Week Five Prompt:

For this week's prompt, I want to start a conversation about the different types of reviews. 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?

I do think this will affect the collection development to a certain extent. From what I know (which is still very little) a big percent of collection development is acquired through an agreement with the book sellers that new titles come automatically for popular authors or popular titles. I do not know the percent of the collection that is ordered by request or automatically, but this percent I think is where the affect will have the most effect from good or bad reviews. I have several patrons who request things that they find in the Bookpage, Amazon or other sites they subscribe to such as Goodreads. As a patron you know the newest and greatest are going to be supplied by the library without any prompts from patrons, so one must look for the titles that are off the beaten paths. But most do not know where to find these kinds of titles. If the hidden gems can't afford to pay the extra money for advertising, then they have no choice but to rely on reviews from readers of their books. So now, how do you get your book into the hands of people who will give you a good review? If you chose to offer early reader books on a website, you have no choice but to allow both good and bad reviews. If you limit your reviews to sites that only allow good reviews, you are then in danger of not having any reviews at all. How will readers and collection development professionals find you? I think this is a problem with self published or hidden gem books that aren't backed by big name publishing companies. 

 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?

I was not overly impressed with either review, nor would either inspire me to purchase the book. I think however I would probably want to have this title as the person ordering books, but not because these reviews swayed me in any way, but because I can see the light romantic holiday book would be a good addition to the collection. I find myself reading what a book is about and pretty much ignoring what the review of the book is when I chose books for reading. From the reviews I would not consider this to be a romantic suspense.

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

These reviews are much more to my liking, as the review tells me what the story is about, in many differing angles. Even though there is very little personal or opinionated quotes in the reviews, you still get a sense of what the reviewer thought of the story. Every one of them made me want to read the book (again) and it would persuade me as the collection development person to purchase this title.

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 do think it is unfair the process in which books get reviewed. As mentioned earlier, I think books that have big money backers get more attention and reviews, which is sort of redundant. Those titles will get purchased by libraries whether they get reviews or not, so why not spend your time writing reviews for books that won't get good coverage. Those hidden gem books that won't be found by the collection development person. 

I do not think that a reviewer should be limited as to what they are allowed to say. I believe both good and bad reviews should be allowed. However as consumers and professionals who may be purchasing books, I think we should all bare in mind that every person is different, they will have different reactions and different emotions toward books. I do not like to read reviews that have too many personal opinions, and to try to stick to reviews written more like a Kirkus review. (I'm glad I have a name for them now). I also think, the hidden gems that I think need the exposure, if they are getting reviews, whether good or bad, at lease they are getting exposed. I think as a person buying for a collection would know not all reviews are equal and would do further research on a title that may get bad reviews. But if not for the bad reviews, maybe that title would not of been exposed at all. So I'm all for freedom of speech!!

I used to like to find books on Goodreads, and I still use it as record of books I like and read and recommendations but not as much for reviews. I adore the Bookpage and usually find a hidden gem in there every month, either for myself or for a patron. My new favorite I learned in this class is the Kirkus Review. I love the way the format guides the reviewer to say what appeals to me about books, which is the content of the book, not what someone else opinion of the book is.