book review in library science

What is a Book Review?

Introduction: A book review serves as a literary compass, guiding readers through the vast landscape of literature and offering valuable insights into the nuances of a particular work. More than just a summary, a book review critically examines the author’s craftsmanship, thematic elements, and the overall impact of the narrative. Whether penned by professional critics or passionate readers, these reviews are pivotal in helping potential readers make informed choices. By delving into a book’s strengths, weaknesses, and unique qualities, a well-crafted review not only evaluates the literary merit of the work but also sparks conversations and reflections on the broader themes and ideas it explores.

1.1 What is a Book Review?

A book review is an analysis of a book, typically written by someone who has read the book and wants to share their thoughts and opinions about it with others. Book reviews can be found in newspapers, magazines, and online platforms, and they serve as a valuable tool for readers trying to decide whether or not to read a particular book.

When writing a book review, it’s important to consider a few key elements:

• Summary: Start the review with a brief book summary, including the title, author, and genre. Provide a general overview of the plot and main characters, careful not to give away any major spoilers.
• Analysis: After the summary, move on to your book analysis. Consider the author’s writing style, themes, and use of language, as well as any insights or ideas that the book may have sparked for you. Did you find the book engaging? Did it make you think? What did you like or dislike about it?
• Critique: Besides analyzing the book, it’s also important to critique it. What were the book’s strengths and weaknesses? Did it meet your expectations? Was it well-written and well-researched? Were there any areas where it fell short?
• Recommendation: Finally, provide a recommendation for the book. Would you recommend it to others? Who do you think would enjoy it? Be honest in your recommendation, but also consider the target audience for the book.

When writing a book review, it’s important to remember that the review is not just about the book but also about the reader’s personal experience. As such, it’s essential to be authentic and honest in your analysis and critique while respecting the author’s work. A good book review can help readers find new and exciting books while providing valuable feedback to authors and publishers.

1.2 Types of book review:

Book reviews come in various forms, each serving a specific purpose and catering to different audiences. Here are some common types of book reviews:

• Professional Reviews: Professional book reviews, crafted by seasoned literary critics and experts in the field, stand as authoritative and insightful evaluations of literary works. Published in respected outlets like literary journals, newspapers, and specialized review publications, these reviews go beyond mere summarization, offering a comprehensive analysis of a book’s thematic depth, narrative structure, and artistic merit. Drawing on a wealth of literary knowledge, professional reviewers provide nuanced perspectives on an author’s style, originality, and contribution to the broader literary landscape. The credibility of the reviewing platform enhances the impact of these assessments, influencing readership perceptions and potentially shaping the book’s reception in literary circles. Grounded in ethical considerations, professional book reviews contribute to the ongoing discourse in literature, guiding readers and fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of the written word.
• Reader Reviews: Readers’ book reviews, a vibrant and diverse tapestry of opinions, encapsulate the subjective experiences and personal reflections of individuals who have engaged with a literary work. Published on platforms such as Goodreads, Amazon, and personal blogs, these reviews offer a democratic lens through which readers share their unique perspectives. Varied in tone and depth, reader reviews delve into the emotional resonance, relatability, and individual connections forged with the characters and narrative. While inherently subjective, these reviews collectively contribute to a communal dialogue about literature, revealing the diverse ways in which a book can resonate with its audience. Reader reviews empower potential readers with insights into how a book might align with their preferences, making them an invaluable and democratic force in shaping the broader literary conversation.
• Academic Reviews: Academic book reviews serve as intellectual appraisals conducted by scholars and experts within specific fields of study. Published in scholarly journals and academic publications, these reviews extend beyond subjective evaluations to offer meticulous assessments of a book’s scholarly contribution, research methodology, and relevance within the academic discourse. With a focus on intellectual rigor and contextual significance, academic reviewers analyze the work’s theoretical underpinnings, the soundness of its research, and its potential impact on existing scholarship. These reviews provide a critical lens through which the academic community evaluates a book’s merit and scholarly value, influencing the reception of the work within academic circles and contributing to the ongoing development of knowledge within a particular discipline.
• Trade Reviews: Trade book reviews are assessments of literary works written by professionals within the publishing and book-selling industry. Authored by individuals such as publishers, booksellers, and librarians, these reviews focus on the commercial viability, market potential, and overall significance of a book within the broader industry landscape. Typically featured in trade publications, these reviews help inform industry professionals about noteworthy publications, influencing book stocking, distribution, and promotion decisions. While considering literary merit, trade reviews often prioritize aspects that impact the book’s reception in the marketplace, making them valuable tools for shaping the success of a book within the commercial book trade.
• Comparative Reviews: Comparative book reviews provide readers with a unique perspective by analyzing a particular work about other books, either by the same author or within the same genre. These reviews offer insights into how a book fits within a broader literary context, highlighting similarities, differences, and the evolution of an author’s style or themes over time. Comparative reviews not only guide readers in understanding the specific merits of a book but also contribute to a deeper appreciation of its place within a larger literary conversation. By drawing connections between different works, these reviews enhance readers’ comprehension and offer valuable context for those seeking to explore the thematic and stylistic intricacies of a particular author or genre.
• Critical Reviews: Critical book reviews are meticulous evaluations of literary works that go beyond surface-level analysis to delve into a book’s intellectual, social, or political implications. Authored by critics with a keen eye for detail, these reviews engage deeply with the book’s themes, characters, and narrative structure, providing a comprehensive and thought-provoking assessment. Critical reviewers explore the broader cultural or historical context of the book, offering readers insights into its impact on society or its representation of significant themes. These reviews often incorporate a nuanced understanding of literary theory and critique, fostering a sophisticated dialogue about the role of literature in reflecting and shaping our understanding of the world. Critical book reviews are instrumental in encouraging readers to engage with literature on a deeper level, challenging them to consider the complexities and nuances inherent in the narratives they encounter.
• Book Club Reviews: Book club reviews offer a unique and collective perspective on a literary work, emerging from the dynamic discussions within a group of readers. These reviews capture the diverse opinions, interpretations, and reflections during book club meetings, providing a multi-faceted understanding of the book. As book clubs bring together individuals with varied backgrounds and perspectives, their reviews often delve into the nuances of character motivations, plot intricacies, and thematic elements. The collective nature of book club reviews highlights the communal experience of reading, offering insights into the emotional and intellectual impact a book can have on different readers. Beyond individual preferences, book club reviews often explore a book’s suitability for group discussion, assessing its ability to provoke thoughtful conversations and engage diverse readers. These reviews contribute to a communal literary dialogue, showcasing the power of shared reading experiences in shaping perspectives on literature.

These varied book reviews cater to the diverse needs and preferences of readers, scholars, industry professionals, and casual enthusiasts, contributing to a comprehensive and multifaceted discussion surrounding literature.

1.3 The Necessity of Book Review:

Book reviews are indispensable pillars connecting authors and readers, shaping the dynamic landscape of storytelling and knowledge-sharing. Far more than subjective opinions on a book’s merits, reviews serve a multifaceted purpose, guiding readers in their literary exploration and providing authors with invaluable feedback. This article explores the profound necessity of book reviews, delving into their role in fostering a vibrant literary community, empowering readers, and contributing to the growth and evolution of authors and their works.

• The Reader’s Compass: Book reviews function as a compass for readers navigating the expansive world of literature. In an era where countless titles compete for attention, reviews offer valuable insights into a book’s content, writing style, and overall quality. Armed with this information, readers can make informed decisions tailored to their tastes and preferences. Reviews act as literary guides, helping readers discover works that resonate with them while steering clear of those that may not align with their interests.
• Fostering Community and Discussion: Beyond their informative function, book reviews create a sense of community among readers. Platforms like Goodreads, Amazon, and literary blogs serve as virtual meeting places where individuals can share their thoughts, interpretations, and emotional responses to a book. This communal engagement transforms the act of reading into a shared experience, fostering discussions that transcend geographical boundaries. Readers become part of a broader conversation, connecting with fellow book enthusiasts and gaining new perspectives on familiar narratives.
• Authors’ Crucible of Growth: For authors, book reviews represent a crucible of growth and development. Constructive criticism provided by reviewers offers valuable insights into aspects of storytelling, character development, and thematic exploration. This feedback becomes a roadmap for authors, guiding them in refining their craft and addressing potential areas of improvement. Positive reviews, conversely, serve as affirmations of an author’s skill and creativity, contributing to their recognition within the literary community.
• Visibility and Endorsement: Book reviews play a pivotal role in shaping an author’s visibility and reception. Positive reviews serve as endorsements and testimonials that can attract a broader readership. A book with glowing reviews is more likely to capture the attention of potential readers, establishing trust and credibility. In the crowded marketplace of literature, reviews become a means for authors to distinguish themselves and their works.

