Week 5 Prompt

 

For this week's prompt, I want to start a conversation about the different types of reviews. 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 (check out this savage review - https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sebastia-alzamora/blood-crime/). 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. How does this affect collection development? 

Not working in collection development myself, I can only speculate about how this inequality in reviewing would affect it. I imagine it would negatively affect the number of eBooks ordered. Librarians often rely on various professional review publications for curating their collection. Things left out of those publications could very well be overlooked when curating a collection. On the other hand, however, at my library the eBook ordering is based primarily on requests from patrons. Because patrons tend to make liberal use of social media, less so than professional publications, this discrepancy probably wouldn't affect their choices as much.

 I have posted two more documents in the week five files. 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? 

I would probably trust the blog post more. It looks like that person devotes a lot of time to reading books and writing book reviews. We don’t know anything about the reviewer on Amazon, and they seemed to struggle with basic grammar. The last sentence should be at least three separate sentences. Maybe it’s a personal hangup, but I have a hard time taking a review seriously when it has such glaring grammatical mistakes. Overall, I feel like these kinds of stories are a dime a dozen so I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase it. If a patron specifically requested it, and the budget allows, then sure. 

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? 

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve read and own Angela’s Ashes so I can’t base my response solely on the reviews. That being said, I would definitely want to add Angel’s Ashes to my library’s collection if it was not already present. It is a powerful story and definitely a classic in its own right. Both reviews bear this out as does my personal experience. 

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 is not fair, but then again, life is not fair. By virtue of the fact that librarians utilize review sites when building their collections those books that are less reviewed would be less likely to be added to a library’s collection. I personally think it’s odd that some review sites don’t post negative reviews. A negative review is no less valid than a positive review. Not everyone is going to like every book and seeing various reactions to a work gives a more well-rounded view of the work as a whole. And let’s face it, not all books are good.  

I think reviews can be beneficial for personal reading. They can help you decide on a book you’re not very familiar with it. You can also use reviews to compare your reactions to a book to others who have read it. You can commiserate with others who hated a book or revel with those with whom you share a mutual admiration. Either way, it’s nice to know you’re not alone.

 I have posted two more documents in the week five files. 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? 

I would probably trust the blog post more. It looks like that person devotes a lot of time to reading books and writing book reviews. We don’t know anything about the reviewer on Amazon, and they seemed to struggle with basic grammar. The last sentence should be at least three separate sentences. Maybe it’s a personal hangup, but I have a hard time taking a review seriously when it has such glaring grammatical mistakes. Overall, I feel like these kinds of stories are a dime a dozen so I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase it. If a patron specifically requested it, and the budget allows, then sure. 

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? 

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve read and own Angela’s Ashes so I can’t base my response solely on the reviews. That being said, I would definitely want to add Angel’s Ashes to my library’s collection if it was not already present. It is a powerful story and definitely a classic in its own right. Both reviews bear this out as does my personal experience. 

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 is not fair, but then again, life is not fair. By virtue of the fact that librarians utilize review sites when building their collections those books that are less reviewed would be less likely to be added to a library’s collection. I personally think it’s odd that some review sites don’t post negative reviews. A negative review is no less valid than a positive review. Not everyone is going to like every book and seeing various reactions to a work gives a more well-rounded view of the work as a whole. And let’s face it, not all books are good.  

I think reviews can be beneficial for personal reading. They can help you decide on a book you’re not very familiar with it. You can also use reviews to compare your reactions to a book to others who have read it. You can commiserate with others who hated a book or revel with those with whom you share a mutual admiration. Either way, it’s nice to know you’re not alone.