Objective Information about Materials

Typically, librarians like to purchase or materials based on reviews.  Reviews  provide more objective information about the materials than appears in publishers' catalogs or advertisements.  Reviews are usually written by subject experts in the field, by professional reviewers, or by librarians. Unfortunately, most review sources tend to be fairly homogenous, and do not cover items from small presses or esoteric materials from larger publishers, so reviews may not be available on all materials that might be of interest to your community. 

Purchasing items based on reviews has several advantages for librarians.  First, it provides a kind of objective standard for quality.  Although reviews on materials are usually not completely uniform in their assessment of an item, a positive review or two gives some assurance that the item has a good level of quality.  Since libraries normally cannot buy everything and librarians cannot be an expert in every field, this gives the librarian a good reason to buy one item in a subject area over another.  A second reason for acquiring items based on reviews is that it provides some protection if the presence of an item to the collection is ever questioned.  Since librarians cannot read or view everything they purchase or receive for their collection, they can point to positive reviews as a reasonable method of making selections.

There are two types of review sources.  The first, which come in periodical format, give reviews of recently published materials.  The second type of review source might be called "retrospective" review sources, since they compile reviews that were published in the past rather than providing reviews for current materials.  In general, librarians tend to use current review sources for most of their materials selection work.  Some of the most important review sources are listed below.  (Subscription information is available by clicking the hyperlink.)

Current Review Sources

Booklist.  Published by the American Library Association, Booklist is probably the  leading choice for reviews of the latest books and electronic media. Every year it reviews nearly 4,000 books for adults, more than 2,500 titles for children, more than 500 reference books and electronic reference tools, and 1,000 other audiovisual materials.  Each issue reviews 200-250 items.  Typical reviews are 75-150 words long.  It is published twice a month except in July and August when it is published monthly.  Throughout the year, Booklist publishes special collections of reviews on specific topics.  It only reviews recommended books.  Thus, if a book is reviewed in Booklist, it is considered worthwhile as a potential library purchase.

The Library Journal.  Published 20 times annually, The Library Journal (known as LJ to many librarians) combines news, features, and commentary with analyses of public policy, technology, and management developments. In addition, annually it contains about 7500 evaluative reviews written by librarians, including reviews of books, audio and video, CD-ROMs, websites, and magazines.  Each issue reviews 250 to 350 adult books, mostly prior to publication.  Reviews are 100-200 words long.  LJ carries both positive and negative reviews.  Materials covered in LJ are almost all adult level materials, as children's materials are covered in its sister publication, School Library Journal. 

School Library Journal. Reviews in SLJ (as librarians sometimes abbreviate the title) focus on children's materials.  They are divided into Preschool to 4th Grade, Grades 5 and up, and Adult Books for Young Readers.  It also carries reviews for non-print resources for children.  Reviews are both negative and positive.  They vary in number and length with different issues.  Reviewers are usually librarians.

Publishers Weekly.  Focused on the publishing industry and published weekly, this periodical contains approximately 70 book reviews per issue.  Reviews are 50-150 words in length.  Publishers Weekly has regular features on specific subject areas.  It contains some information on audiobooks, multimedia and movie tie-ins, and is particularly useful in giving information about national promotions of books.

The Horn Book provides reviews on children's books and children's audio books.  It is published bi-monthly.  Reviewers are paid staff of the magazine.  It includes articles on children's literature as well as reviews.  Reviews are mostly of recommended titles.  It reviews 70-120 books per issue, 100-300 words in length.  

Kirkus Reviews  reviews approximately 4,500 books per year (about 150 per issue), usually two-to-three months prior to publication. Evaluations of 250-300 words in length cover hardcover and trade paperback fiction, nonfiction from large, small and university presses, as well as titles for children.  It is published semi-monthly.

Choice is geared toward academic libraries, and thus contains more information about scholarly materials than most other general review sources.  It publishes approximately 7,000 reviews a year, about 600 per issue.  Reviews are done by subject experts (often college and university faculty), and contain 100-250 words.  Choice is published monthly except during July and August, when there is one issue for the combined months.

Video Librarian specializes in reviews on video materials.  It is published bi-monthly.  Video Librarian contains about 175 critical reviews of videos for all age categories in each issue.  Reviews are divided into subject categories, with a special section on children's videos and "teen issues."  There is a section on recently released videos of movies.  Reviewers include staff members, librarians, teachers and film critics.

In addition to these library oriented review sources, there are a number of good review sources aimed at the general public.  These include The New York Times Book Review and the New York Review of Books.  Local newspapers and magazines also sometimes carry book reviews that can be useful.

Retrospective Review Sources

Retrospective review sources are particularly useful for two reasons.  First they can be useful if a library is given material and is not sure of its value for the collection.  This is usually not a major concern for smaller libraries.  The second use of retrospective review sources is to find reviews for materials that have been challenged.  Although materials are often purchased based on positive reviews, libraries rarely maintain copies of these reviews for each item purchased.  If a challenge does occur, retrospective review sources are used to find reviews about the materials.

The most important of the retrospective review sources include:

Book Review Digest.  In order to be included in this source, a book must have been published or distributed in the United States or Canada.  The digest includes reviews from more than 89 major periodicals in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.  Generally for a non-fiction book to be included it must have been reviewed in at least two of these periodicals; fiction materials must have been reviewed in at least three sources.

The H. W. Wilson Companies standardized catalogs also include excerpts from book reviews.  All books in these catalogs are considered to be recommended.  The catalogs include: The Children's Catalog for fiction and non-fiction for elementary school age children, The Middle and Junior High School Catalog (includes both fiction and non-fiction), The Senior High School Catalog (includes fiction and non-fiction), The Public Library Catalog (for adult non-fiction), and The Fiction Catalog for adult fiction. 

Cooperative Collection Development for Review Sources

In general review sources tend to be expensive, and the typical small public or school library cannot afford them all.  Some libraries have  shared the costs by agreeing to a cooperative purchase of some of these materials.  For example, a local school may subscribe to the School Library Journal while the public library subscribes to Booklist or The Library Journal.  They then develop a system for sharing these materials in a timely manner.