Book reviews are the threads that connect authors and readers, weaving together a community bound by a shared love for storytelling. The necessity of book reviews extends beyond individual opinions; they serve as bridges facilitating dialogue, empowering readers, and contributing to the growth of authors and the ongoing evolution of literature. As readers and authors continue to engage in this symbiotic relationship, the importance of book reviews remains steadfast, ensuring that the written word continues to captivate, inspire, and connect us all.

1.4 What should be considered when writing a good book review?

Writing a compelling book review is an art that combines literary analysis, personal reflection, and effective communication. Whether you’re a seasoned critic or a passionate reader eager to share your thoughts, specific considerations can elevate your review from a mere summary to a thoughtful exploration of a book’s merits. In this article, we delve into key aspects to consider when crafting a good book review, aiming to guide reviewers in providing valuable insights for potential readers and constructive feedback for authors.

• Understanding the Book: Before embarking on a book review, immerse yourself in the book’s world. Read the entire work carefully, taking note of essential elements such as themes, characters, and the author’s writing style. A solid book understanding is fundamental to offering an insightful and informed critique.
• Maintaining Objectivity: While a book review is inherently subjective, strive for objectivity in your assessment. Back your opinions with specific examples from the text, and avoid overly biased language. Constructive criticism is more valuable than extreme praise or harsh condemnation, contributing to a fair evaluation.
• Identifying the Target Audience: Consider the intended audience of the book. Assess how well the author caters to this demographic and whether the book effectively communicates its intended message. A children’s book, for instance, should be evaluated based on its appropriateness and engagement for the specified age group.
• Contextualizing the Book: Place the book within its broader context-literary, historical or cultural. Discuss how it relates to other works in the genre or period, and highlight any unique contributions to its significance. This contextualization aids readers in understanding the book’s place in the larger literary landscape.
• Balancing Summary and Analysis: Strike a delicate balance between summarizing the plot and offering critical analysis. While readers need a sense of the book’s content, the review should move beyond mere plot description to delve into the narrative’s themes, characters, and overall impact.
• Expressing Personal Response: Share your response to the book, including emotional reactions and reflections. Articulate what resonated with you and why, allowing readers to connect with your experience. However, acknowledge that individual responses may vary; your perspective is one of many.
• Considering Author’s Intentions: Reflect on the author’s intentions and evaluate how successfully these are realized. Consider the author’s writing goals, style choices, and whether the book achieves its intended purpose. Understanding the author’s objectives enhances the depth of your analysis.
• Discussing Style and Language: Comment on the author’s writing style and language. Assess whether the prose is engaging, the dialogue is well-crafted, and if the overall writing contributes positively to the reading experience. An exploration of style enriches your evaluation.
• Evaluating Character Development: Evaluate the depth and complexity of the characters. Consider their believability, motivations, and whether they undergo meaningful development throughout the story. A nuanced evaluation of characters adds depth to your critique.
• Highlighting Strengths and Weaknesses: Provide a balanced discussion of the book’s strengths and weaknesses. Acknowledge what the author does well, and be honest about any aspects that may have fallen short of expectations. A fair assessment provides valuable feedback for both readers and authors.
• Avoiding Spoilers: Avoid spoilers, especially when discussing key plot points or twists. If your review contains spoilers, clearly warn readers beforehand to preserve their experience of discovering the narrative.
• Formatting and Clarity: Ensure your review is well-structured and easy to follow. Use clear and concise language, and organize your thoughts logically. A well-organized review enhances readability and effectively communicates your insights.
• Citing Evidence: Support your statements with evidence from the book. Whether praising or critiquing, providing specific examples helps substantiate your points and gives readers a tangible sense of what to expect. Concrete evidence adds depth to your analysis.

Crafting a good book review is a nuanced process that requires a delicate balance of subjective insights, objective analysis, and effective communication. By considering these key aspects, reviewers can contribute meaningfully to the literary discourse, guiding readers in their choices and offering constructive feedback to authors. In the world of literature, thoughtful reviews become a bridge between creators and consumers, enriching the reading experience for all.

References:

Davies, M. W., & Jardine, L. A. (2012). How to Write a Book Review. In How to Write a Paper (pp. 98–101). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118488713.ch15

Hammett, H. B. (1973). How to Write a Book Review. The Social Studies , 65 (6), 263–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1943.11019362

Hartley, J. (2006). Reading and writing book reviews across the disciplines. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology , 57 (9), 1194–1207. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20399

Lee, A. D., Green, B. N., Johnson, C. D., & Nyquist, J. (2010). How to Write a Scholarly Book Review for Publication in a Peer-Reviewed Journal: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Chiropractic Education , 24 (1), 57–69. https://doi.org/10.7899/1042-5055-24.1.57

Obeng, -Odoom Franklin. (n.d.). Why write book reviews? The Australian Universities’ Review , 56 (1), 78–82. https://doi.org/10.3316/ielapa.872975891967143

Related Posts

Exploring the most common reasons people visit the library, 24/7 support: unveiling the power of virtual library assistance, the role of academic libraries in scholarly communication, challenges and opportunities for academic libraries in the future, role of libraries in promotion of literacy and lifelong learning, role of libraries in improving the quality of education.

Nice article

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

A book review is a thorough description, critical analysis, and/or evaluation of the quality, meaning, and significance of a book, often written in relation to prior research on the topic. Reviews generally range from 500-2000 words, but may be longer or shorter depends on several factors: the length and complexity of the book being reviewed, the overall purpose of the review, and whether the review examines two or more books that focus on the same topic. Professors assign book reviews as practice in carefully analyzing complex scholarly texts and to assess your ability to effectively synthesize research so that you reach an informed perspective about the topic being covered.

There are two general approaches to reviewing a book:

• Descriptive review: Presents the content and structure of a book as objectively as possible, describing essential information about a book's purpose and authority. This is done by stating the perceived aims and purposes of the study, often incorporating passages quoted from the text that highlight key elements of the work. Additionally, there may be some indication of the reading level and anticipated audience.
• Critical review: Describes and evaluates the book in relation to accepted literary and historical standards and supports this evaluation with evidence from the text and, in most cases, in contrast to and in comparison with the research of others. It should include a statement about what the author has tried to do, evaluates how well you believe the author has succeeded in meeting the objectives of the study, and presents evidence to support this assessment. For most course assignments, your professor will want you to write this type of review.

Book Reviews. Writing Center. University of New Hampshire; Book Reviews: How to Write a Book Review. Writing and Style Guides. Libraries. Dalhousie University; Kindle, Peter A. "Teaching Students to Write Book Reviews." Contemporary Rural Social Work 7 (2015): 135-141; Erwin, R. W. “Reviewing Books for Scholarly Journals.” In Writing and Publishing for Academic Authors . Joseph M. Moxley and Todd Taylor. 2 nd edition. (Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield, 1997), pp. 83-90.

How to Approach Writing Your Review

NOTE:   Since most course assignments require that you write a critical rather than descriptive book review, the following information about preparing to write and developing the structure and style of reviews focuses on this approach.

I.  Common Features

While book reviews vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features. These include:

• A review gives the reader a concise summary of the content . This includes a description of the research topic and scope of analysis as well as an overview of the book's overall perspective, argument, and purpose.
• A review offers a critical assessment of the content in relation to other studies on the same topic . This involves documenting your reactions to the work under review--what strikes you as noteworthy or important, whether or not the arguments made by the author(s) were effective or persuasive, and how the work enhanced your understanding of the research problem under investigation.
• In addition to analyzing a book's strengths and weaknesses, a scholarly review often recommends whether or not readers would value the work for its authenticity and overall quality . This measure of quality includes both the author's ideas and arguments and covers practical issues, such as, readability and language, organization and layout, indexing, and, if needed, the use of non-textual elements .

To maintain your focus, always keep in mind that most assignments ask you to discuss a book's treatment of its topic, not the topic itself . Your key sentences should say, "This book shows...,” "The study demonstrates...," or “The author argues...," rather than "This happened...” or “This is the case....”

II.  Developing a Critical Assessment Strategy

There is no definitive methodological approach to writing a book review in the social sciences, although it is necessary that you think critically about the research problem under investigation before you begin to write. Therefore, writing a book review is a three-step process: 1) carefully taking notes as you read the text; 2) developing an argument about the value of the work under consideration; and, 3) clearly articulating that argument as you write an organized and well-supported assessment of the work.

