Week #5 Prompt

E-book 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 or other genre heavy publications. How does this affect collection development?

I handle all of the collection development in my library for the Adult and Teen departments. This includes physical books, e-books, DVD’s, audio books, etc. Coming from personal experience, I would say that reviews are a deciding factor for purchasing a book, regardless of format, about half of the time.  There is just no way to read a review for everything that I purchase. Last year alone we added 10,000+ items to our collections, and this is coming from a relatively small library. I feel like once you get comfortable with your collection and community, which took me about two solid years, you just have to largely work off instinct. For me, even if a book is not highly reviewed or no review at all, I am still willing to give it a chance if I think that my patrons will enjoy it. I realize that this is not the way that all collection development librarians work, however. Some librarians, who I have worked with in the past, work exclusively off reviews and will not order a book that has fared negatively. Essentially, I believe that the affect the lack of reviews will have on collection development is entirely up to individual librarians, as some are willing to give them a chance, while others would overlook them.

Look over the reviews- do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library?

Although neither the amazon or blog post are professional reviews, I believe that both reviews are still valid and reliable to an extent. For example, rarely, if ever, do I have a patron return a book that they loved and describe it in a way that a Kirkus review might. However, if they do provide me with a verbal review, it would be similar in quality to the amazon review, and I would not discount it because the lack of formality. As I stated before, I think that it is vital for collection development librarians to keep their individual communities and patrons in mind as they are ordering. For this reason, even if the review is coming in a format that you are not used to, listen to what is said. The amazon review indicated that there are tear-jerking moments and two polar opposites that ultimately fall for each other. These elements immediately bring to mind several of my patrons that would enjoy trying the novel. The same is true of the blog review, the reviewer contends that it is a fast read and a little cheesy. Both characteristics that I know some of my patrons enjoy.

How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela’s Ashes to your collection?

I have never personally read Angela’s Ashes, but based on these reviews, I would definitely consider adding this to my library collection. Within the reviews, several key things stuck out to me. The first is that multiple of the reviews refer to the book as vividly descriptive and sparing no detail. I think that this is a very important characteristic for memoirs, because these are generally harder to get people to pick up. Another hook for my collection development interest was that reviews state it is for readers of all ages. I personally enjoy having books in mind for RA that I could recommend to a patron regardless of age. While these previously mentioned aspects hooked my interest, the review from the Kirkus really seals the deal when it states “McCourt magically retrieves love, dignity, and humor from a childhood of hunger, loss and pain”. To me, this shows the power of a writer that they can find the good and the light amongst all the evil and dark.

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?

One thing that has always irritated me is that new or debut authors have a hard time getting their name out there, but established authors will get a positive review of just about anything that they write. My biggest peeve, however, is when established authors will co-write with lesser known or just starting out authors. While this might sell the book, most readers just see the established author’s name and do not give credit to the new or lesser-known author. In simpler words, no, I do not find it fair that newer authors have a harder time getting reviews, because there is a lot of quality literature published each year that is passed up for a popular authors work that, is in my opinion, often very formulaic and un-original. If a collection development librarian is only ordering authors that are bestselling and that are established, I believe that it can severely hurt the collection development, because you are not allowing patrons to be exposed to new, and sometimes better than established author’s, writing. For this reason, I believe that anyone handling collection development should be able to be subjective and open-minded.

While I respect review sources that will not share negative content, as that is their right to choose, I believe that negative reviews can be helpful. Reviews are inherently opinions; there is no way around it. With this in mind, there are bound to be negative reviews, because no one is going to like everything ever written, or at least not everything that they come across. Both positive and negative reviews are helpful to a collection development librarian, as well as to individual patrons, because often a review points out elements that a patron will either dislike or like. For example, even if a review is negative, because of an aspect that a reviewer did not enjoy, a patron reading the review could see that same aspect as a positive. This can happen vice versa as well. I believe that both positive and negative reviews are crucial.

As I said previously, I handle all of the collection development in my library for the Adult and Teen departments. This includes physical books, e-books, DVD’s, audio books, etc. Coming from personal experience, I would say that reviews are a deciding factor for purchasing a book, regardless of format, about half of the time. However, repeating again, my opinion is that knowing your community and its patrons will always be more beneficial than reviews.

In my personal reading selection, I rarely if ever use reviews. I tend to lean towards just flitting through the new bookshelf at my library. If I do not do this, many of my books come from patron, classmate, family, and friend recommendations. I have books all over my house waiting to-be-read that came from recommendations.