Let's Talk About Reviews

1. How does this affect collection development?

My library system runs its collection by popular demand. Books get weeded after no circulations over the course of so many months and they will only get purchased if the community seems to be interested in it or if it is written by a big name author. It is a reasonable way to run a collection but it allows books that aren't getting much hype to slip throw the cracks. It also opens up the possibility for the collection to lean toward and serve only a certain portion of the community. 


2. 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?

While reviews from blogs and Amazon are not written with the same flair as the ones written for high profile review magazines, there is still validity in them. Personally, I would put more stock in blog type reviews because they tend to be written by non-bias readers. These reviews are written by real readers that aren't trying to fill up their word count with fluff, flowery sentences. 

If I had the power, I would most likely purchase this book. My reasoning would be because of the Amazon review. 14 other readers found the review helpful and it seems to be similar to other popular romance books that our readers enjoy. 


3. 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?

The reviews for this book make me want to add the book to my collection. Or at the very least add it to my TBR later list. Historical Fiction is in my top 5 favorite genres to read so I may be a bit bias but nevertheless, the book sounds like it is beautifully written. 


4. 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?

I don't think it is very fair that popular authors and genres are more likely to get reviewed over and over again over than lesser known ones. Unless a book gets a review in noteworthy publications (Booklist, BookPages, SLJ) it is not likely that a library will get it. The budget for Collection Development is, rightly, protected and because of this Collection Librarians are often very strict on the type of books they purchase. 

I don't agree with publications that don't print negative reviews. Although, I do see why they wouldn't, I think that a publication should be open to the reviews of a variety of readers. Not everyone is going to have the same taste in books and professional review resources should be transparent to that fact. 

I am not a Collections Librarian so, thankfully, I don't have that kind of pressure. However, I use sources like BookPages, SLJ, and GoodReads to decide what I should read next. I find that they help me rule out possible duds and find books that I will really enjoy.