A useful strategy in preparing to write a review is to list a set of questions that should be answered as you read the book [remember to note the page numbers so you can refer back to the text!]. The specific questions to ask yourself will depend upon the type of book you are reviewing. For example, a book that is presenting original research about a topic may require a different set of questions to ask yourself than a work where the author is offering a personal critique of an existing policy or issue.

Here are some sample questions that can help you think critically about the book:

• Thesis or Argument . What is the central thesis—or main argument—of the book? If the author wanted you to get one main idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world that you know or have experienced? What has the book accomplished? Is the argument clearly stated and does the research support this?
• Topic . What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Is it clearly articulated? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? Can you detect any biases? What type of approach has the author adopted to explore the research problem [e.g., topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive]?
• Evidence . How does the author support their argument? What evidence does the author use to prove their point? Is the evidence based on an appropriate application of the method chosen to gather information? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author's information [or conclusions] conflict with other books you've read, courses you've taken, or just previous assumptions you had about the research problem?
• Structure . How does the author structure their argument? Does it follow a logical order of analysis? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense to you? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
• Take-aways . How has this book helped you understand the research problem? Would you recommend the book to others? Why or why not?

Beyond the content of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the general presentation of information. Question to ask may include:

• The Author: Who is the author? The nationality, political persuasion, education, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the author is affiliated with a particular organization? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events they wrote about? What other topics has the author written about? Does this work build on prior research or does it represent a new or unique area of research?
• The Presentation: What is the book's genre? Out of what discipline does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or other contextual standard upon which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know this. Keep in mind, though, that declarative statements about being the “first,” the "best," or the "only" book of its kind can be a risky unless you're absolutely certain because your professor [presumably] has a much better understanding of the overall research literature.

NOTE: Most critical book reviews examine a topic in relation to prior research. A good strategy for identifying this prior research is to examine sources the author(s) cited in the chapters introducing the research problem and, of course, any review of the literature. However, you should not assume that the author's references to prior research is authoritative or complete. If any works related to the topic have been excluded, your assessment of the book should note this . Be sure to consult with a librarian to ensure that any additional studies are located beyond what has been cited by the author(s).

Book Reviews. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Book Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Hartley, James. "Reading and Writing Book Reviews Across the Disciplines." Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 57 (July 2006): 1194–1207;   Motta-Roth, D. “Discourse Analysis and Academic Book Reviews: A Study of Text and Disciplinary Cultures.”  In Genre Studies in English for Academic Purposes . Fortanet Gómez, Inmaculada  et  al., editors. (Castellò de la Plana: Publicacions de la Universitat Jaume I, 1998), pp. 29-45. Writing a Book Review. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing Book Reviews. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University; Suárez, Lorena and Ana I. Moreno. “The Rhetorical Structure of Academic Journal Book Reviews: A Cross-linguistic and Cross-disciplinary Approach .” In Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, María del Carmen Pérez Llantada Auría, Ramón Plo Alastrué, and Claus Peter Neumann. Actas del V Congreso Internacional AELFE/Proceedings of the 5th International AELFE Conference . Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza, 2006.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Bibliographic Information

Bibliographic information refers to the essential elements of a work if you were to cite it in a paper [i.e., author, title, date of publication, etc.]. Provide the essential information about the book using the writing style [e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago] preferred by your professor or used by the discipline of your major . Depending on how your professor wants you to organize your review, the bibliographic information represents the heading of your review. In general, it would look like this:

[Complete title of book. Author or authors. Place of publication. Publisher. Date of publication. Number of pages before first chapter, often in Roman numerals. Total number of pages]. The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History . By Jill Lepore. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010. xii, 207 pp.)

Reviewed by [your full name].

II.  Scope/Purpose/Content

Begin your review by telling the reader not only the overarching concern of the book in its entirety [the subject area] but also what the author's particular point of view is on that subject [the thesis statement]. If you cannot find an adequate statement in the author's own words or if you find that the thesis statement is not well-developed, then you will have to compose your own introductory thesis statement that does cover all the material. This statement should be no more than one paragraph and must be succinctly stated, accurate, and unbiased.

If you find it difficult to discern the overall aims and objectives of the book [and, be sure to point this out in your review if you determine that this is a deficiency], you may arrive at an understanding of the book's overall purpose by assessing the following:

• Scan the table of contents because it can help you understand how the book was organized and will aid in determining the author's main ideas and how they were developed [e.g., chronologically, topically, historically, etc.].
• Why did the author write on this subject rather than on some other subject?
• From what point of view is the work written?
• Was the author trying to give information, to explain something technical, or to convince the reader of a belief’s validity by dramatizing it in action?
• What is the general field or genre, and how does the book fit into it? If necessary, review related literature from other books and journal articles to familiarize yourself with the field.
• Who is the intended audience?
• What is the author's style? Is it formal or informal? You can evaluate the quality of the writing style by noting some of the following standards: coherence, clarity, originality, forcefulness, accurate use of technical words, conciseness, fullness of development, and fluidity [i.e., quality of the narrative flow].
• How did the book affect you? Were there any prior assumptions you had about the subject that were changed, abandoned, or reinforced after reading the book? How is the book related to your own personal beliefs or assumptions? What personal experiences have you had related to the subject that affirm or challenge underlying assumptions?
• How well has the book achieved the goal(s) set forth in the preface, introduction, and/or foreword?
• Would you recommend this book to others? Why or why not?

III.  Note the Method

Support your remarks with specific references to text and quotations that help to illustrate the literary method used to state the research problem, describe the research design, and analyze the findings. In general, authors tend to use the following literary methods, exclusively or in combination.

• Description : The author depicts scenes and events by giving specific details that appeal to the five senses, or to the reader’s imagination. The description presents background and setting. Its primary purpose is to help the reader realize, through as many details as possible, the way persons, places, and things are situated within the phenomenon being described.
• Narration : The author tells the story of a series of events, usually thematically or in chronological order. In general, the emphasis in scholarly books is on narration of the events. Narration tells what has happened and, in some cases, using this method to forecast what could happen in the future. Its primary purpose is to draw the reader into a story and create a contextual framework for understanding the research problem.
• Exposition : The author uses explanation and analysis to present a subject or to clarify an idea. Exposition presents the facts about a subject or an issue clearly and as impartially as possible. Its primary purpose is to describe and explain, to document for the historical record an event or phenomenon.
• Argument : The author uses techniques of persuasion to establish understanding of a particular truth, often in the form of addressing a research question, or to convince the reader of its falsity. The overall aim is to persuade the reader to believe something and perhaps to act on that belief. Argument takes sides on an issue and aims to convince the reader that the author's position is valid, logical, and/or reasonable.

IV.  Critically Evaluate the Contents

Critical comments should form the bulk of your book review . State whether or not you feel the author's treatment of the subject matter is appropriate for the intended audience. Ask yourself:

• Has the purpose of the book been achieved?
• What contributions does the book make to the field?
• Is the treatment of the subject matter objective or at least balanced in describing all sides of a debate?
• Are there facts and evidence that have been omitted?
• What kinds of data, if any, are used to support the author's thesis statement?
• Can the same data be interpreted to explain alternate outcomes?
• Is the writing style clear and effective?
• Does the book raise important or provocative issues or topics for discussion?
• Does the book bring attention to the need for further research?
• What has been left out?

Support your evaluation with evidence from the text and, when possible, state the book's quality in relation to other scholarly sources. If relevant, note of the book's format, such as, layout, binding, typography, etc. Are there tables, charts, maps, illustrations, text boxes, photographs, or other non-textual elements? Do they aid in understanding the text? Describing this is particularly important in books that contain a lot of non-textual elements.

NOTE:   It is important to carefully distinguish your views from those of the author so as not to confuse your reader. Be clear when you are describing an author's point of view versus expressing your own.

V.  Examine the Front Matter and Back Matter

Front matter refers to any content before the first chapter of the book. Back matter refers to any information included after the final chapter of the book . Front matter is most often numbered separately from the rest of the text in lower case Roman numerals [i.e. i - xi ]. Critical commentary about front or back matter is generally only necessary if you believe there is something that diminishes the overall quality of the work [e.g., the indexing is poor] or there is something that is particularly helpful in understanding the book's contents [e.g., foreword places the book in an important context].

