Week Five Prompts

Week Five Prompts

Question 1: “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?”

Response: Collection Development requires more than buying books for areas I like to read.  I have to take into consideration the library’s patrons.  Since this requires a large variety of genres I need to take the time and review various website, journals, blogs, and library reader recommendations.

Questions 2-4: “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 e-book even romantic suspense?” 

Responses: I would consider these both reliable for different reasons.  The first review from Amazon is by someone who just loves everything about Christmas.  So, I wonder if she really liked the story and characters or was more drawn to the Christmas Season aspects. The second reviewer seems more balanced.  She feels the warm fuzzy feelings of the holiday setting, but also breaks the review down to the unrealistic romance end.

My final verdict is that review two is better, but I would continue looking for more reviews and information about this book.

With just these two reviews I would not be inclined to place by book order just yet.  I would check and see if the library already has any books by this author, especially in the romantic suspense genre.  If so, then I would check circulation numbers.  I checked the author’s website and could not find a listing for this book, so I went to Amazon and found that this is part one of a three part book series.  I have found that patrons at my library like to read book series, so the next question is would I invest library money into this series, which Amazon only has e-books?  If the library already has other romantic suspense books at my library by this author and they circulate well I would order the series.  If not I would say no.  The main reason is that while the price is very reasonable the overall patrons at my library who read romance and romance suspense books do not like to use e-books and I feel that this author’s name would not be big enough of a pull to bring in the e-reader crowd.

Romance? Yes.  Romantic Suspense? Not so much.  Based on the reviews there does not seem too much suspense. The woman loves Christmas and the man hates Christmas. The suspense seems to lie in: will she open up his heart to Christmas and then fall madly in love? There does not seem to be any danger, fast paced plot, or a villain. The story seems more like a safe romantic read.

Question 5:  “How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?”

Response: The reviewers use different examples to showcase the overlying reason for this book: a beautiful, funny, inspiring, and sad memoir. Add in the fact that the book won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography and became a movie in 1999 and this book is an easy purchase.  

Questions 6-7: “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?”

Responses: It is not fair that one book gets reviewed more often than another book.  Unfortunately, this can be due to the popularity of the author or how much the publishing house advertises the book.  A lot of great indie books get little love, because they do not have the power or money of a big name publisher advertising the book.

A library’s collection is designed around its patron base.  So, if the patron’s see book advertisements while surfing the net, reading Entertainment Weekly, or watching a YouTube commercial then they are more inclined to ask for the book at the library.  The problem lies in that patrons do not read what they do not know exist. It is the job of the Reader Advisor and other librarians who order books to try to learn about books under the radar.  I personally enjoy finding out about indie and low advertised graphic novels.  I have found some good gems.

Questions 8-9: “And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate?”

Responses: I feel cheated and lied to when a source will not print both positive and negative content.  As long as the review is truthful and not malicious then I want to read the negative review.  Positive and negative reviews help me chose what books to purchase for my library and what books I want to read.

I feel that if someone creates a list of their top reviewed books then their purpose is not to exclude negative reviews, but to show only the best books on this list.  However, in order to be a well rounded reviewer I feel that they must include negative reviews on an overall list to show a comparison of what books are good and what books are not so good.  

Question 10: “If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions?”

Response: If I have not read the book recently then I read reviews before all of my library purchases.  I try to get professional reviews from places like Booklist and Library Journal along with amateur reviews from GoodReads, Amazon, and personal blogs.  If I have read the book and I am on the fence about ordering the book I will read reviews, because my opinions and viewpoint of the book are not the opinions of everyone.