Prompt #2

“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?”

A lack of information is almost as dangerous as too much information. By having no reviews for smaller publication books in genres, we are missing out on potentially great reads. We also run the risk of having to sort through a lot of novels that may not be a personal or professional fit before we can find just the right literature. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when we have information overload on a particular book or genre we can go into a frenzy. When every voice is shouting at you from every direction, where do you even begin? Both ends of the spectrum present challenges for collection development, because the amount of reliable input in both cases is limited. Either you have a hard time finding reviews for a genres at all, or you find so many reviews from so many sources that you can’t tell which review you should really focus on.

“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? Is this ebook even romantic suspense?”

Looking over these two reviews, I would probably put more stock into the blog review than the amazon review in this instance. Both of the reviews explained that The Billionaires First Christmas was a heavily Christmas themed romance novel, but the blog gave a blurb from the book and went into more detail on what worked and didn’t work for them. Neither of them were unreliable per say, but I didn’t get as much out of the amazon review. I don’t know that I would buy this book for my library, mainly because it is an older novel now and is being offered free on amazon. Not to mention, it follows a lot of romantic Christmas clichés, and personally I am not interested in that plotline. I also don’t believe this ebook would qualify as a romantic suspense, but more of just a straight up romance novel.
 
“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?”

Angela’s Ashes sounds to be a depressing tale of a childhood full of death and abuse faced by a young boy and his family. Set during WWII, the family moves from America back to their native homeland of Ireland. Despite all of the despair and troubles faced, the author still manages to weave in some humor and deliver a message of love. From the reviews I read, the storytelling and narrative of this novel are exceptional, and make it hard to put down. Personally, I would defiantly consider adding this novel to my collection despite the more melancholy tone. I love historical pieces, and this seems to drive home the real struggles faced by immigrant families both abroad and returning to their homelands during WWII.

“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 really don’t think that it’s fair that all the genres don’t get some reviewing coverage. While I suppose some of the more popular genres will always receive more reviews, every genre deserves some attention. The uneven proportion of reviews also makes it harder for library collections to get a real feel of a book before they purchase it. This could lead to them purchasing novels that will be badly received that will attract almost no circulation, or skipping a good book out of that same fear. As far as review sources that will not print negative reviews, I am certain they are not doing anyone any favors besides the publishers. Even if their only goal is to prevent hateful messages or spam reviews, they lose real constructive criticism to this censorship. I can see language filters and the ability to report purposefully offensive reviews, but negative feedback on novels is just as important as the positive feedback. An aspect that drove some readers away from a book may actually attract other readers to it, and vise versa.  I like to look at reviews when I am choosing books to read, especially with new authors and genres. I will check amazon reviews, Goodreads, The Huffington Post, and occasionally individual blog sites for reviews.