Front matter that may be considered for evaluation when reviewing its overall quality:

• Table of contents -- is it clear? Is it detailed or general? Does it reflect the true contents of the book? Does it help in understanding a logical sequence of content?
• Author biography -- also found as back matter, the biography of author(s) can be useful in determining the authority of the writer and whether the book builds on prior research or represents new research. In scholarly reviews, noting the author's affiliation and prior publications can be a factor in helping the reader determine the overall validity of the work [i.e., are they associated with a research center devoted to studying the problem under investigation].
• Foreword -- the purpose of a foreword is to introduce the reader to the author and the content of the book, and to help establish credibility for both. A foreword may not contribute any additional information about the book's subject matter, but rather, serves as a means of validating the book's existence. In these cases, the foreword is often written by a leading scholar or expert who endorses the book's contributions to advancing research about the topic. Later editions of a book sometimes have a new foreword prepended [appearing before an older foreword, if there was one], which may be included to explain how the latest edition differs from previous editions. These are most often written by the author.
• Acknowledgements -- scholarly studies in the social sciences often take many years to write, so authors frequently acknowledge the help and support of others in getting their research published. This can be as innocuous as acknowledging the author's family or the publisher. However, an author may acknowledge prominent scholars or subject experts, staff at key research centers, people who curate important archival collections, or organizations that funded the research. In these particular cases, it may be worth noting these sources of support in your review, particularly if the funding organization is biased or its mission is to promote a particular agenda.
• Preface -- generally describes the genesis, purpose, limitations, and scope of the book and may include acknowledgments of indebtedness to people who have helped the author complete the study. Is the preface helpful in understanding the study? Does it provide an effective framework for understanding what's to follow?
• Chronology -- also may be found as back matter, a chronology is generally included to highlight key events related to the subject of the book. Do the entries contribute to the overall work? Is it detailed or very general?
• List of non-textual elements -- a book that contains numerous charts, photographs, maps, tables, etc. will often list these items after the table of contents in the order that they appear in the text. Is this useful?

Back matter that may be considered for evaluation when reviewing its overall quality:

• Afterword -- this is a short, reflective piece written by the author that takes the form of a concluding section, final commentary, or closing statement. It is worth mentioning in a review if it contributes information about the purpose of the book, gives a call to action, summarizes key recommendations or next steps, or asks the reader to consider key points made in the book.
• Appendix -- is the supplementary material in the appendix or appendices well organized? Do they relate to the contents or appear superfluous? Does it contain any essential information that would have been more appropriately integrated into the text?
• Index -- are there separate indexes for names and subjects or one integrated index. Is the indexing thorough and accurate? Are elements used, such as, bold or italic fonts to help identify specific places in the book? Does the index include "see also" references to direct you to related topics?
• Glossary of Terms -- are the definitions clearly written? Is the glossary comprehensive or are there key terms missing? Are any terms or concepts mentioned in the text not included that should have been?
• Endnotes -- examine any endnotes as you read from chapter to chapter. Do they provide important additional information? Do they clarify or extend points made in the body of the text? Should any notes have been better integrated into the text rather than separated? Do the same if the author uses footnotes.
• Bibliography/References/Further Readings -- review any bibliography, list of references to sources, and/or further readings the author may have included. What kinds of sources appear [e.g., primary or secondary, recent or old, scholarly or popular, etc.]? How does the author make use of them? Be sure to note important omissions of sources that you believe should have been utilized, including important digital resources or archival collections.

VI.  Summarize and Comment

State your general conclusions briefly and succinctly. Pay particular attention to the author's concluding chapter and/or afterword. Is the summary convincing? List the principal topics, and briefly summarize the author’s ideas about these topics, main points, and conclusions. If appropriate and to help clarify your overall evaluation, use specific references to text and quotations to support your statements. If your thesis has been well argued, the conclusion should follow naturally. It can include a final assessment or simply restate your thesis. Do not introduce new information in the conclusion. If you've compared the book to any other works or used other sources in writing the review, be sure to cite them at the end of your book review in the same writing style as your bibliographic heading of the book.

Book Reviews. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Book Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Gastel, Barbara. "Special Books Section: A Strategy for Reviewing Books for Journals." BioScience 41 (October 1991): 635-637; Hartley, James. "Reading and Writing Book Reviews Across the Disciplines." Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 57 (July 2006): 1194–1207; Lee, Alexander D., Bart N. Green, Claire D. Johnson, and Julie Nyquist. "How to Write a Scholarly Book Review for Publication in a Peer-reviewed Journal: A Review of the Literature." Journal of Chiropractic Education 24 (2010): 57-69; Nicolaisen, Jeppe. "The Scholarliness of Published Peer Reviews: A Bibliometric Study of Book Reviews in Selected Social Science Fields." Research Evaluation 11 (2002): 129-140;.Procter, Margaret. The Book Review or Article Critique. The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Reading a Book to Review It. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Scarnecchia, David L. "Writing Book Reviews for the Journal Of Range Management and Rangelands." Rangeland Ecology and Management 57 (2004): 418-421; Simon, Linda. "The Pleasures of Book Reviewing." Journal of Scholarly Publishing 27 (1996): 240-241; Writing a Book Review. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing Book Reviews. Writing Tutorial Services, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. Indiana University.

Writing Tip

Always Read the Foreword and/or the Preface

If they are included in the front matter, a good place for understanding a book's overall purpose, organization, contributions to further understanding of the research problem, and relationship to other studies is to read the preface and the foreword. The foreword may be written by someone other than the author or editor and can be a person who is famous or who has name recognition within the discipline. A foreword is often included to add credibility to the work.

The preface is usually an introductory essay written by the author or editor. It is intended to describe the book's overall purpose, arrangement, scope, and overall contributions to the literature. When reviewing the book, it can be useful to critically evaluate whether the goals set forth in the foreword and/or preface were actually achieved. At the very least, they can establish a foundation for understanding a study's scope and purpose as well as its significance in contributing new knowledge.

Distinguishing between a Foreword, a Preface, and an Introduction . Book Creation Learning Center. Greenleaf Book Group, 2019.

Locating Book Reviews

There are several databases the USC Libraries subscribes to that include the full-text or citations to book reviews. Short, descriptive reviews can also be found at book-related online sites such as Amazon , although it's not always obvious who has written them and may actually be created by the publisher. The following databases provide comprehensive access to scholarly, full-text book reviews:

• ProQuest [1983-present]
• Book Review Digest Retrospective [1905-1982]

Some Language for Evaluating Texts

It can be challenging to find the proper vocabulary from which to discuss and evaluate a book. Here is a list of some active verbs for referring to texts and ideas that you might find useful:

• account for
• demonstrate
• distinguish
• investigate

Examples of usage

• "The evidence indicates that..."
• "This work assesses the effect of..."
• "The author identifies three key reasons for..."
• "This book questions the view that..."
• "This work challenges assumptions about...."

Paquot, Magali. Academic Keyword List. Centre for English Corpus Linguistics. Université Catholique de Louvain.

• << Previous: Leading a Class Discussion
• Next: Multiple Book Review Essay >>
• Last Updated: Mar 6, 2024 1:00 PM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/assignments

• Guidelines for Authors

LIBRARIANSHIP STUDIES & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Librarianship studies & information technology.

• _Directory of Librarians
• _Descriptive Cataloging
• _Subject Cataloging
• _Authority Control
• __Authority Record
• _Cutter’s Objects
• _Cataloging Tools
• _Cataloging Examples
• DISSERTATION
• ENCYCLOPEDIA
• _Library Acquisitions
• _Library Associations
• _Library Automation
• _Library Circulation
• _Library Management
• _LIS Awards Grants
• _LIS Courses
• _LIS Videos
• On This Day
• _Book & Copyright Day
• _Library Lovers Day
• _LIS Exams (India) Quiz
• _I love being a librarian

Book Review - Library and Information Science: A Guide to Key Literature and Sources by Michael F. Bemis

Library and Information Science A guide to key literature and sources

Michael f. bemis.

• Includes coverage of subjects as diverse and vital as the history of librarianship, its development as a profession, the ethics of information science, cataloging, reference work, and library architecture
• Encompasses encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, photographic surveys, statistical publications, and numerous electronic sources, all categorized by subject  
• Offers appendixes detailing leading professional organizations and publishers of library and information science literature
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Administration and Management
• Architecture
• Associations
• Awards and Recognition
• Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir
• Careers and Employment
• Cataloging and Classification
• Censorship and Intellectual Freedom
• Collection Management
• Education and Professional Development
• Epistemology and Philosophy
• Funding and Finance
• Information Literacy and Bibliographic Instruction
• Information Technology
• Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery
• International Librarianship
• Libraries, General
• Libraries, History of
• Library Science, General
• Library Science, History of
• Marketing, Public Relations, and Advocacy
• Miscellaneous
• Patron Services
• Philanthropy
• Popular Culture
• Programming
• Reader’s Advisory
• Reading Advocacy, Instruction, and Promotion
• Reference Work
• Special, Academic, and School Libraries and Librarians
• Vendors and Suppliers
• Writing and Publishing
• Appendix A: American Library Association Divisions, Chapters, and Affiliates
• Appendix B: International and National Professional Associations

You may like these posts

• ACQUISITION
• BIOGRAPHIES
• CIRCULATION
• CLASSIFICATION
• LIBRARIANSHIP
• MISCELLANEA
• PERSONALITY

Total Pageviews

Random posts, recent in lists, popular posts.

