchases (e.g. James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, David Baldacci) should have fewer reviews so that the valuable printed space can be dedicated towards new authors, or even authors of under-reviewed genres, like GLBTQ, science fiction, fantasy, and urban.

Without specifically getting into what budgetary issues facing the average public library do to collection development, even the best funded public library will have to delve deeply into established and periphery review sources to develop a diverse collection necessary to serve a diverse population. Review sources, even blogs, that focus on the books that will sell tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of copies does not help the time, effort, and hard work librarians everywhere have to do to keep the library as a place for reading and learning anything anyone may want or need.


And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate?

I believe that review sources take the approach that “any publicity is good publicity.” With printed resources, like PW, LJ, and Booklist, printed space is limited and they would use their relatively limited space in promoting good books rather than trashing bad books. Online resources and blogs have unlimited space to do what they feel is necessary based upon their professional journalistic ethics.

If librarians do not feel it is appropriate for sources to not print negative content, than they should not utilize those sources.

While I view Kirkus as the Consumer Reports of book reviewers, their approach to review good and bad content does not invalidate the approaches and content by more “positive” review sources.


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?

I purchase the both the young adult and music collections at my library. For music, review aggregate sites, like Metacritic, provide an invaluable resource for a time-constrained purchasing librarian. When on the fence whether to purchase an item, having access to multiple reviews on the same webpage helps me make a final decision.

There are not as many aggregate websites available for books as there are for other media. Following best-seller lists, I depend upon review sources from that have proven their worth in creating a well-rounded collection that my patrons enjoy perusing. For young adults, VOYA and Kirkus have been my go-to sources for reviews. I also look through Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, and a few blogs, including the Teen Librarian Toolbox (which has been recently acquired by SLJ).


When it comes to purchasing books, I would say that my decisions are about 40% bestseller lists (Amazon, NYT), 30% reviews from journals (e.g. VOYA), 20% reviews from blogs, Amazon, and Goodreads, and 10% from lists from outlets like NPR and information provided by YALSA and other organizations. 

2 comments:

  1. I also think that standing orders are invaluable in maintaining a collection.

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  2. I'm not involved in purchasing for my library, but we have a dedicated selector for YA/Children's and another for Adult materials. I think that they probably have quite a bit more time available for the task than you get because that's their major job responsibility. We also have an acquisitions person who's responsible for placing the actual orders. I can't imagine having all of those tasks charged to one person--I admire your commitment! One thing that I like the most about Kirkus is that their reviews of many bestsellers include a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" (buy it, borrow it, skip it). I would imagine this is an extremely helpful feature for someone like you who has limited time to make collection development decisions. You can see, literally at a glance, which books are best-reviewed or worst-reviewed. Have you personally used this feature in your selection decisions?

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