Best Quotes About Libraries Librarians and Library and Information Science

Five Laws of Library Science

Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR, AACR2, AACR2R)

Menu footer widget.

• Creative Commons
• Privacy Policy

• Library Home
• Library Guides

How do I find reviews?

• Book Reviews

Getting Started

Reviews for a general audience, reviews for a scholarly audience.

• Film Reviews
• Music Reviews
• Theater Reviews

Do you want to know how a book was received by scholars? Are you trying to determine the quality of a particular book? Or, are you just interested in knowing if a book is worth reading? Book reviews are a great place to start. This guide provides guidance on finding two types of book reviews, those for a general audience and those for a scholarly audience.

Literature and popular works (memoirs, travel writing, manuals, etc.) are often reviewed by journalists or fellow authors upon publication in newspapers or magazines. Use the following databases to find reviews in these publications.

• Book Review Index This link opens in a new window & more less... A comprehensive online guide to book reviews with over five million review citations from thousands of publications.
• Book Review Digest Plus This link opens in a new window & more less... Book Review Digest is a reference database that provides review excerpts and book summaries for current English-language fiction and non-fiction books. Limit of 1 simultaneous user.
• Book Review Digest Retrospective This link opens in a new window 1903-1982 & more less... Indexes and abstracts reviews of English language adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction titles. Reviews are selected from journals in the humanities, sciences, social sciences and library review media.

Other Sources for Book Reviews

Many reviews are published in newspapers and magazines. Use the guides below to find the best databases to search for reviews in these publications.

• How do I find magazines? by Ask a Librarian Updated Feb 17, 2024 273 views this year
• How do I find newspapers? by Ask a Librarian Updated Apr 3, 2024 4009 views this year

Scholarly books are reviewed in academic or peer-reviewed journals and are written by academics. As these reviews place the work in the context of current scholarship, they can take several years to appear after the book was published.

Starting Points

• JSTOR This link opens in a new window Recommended Starting Point . Use Advanced Search and limit to "Reviews". You can also limit by discipline. & more less... A database of back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. All issues of each journal are included in full-text except for the most recent 2-to-5 years.
• IBR Online This link opens in a new window & more less... Multilingual and interdisciplinary index to book reviews, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
• Web of Science This link opens in a new window Conduct your search for book or author, and then limit to "Book Reviews". & more less... Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers over 10,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 110,000 conference proceedings. You'll find current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage available to 1900. Includes the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Web of Science is especially useful for its citation linking.
• Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window & more less... Part of Nineteenth Century Index. Indexes the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences from 1665 to 1995, including many European titles. Includes links to some full-text articles. Dates of full-text coverage vary by title.
• Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window & more less... Database corresponds to International Index, 1907 - March 1965; Social Sciences & Humanities Index, April 1965 March 1974; Humanities Index, April 1974 March 1984; and Social Sciences Index, April 1974 March 1983

Other Databases for Book Reviews

We strongly recommend searching the article database or index that covers the academic literature in a specific field for reviews. Use the Advanced Search option and limit to "Book Reviews" or "Reviews".  Find the best database for book reviews in your field by using our subject guides.

• Library Subject Guides

Book Review Indexes in Print

Below are a few print sources for finding book reviews.

• Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974 & more less... 10 vols. Ed by Evan Ira Farber. Woodbridge: Research Publications, 1982-1984. Covers 150 literature, philosophy, classics, folklore, linguistics & music journals, from England and the US Organized by primary authors or editors and then by book titles.
• Literary and Historical index to American Magazines, 1800-1850 & more less... Ed by Daniel A. Wells & Jonathan Daniel Wells. Westport: Praeger, 2004.

Ask a Librarian

Publications with Book Reviews

• London Review of Books Library has on microfilm 1979 - present.
• New York Review of Books This link opens in a new window » more less... New York Review of Books reviews contemporary books in all subject areas.
• New Yorker Library has in print 1925 - present.
• Publishers Weekly Library has in print and microfilm 1873 - present. Recent issues available online via Find It!
• TLS: Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive This link opens in a new window » more less... Covers 1902-2006. This easy-to-navigate, fully-searchable resource is a witness to the cultural revolutions of the last 100 years and offers unparalleled opportunities for tracking the views of influential opinion-makers, the response of their peers, the controversies of the day and how they developed. --Publisher's website
• << Previous: Home
• Next: Film Reviews >>
• Subjects: Social Services
• Updated: Feb 17, 2024 12:09 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/reviews
• Report a problem
• Login to LibApps

Open sourcetools

• Joyner Library
• Laupus Health Sciences Library
• Music Library
• Digital Collections
• Special Collections
• North Carolina Collection
• Teaching Resources
• The ScholarShip Institutional Repository
• Country Doctor Museum

Library Science: Lit Review

• Evaluating Sources
• Choose a Topic
• Gov Docs This link opens in a new window
• Careers in LIS
• APA Citation

Literature Reviews

You may be asked to write a literature review as part of your Library Science coursework. 

On this page, you will find:

• Tutorial videos on the topic of literature review (left column)
• A definition of a literature review (right column)
• Links to helpful tools to help you write a lit review (right column)
• Outline of a basic literature review (right column)

The Literature Review

This tutorial from NCSU gives a good overview of the process of the literature review.

Types of Literature Reviews

Completing Literature Reviews

What is a Literature Review (Lit Review)?

A Literature Review  is an integrated summary of existing research on a particular topic. In it, you identify sources, summarize their points, and then critically evaluate them as they relate to each other. You also need to establish that the existing research has not yet covered the aspect of the topic that you are or will be researching. Aspects of the topic that need further research or which are controversial should be identified, as well.

Links to Further Help You...

• Purdue Online Writing Lab Social Work Literature Review Guidelines (Not only for Social Work!)
• UW-Madison Writing Center Learn How to Write a Review of Literature
• Mindmap The Literature Review in Under 5 Minutes

Basic Outline

Detailed literature reviews typically include the following:

• Introduction : Explain how you will organize your literature review (e.g. thematic or chronological) and your thesis (argument).
• Body : Summarize, compare, contrast, etc. the various sources and their arguments. Discuss your thesis in relation to the existing research. Identify the gaps that led to your thesis and those that remain.
• Implications : State how your research impacts the field.
• << Previous: Gov Docs
• Next: Careers in LIS >>
• Last Updated: Nov 30, 2023 1:33 PM
• URL: https://libguides.ecu.edu/library_science

Book reviews in academic journals: patterns and dynamics

• Published: 10 November 2016
• Volume 110 , pages 355–364, ( 2017 )

Cite this article

• Weishu Liu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8780-6709 1 ,
• Yishan Ding 2 &
• Mengdi Gu 2  

1597 Accesses

13 Citations

1 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

Book reviews play important roles in scholarly communication especially in arts and humanities disciplines. By using Web of Science’s Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index, this study probed the patterns and dynamics of book reviews within these three indexes empirically during the past decade (2006–2015). We found that the absolute numbers of book reviews among all the three indexes were relatively stable but the relative shares were decreasing. Book reviews were very common in arts and humanities, common in social sciences, but rare in natural sciences. Book reviews are mainly contributed by authors from developed economies such as the USA and the UK. Oppositely, scholars from China and Japan are unlikely to contribute to book reviews.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

The Web of Science category information was retrieved on 17th October, 2016.

The number of general articles began to surpass book reviews from 2013 in A&HCI index.

Information Science & Library Science is a SSCI category, 44,207 out of 52,097 (84.86%) book reviews in this category were published in the Library Journal. For more information about this journal, please refer to : http://lj.libraryjournal.com/ .

East, J. W. (2011). The scholarly book review in the humanities: An academic Cinderella? Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 43 (1), 52–67. doi: 10.3138/jsp.43.1.52 .

Google Scholar  

Gorraiz, J., Gumpenberger, C., & Purnell, P. J. (2014). The power of book reviews: A simple and transparent enhancement approach for book citation indexes. Scientometrics, 98 (2), 841–852. doi: 10.1007/s11192-013-1176-4 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Guan, J. C., Yan, Y., & Zhang, J. J. (2015). How do collaborative features affect scientific output? Evidences from wind power field. Scientometrics, 102 (1), 333–355. doi: 10.1007/s11192-014-1311-x .

Hartley, J. (2006). Reading and writing book reviews across the disciplines. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57 (9), 1194–1207. doi: 10.1002/asi.20399 .

Hartley, J. (2010). The anatomy of a book review. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 40 (4), 473–487. doi: 10.2190/TW.40.4.g .

Hartley, J., Cowan, J., Deeson, C., & Thomas, P. (2016). Book reviews in time. Scientometrics, . doi: 10.1007/s11192-016-2114-z .

Karaulova, M., Gök, A., Shackleton, O., & Shapira, P. (2016). Science system path-dependencies and their influences: nanotechnology research in Russia. Scientometrics, 107 (2), 645–670. doi: 10.1007/s11192-016-1916-3 .

Kindle, P. A. (2015). Teaching students to write book reviews. Contemporary Rural Social Work, 7 (2), 135–141.

Liu, W. (2016). Comments on “a comparative analysis of scientific publications in management journals by authors from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau: 2003–2012”. Scientometrics, 106 (3), 1269–1272. doi: 10.1007/s11192-015-1809-x .

Lee, A. D., Green, B. N., Johnson, C. D., & Nyquist, J. (2010). How to write a scholarly book review for publication in a peer-reviewed journal: A review of the literature. Journal of Chiropractic Education, 24 (1), 57–69. doi: 10.7899/1042-5055-24.1.57 .

Liu, W., Gu, M., Hu, G., Li, C., Liao, H., Tang, L., et al. (2014). Profile of developments in biomass-based bioenergy research: a 20-year perspective. Scientometrics, 99 (2), 507–521. doi: 10.1007/s11192-013-1152-z .

Liu, W., Hu, G., & Gu, M. (2016). The probability of publishing in first-quartile journals. Scientometrics, 106 (3), 1273–1276. doi: 10.1007/s11192-015-1821-1 .

Liu, W. S., Hu, G. Y., Tang, L., & Wang, Y. D. (2015a). China’s global growth in social science research: Uncovering evidence from bibliometric analyses of SSCI publications (1978–2013). Journal of Informetrics, 9 (3), 555–569. doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2015.05.007 .

Liu, W., & Liao, H. (2016). A bibliometric analysis of fuzzy decision research during 1970–2015. International Journal of Fuzzy Systems, . doi: 10.1007/s40815-016-0272-z .

Liu, W., Tang, L., Gu, M., & Hu, G. (2015b). Feature report on China: A bibliometric analysis of China-related articles. Scientometrics, 102 (1), 503–517. doi: 10.1007/s11192-014-1371-y .

Oinas, P., & Leppälä, S. (2013). Views on book reviews. Regional Studies, 47 (10), 1785–1789. doi: 10.1080/00343404.2013.856530 .

Sun, Y., & Grimes, S. (2016). The emerging dynamic structure of national innovation studies: A bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics, 106 (1), 17–40. doi: 10.1007/s11192-015-1778-0 .

Tan, J., Fu, H.-Z., & Ho, Y.-S. (2014). A bibliometric analysis of research on proteomics in Science Citation Index Expanded. Scientometrics, 98 (2), 1473–1490. doi: 10.1007/s11192-013-1125-2 .

Tang, L., Shapira, P., & Youtie, J. (2015). Is there a clubbing effect underlying Chinese research citation Increases? Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66 (9), 1923–1932. doi: 10.1002/asi.23302 .

Yu, D. J., Li, D. F., Merigo, J. M., & Fang, L. C. (2016). Mapping development of linguistic decision making studies. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, 30 (5), 2727–2736. doi: 10.3233/ifs-152026 .

Zhou, P., & Leydesdorff, L. (2006). The emergence of China as a leading nation in science. Research Policy, 35 (1), 83–104. doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2005.08.006 .

Zhou, P., Thijs, B., & Glanzel, W. (2009). Is China also becoming a giant in social sciences? Scientometrics, 79 (3), 593–621. doi: 10.1007/s11192-007-2068-x .

Zuccala, A., & van Leeuwen, T. (2011). Book reviews in humanities research evaluations. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62 (10), 1979–1991. doi: 10.1002/asi.21588 .

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by National Social Science Foundation of China (#16ZD08, #13AZD072, and #12AZD046). All the views expressed herein are those of the authors who also take full responsibility for any errors. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewer for his (her) constructive comments and kindly help in editing the language of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Information Management and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, 310018, Zhejiang, China

Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200052, China

Yishan Ding & Mengdi Gu

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Weishu Liu .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Liu, W., Ding, Y. & Gu, M. Book reviews in academic journals: patterns and dynamics. Scientometrics 110 , 355–364 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2172-2

Download citation

Received : 28 September 2016

Published : 10 November 2016

Issue Date : January 2017

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2172-2

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Book review
• Academic journal
• Web of Science
• Sciences and social sciences
• Arts and humanities

JEL Classification

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

• Harvard Library
• Research Guides
• Faculty of Arts & Sciences Libraries

Finding Book Reviews

Introduction, basic sources.

• Additional Sources
• 18th-19th Century British Book Reviews
• Major Review Periodicals and their Indexes

This guide is intended to help Harvard students and faculty find book reviews. Book reviews are published in general/popular magazines (e.g., Newsweek ), scholarly journals (e.g., British Journal for the History of Science ), and in book review periodicals ( New York Review of Books ). The reviews may be brief summaries or long scholarly evaluations.

Find them by consulting periodical indexes and book review indexes. This guide lists some of the major general indexes which include book reviews. Many periodical indexes index book reviews; others do not. See Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe) for general periodical indexes which may index book reviews. Research guides to specialized periodical indexes are listed in the Introduction to Finding Articles in General and Popular Periodicals (North America and Western Europe) .

Online resources are available through Harvard Library (Harvard ID and PIN required) unless otherwise indicated.

If you want scholarly evaluative book reviews, you may wish to omit reviews in: American Libraries , Booklist , Choice , Library Journal , Publishers Weekly . These reviews do provide good short statements of the subjects of books.

HOLLIS In the Catalog+Articles search, enter the title of your book in quotes ("").  If the title is short and insufficient to specify the book, add the author's name. If there are too many other kinds of articles, choose Reviews under Resource Type on the left side of the screen. Example: Emigrants Sebald.

Academic Search Premier (EBSCOHost) coverage is, largely, from the 1980s to the present. For book reviews enter author and title words. Thus, "Buell and imagination" for reviews of Lawrence Buell's The Environmental Imagination . Results can be limited to book reviews by using the Document Type limitation, but this may exclude some articles of interest, e.g., interviews with the author, which are not strictly speaking book reviews.

Citation Indexes (Web of Science) . Choose General Search. You may enter the authors last name and a word or words from the title. Thus for W. G. Sebald's Vertigo , search Sebald and Vertigo. You may limit to Book Reviews using "Restrict search by languages and document types:". A guide is available: Searching the Citation Indexes (Web of Science) . The Web of Science comprises three indexes: Science Citation Index, (1900- ), Social Sciences Citation Index (1956- ) and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1975- ). The indexed journals are listed by subject categories in the Thomson Master Journal List .

H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences (1994- ) offers online reviews of academic books.

JSTOR contains full text book reviews for over 200 journals in many subjects. Journals are covered from their date of inception to around 5 years ago. Choose Search JSTOR, then enter search in the form <rt:book title ra:book author>. Thus, for MacArthur and Wilson's Theory of Island Biogeography search: ra:MacArthur rt:biogeography.

Periodicals Index Online includes several thousand general/humanities/social sciences journals indexed from their dates of inception to 1995.

• Next: Additional Sources >>
• Last Updated: Nov 4, 2023 9:05 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/bookreviews

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

Title of message

Here is the body of the message. You can remove the title if you don't want it. You can also style the content and add links. Comment out the code not in use.

Library and Information Science

• Books and eBooks
• Citating Sources
• LIS Workshop

Review Sources for Library and Information Science Module

This video will provide information about some of the library and information science review source databases available at Rebecca Crown Library.

Review Sources

• Social Science Premium Collection This link opens in a new window The Social Science Premium Collection provides abstracts, indexing, and full-text coverage of journal articles, books, dissertations, and more, including over 4,300 full-text titles. (From the publisher.)

• << Previous: Articles
• Next: Websites >>
• Last Updated: Mar 25, 2024 9:27 AM
• URL: https://research.dom.edu/LIS

REBECCA CROWN LIBRARY 7900 West Division Street River Forest, IL 60305

• Website Feedback

Book Reviews: A Finding Guide: Online Resources

• Introduction

Online Resources

• Print Resources
• Resources by Date
• Need Help? Ask A Librarian
• Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) Covers 1975 to date with some earlier coverage. Academic Search Premier indexes more than 13,000 journals and magazines with the full text of 4,700 titles. To limit your search to reviews, on the Advanced Search page, under Document Type, you can choose Book Reviews.
• Amazon Free online resource. Date coverage unknown. Primarily a bookselling site, Amazon.com sometimes includes the full text of some published book reviews--"Editorial reviews". Their "Search inside the book" function allows viewing of selected, scanned pages--usually the covers, table of contents, index, and an excerpt from the main text. Also includes user reviews, of highly variable quality and usefulness. Overall, a very useful site for evaluating recent trade and academic books. Access to the scanned table of contents and index is very useful for nonfiction titles.
• America: History & Life Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio. Covers 1954 to date. Book reviews in U.S. and Canadian history only. Indexes about 6,000 book and media reviews from over one hundred academic journals. NB: there are no reviews in the sister database, Historical Abstracts. To limit your search to reviews, enter the book title in quotes in the default Advanced Search box.
• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) (Part of ProQuest One Literature ) Covers 1920 to date. "ABELL, which can be accessed via the Criticism screen in Literature Online's Search: Criticism and Reference, contains more than 860,000 records covering monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews , collections of essays and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world; unpublished doctoral dissertations are covered for the period 1920-1999. The bibliography consists of 77 volumes, beginning in 1920 and issued annually; a number of items published between 1892 and 1919 have been indexed retrospectively. All aspects and periods of English literature are covered, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. British, American and Commonwealth writing are all represented. Coverage is international.
• Articles & Full Text This powerful search engine works across many databases and pulls together a wide variety of resources. Enter a book title in the search box to find reviews.
• ATLA Religion Database [S.l.]: American Theological Library Association. Covers 1949 to date. Book reviews in religion only. Incorporates the printed Index to Book Reviews in Religion (IBRR). Primarily academic titles. Book Review Digest Plus is canceled. For online searching, use Academic Search Premier's Advanced Search and choose Book Reviews under Document Type.
• Bowker's Books in Print New York: R. R. Bowker. Coverage limited to titles in print or recently out of print. A database of bibliographic records for books, audiotapes, and videos from over 44,000 North American publishers. Many records include full-text reviews. Titles with reviews are starred. Click on the book title to open the record, then click on the "Professional reviews" link at left. The full record also may have synopses/annotations, book jacket text, media mentions, and a list of awards.
• caa. reviews (College Art Association) Coverage begins online in September, 1998 . caa.reviews "publishes timely scholarly and critical reviews of studies and projects in all areas and periods of art history, visual studies, and the fine arts, providing peer review for the disciplines served by the College Art Association. Publications and projects reviewed include books, articles, exhibitions, conferences, digital scholarship, and other works as appropriate" [Mission Statement]
• Cairn.info: cherchez, repérer, avance French-language collection of journals and magazines. To find books reviewed, search the title of the book.
• Choice A searchable journal of reliable reviews of academic books for community college, college, and university libraries. Covers 01/01/2011 to date. Older reviews are available in the print version . Published by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL).
• IBR: International Bibliography of Book Reviews. Osnabrück, Germany: F. Dietrich. Covers 1988 to date; see the print version (Olin Stacks + AI 9 .I612) for earlier coverage; print version canceled in 2011. Emphasis on reviews appearing in European social sciences and humanities journals. German or English interface. For coverage of 1911-1943, see Bibliographie der Rezensionen under the print resources section in this guide.
• JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive A large collection of searchable and browseable full-text scholarly journals. Covers from the beginning of the journal (earliest is 1665) up to within two to five years of the present [the "moving wall": https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/115004879547-About-the-Moving-Wall ]. To find book reviews, select Advanced Search . In the Advanced Search page, type one or two keywords from the book title in the first search box. Under Narrow Your Search to "These Types," check the Review box. Click Search.
• Latin American Newsstream ProQuest Coverage and format: Mostly mid 2000s to date, some coverage from the late 1990s. Plain text. In English, French, Guarani, Portuguese, and Spanish. 92 titles from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.
• Latino Book Review Covers 2019 to date.
• Library Literature & Information Science Index Covers book reviews in library and information science periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere. Indexing starts in 1981.
• London Review of Books Covers 1979 to date.
• New York Review of Books Covers February 1, 1963 to date.
• New York Times Book Review Covers January 3, 1988 to date . Access via the ProQuest publications list.
• Oxford Bibliographies [Online] Oxford University Press. Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies (essentially thumbnail reviews) of books and journals on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. There are at least 50 specific topical bibliographies in each subject area. Each of these features an introduction to the topic. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable. Contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
• Periodicals Index Online [was PCI: Periodical Contents Index] Covers 1770-1993. Searches can be restricted to book reviews only. Click the box under "Scope" on the search page. Provides comprehensive indexing to the contents of 4,250 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues (some as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries) to 1993. The scope is international, including journals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and other Western languages. Journals that are indexed in PCI which have full text available in JSTOR are linked at article level.
• Project MUSE Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Coverage varies by title, beginning no earlier than 1993, and running through the current issue. Project MUSE covers the full text of over 200 journals in literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and others. To find book reviews, choose Advanced Search and use the pulldown menu under Limit Search and By Type to select Review.
• ProQuest Digitized Newspapers Links to 36 major and regional U.S., Canadian, and UK newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. Coverage starts from 1/1/2008 with a three-month embargo on full text.
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers Coverage varies by title but begins with the first year of publication. Full image access to reviews appearing in major U.S. and international newspapers. Useful for access to the drawings and illustrations that sometimes accompany New York Times reviews as well as reviews in Le Monde, the Irish Times, and the Globe and Mail. Searches by document type can only be limited to "reviews." This includes theatrical and musical reviews.
• ProQuest Recent Newspapers: Regional Collections Links to five multi-title regional newspaper collections covering 30 newspapers in all. Coverage starts from either 1/1/2008, 1/1/2009, 1/1/2010, 1/1/2011, or 1/1/2012 with a two-week to three-month embargo on full text.
• ProQuest Research Library Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Coverage varies . Indexes general interest magazines and scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities, and sciences. Also included are citations and abstracts for some newspapers and selected television and radio programs. The full text of some articles is provided. Under Document type you can click Reviews to limit your search results.
• Reader's Guide Retrospective,1890 to 1982 Bronx, NY: H.W. Wilson and Ipswich, MA: EBSCO Publishing. Book reviews appearing in popular magazines. Entries are sometimes labeled Book Review or Review. Beware of alternate spellings of international authors' names.
• Reference Reviews Europe Online Firenze: Casalini Libri. Covers 1994 to 2014 . "Each year Reference Reviews Europe offers around 300 English-language reviews of European reference titles. The journal is published in two forms: the electronic Reference Reviews Europe Online (RREO) and the printed Reference Reviews Europe Annual (RREA) (Uris Z 1002 .R32, 1995-, latest volume in Olin Reference). Much of the content consists of abstracts in English of reviews that originally appeared in the German journal Informationsmittel : IFB (IFB) [previous title Informationsmittel für Bibliotheken ]. IFB, edited by Klaus Schreiber of the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart, and formerly published by the Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut in Berlin, currently is available only online. Since its inception in 1993, it has reviewed more than 500 titles per year, covering reference materials in all subjects and formats. Although German-language publications predominate in IFB, titles in other European languages, including French, Icelandic, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish are also covered. The reviewers for IFB are mostly German librarians and academics. The abstractors for Reference Reviews Europe are mainly North American librarians." [adapted from the RREO Website ]
• Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive Covers 1902 to 2014 .
• TLS, the Times Literary Supplement Covers 2010 to date via Exact Editions.
• Web of Science Core Collection Philadelphia: Institute for Scientific Information. Web of Science Core Collection includes Science Citation Index (1945 to date) , Social Sciences Citation Index (1956 to date) , Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975 to date) , and more. A multi-disciplinary set of databases indexing thousands of titles. To limit your search to book reviews, select Advanced Search and highlight "Book review" in the box under "Restrict search by languages and document types."
• << Previous: Introduction
• Next: Print Resources >>
• Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 2:10 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/bookreviews

• Information and Knowledge Management
• Vol 4, Issue 2, 2023

A Book Review of "The Five Laws of Library Science"

DOI: 10.23977/infkm.2023.040201 | Downloads: 24 | Views: 425

Ming Fang 1

Affiliation(s)

1 Library, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, China

Corresponding Author

The Five Laws of Library Science, developed by S.R. Ranganathan, provide a foundation for understanding the principles of effective library service. This article explores how librarians can improve their services by applying these laws. The first law, "Books are for use," highlights the importance of user-centered service, while the second law, "Every reader his or her book," emphasizes the importance of collection development. The third law, "Every book its reader," reminds librarians to provide inclusive and diverse collections that meet the needs of all users. The fourth law, "Save the time of the reader," focuses on the importance of efficiency and convenience in library service, while the fifth law, "The library is a growing organism," emphasizes the need for libraries to adapt and innovate to meet the changing needs of their communities. By applying these principles, librarians can create libraries that are responsive, inclusive, and dynamic, and provide valuable resources and services to users of all backgrounds and abilities.

CITE THIS PAPER

Ming Fang, A Book Review of "The Five Laws of Library Science". Information and Knowledge Management (2023) Vol. 4: 1-5. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/infkm.2023.040201.

[1] Ranganathan S. R. (1931). The Five Laws of Library Science. Madras Library Association. [2] Singh P. & Singh M. (2009). The Five Laws of Library Science: An Overview. International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology, 1(1), 52-56. [3] Sharma C. (2015). The Five Laws of Library Science: A Framework for Improving Library Services. International Journal of Library Science and Research, 5(1), 13-21. [4] Singh P. (2017). Five Laws of Library Science: An Assessment of Their Relevance in Digital Age. Library Philosophy and Practice, 1-11. [5] Chowdhury G. G. (2020). Five Laws of Library Science. In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (pp. 2002-2009). CRC Press. [6] Bawden D. (2007). Revisiting the Five Laws of Library Science. Journal of Documentation, 63(4), 577-590. [7] Kumar S. (2012). Five Laws of Library Science: An Overview. Library Philosophy and Practice, 1-5. [8] Bhat I. A. (2014). The Five Laws of Library Science: Their Continued Relevance in the Digital Age. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 34(4), 255-261. [9] Chowdhury S. (2011). The Five Laws of Library Science in the Digital Era. Journal of Library and Information Science, 1(1), 33-36. [10] Saravanan S. & Gopalakrishnan S. (2013). Five Laws of Library Science Revisited. International Journal of Information Science and Management, 11(1), 1-10.

Sponsors, Associates, and Links

• Open Access
• Author Guidelines
• Librarian Guidelines
• Propose a New Journal
• Call for Special Issue Proposals
• Join Reviewer Team
• Join Editorial Board
• Join Editor-in-chief Group
• Responsibilities
• Qualification & Requirement

PUBLICATION SERVICES

• Special Issues
• Proceedings
• Clausius Scientific Press Inc.
• CANADA Office
• CHINA Office
• United Kingdom Office
• HONGKONG Office

All published work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

Book review - Foundations of Library and Information Science

(Note: I read this book in September and originally wrote this review in October, but it’s taken me a while to proofread and post it.)

Title: Foundations of Library and Information Science

Author: Richard E. Rubin, Rachel G. Rubin

How I learned about it: Similar to Looking for Information , I searched Goodreads, and the reviews overall seemed better than the alternative intro textbooks.

Would I recommend: Sooooooo……it’s an intro textbook to LIS. If you want that, you’ll get that. I can’t really say I enjoyed reading it, but I definitely learned a lot of things. The references and per-chapter bibliographies are arguably the most useful part. If you can read enough other books to cover all of the topics that you can avoid reading an intro textbook altogether, that sounds preferable.

General comments

I did not enjoy this book very much, and I thought it was pretty lacking as far as textbooks go, though maybe some of my complaints are because it’s not intended to be read cover-to-cover, which is what I did. Before I go into complaints about, though, I want to emphasize that I did indeed learn a lot from this book. In particular, chapters 2 (history of the library from ancient times to present), 6 (organization and classification schema), and 8 (information policy in the United States) were of particular interest to me. Chapter 7 (information science) would have been as well, except I already read Looking for Information (and actually after finishing Foundations of Library and Information Science , the next book I read was an information policy book, so that made chapter 8 a bit redundant as well).

Surface-level complaints

These are just issues I had with presentation of the material. Some of them are minor, while some of them had a very large (negative) impact on my reading the book.

• None of the “vocabulary” terms was ever bolded. This was so frustrating! You would think an intro textbook would convey “hey, this word/person/organization/place/bill/court case/etc” is pretty important, but nope! They italicized some stuff here and there, but not enough for me to think that it was a consistent effort to convey to the reader “hi, important terms are emphasized all the time, always.”
• There was no glossary.
• There was no list of acronyms/initialisms. At first I thought this might be an unreasonable complaint, like, who makes a list of acronyms? but then the very next book I started reading, Foundations of Information Policy, (which is great by the way!) literally has an acronym list at the start of the book. Not even at the end as an appendix, but at the start, so you can’t miss it.
• The index sucks. Like, not only is there not a list of acronyms, but the acronyms aren’t spelled out in the index for you. Also, it’s missing references - for example, ALISE is discussed on pages 287 and 302, both of which are not present in the index (I know this offhand because I wrote that in myself. I also wrote in a bunch of acronyms myself.).
• Most of their numbered lists are written in paragraph form, which is maybe ok if you’re an academic paper, but super annoying if you’re an intro textbook (an example can be found on page 312, with a list of five myths about millennials).
• Speaking of numbered lists, very frequently they will say something like “three services” and then give an UNORDERED list of the services (this example is from page 71).
• Still speaking of numbered lists, on at least one occasion, their headings are off-by-one from an introduced numbered list - in chapter 6, they promise to discuss five foundational areas, which they number 1-5. Then they begin discussing these in section II. I cry.
• They overuse “nineteenth century” and “twentieth century” - once even saying something like “second decade of the twentieth century,” though I can’t find the page number of that anymore. Again, this is an intro textbook, please just say 1800s, 1900s, etc, every time. You don’t need flowery prose, you need clarity.

Content complaints

Overall, the book was just pretty repetitive. Like I said, I’m not sure if it’s intended to be read in its entirety; if most curricula include only a couple chapters of it, then I guess the repetition makes sense. But it repeated discussions of social justice (but only mentioned “critical librarianship” once), censorship, privacy, and several other broad, relevant topics that are very buzzword-y. It felt like a better-organized and more tightly-edited book would not need to spend the time on these topics all over the place in the same way, but maybe the repetition was a deliberate choice to keep people’s interest specifically because of the topicality of the issues? Either way, I wasn’t a fan.

This next issue is rather inherent to introductory textbooks I think, but there are also a lot of instances of there being an interesting topic for a few paragraphs that then devolves into a laundry list of institutions, dates, and specific contributions that I’m certainly not going to care about or remember (or, let’s be honest, even really read the first time). I would like for these somewhat-useless lists to be shown in charts so that I can ignore them completely when I don’t care (or memorize them if I’m actually in an LIS class that’s making me learn them? Flashbacks to seventh-grade explorer charts), but that’s maybe a bit impractical to do all the time. One example is on page 348, where there’s a discussion of coded bibliographic records and the challenges one faces when trying to create these. Then the last paragraph of the page starts with, “Other groups that worked to improve bibliographic access included…” and I stop caring.

Unfortunately, the authors sometimes mix interesting and relevant information into their laundry lists of organizations, acronyms, dates, and other details that should really be charts off to the side that the reader can ignore. As a result, the reader has to at least skim every laundry-list paragraph to make sure they aren’t missing information, which is pretty frustrating.

I also made notes while I was reading of specific things that I thought should have been mentioned but weren’t.

• Page 40 - They cite an essay from Library as Place but fail to mention the original book that the essay was discussing or even the name Ray Oldenburg .
• Page 144 - They characterize SciHub as if it’s a venture-capitalist for-profit website. Not cool.
• Pages 212-213 - When discussing “the urgency to apply preservation techniques to digital items” they don’t provide any concrete example of a technology that was discontinued. This edition was published in 2020, and by that point they could have mentioned Adobe Flash , which would have illustrated their point perfectly.
• Pages 244-245 - The first part is not a complaint, just an observation of how quickly content can get outdated - Yahoo! Answers no longer exists! The second part is a complaint, though; reddit should absolutely be on their list of “Social Question and Answering Services,” for two reasons: first, the AskReddit subreddit, and second, the AskHistorians subreddit. The latter is possibly the single best-moderated space on the entire internet for getting an indepth answer researched by experts. It’s an incredible community.
• Page 273 - The Library Bureau isn’t mentioned as one of Melvil Dewey ’s accomplishments, though it is brought up later, on page 346.
• Page 408-409 - In a discussion of “ Big Data ,” privacy, and related policy concerns, the GDPR isn’t mentioned even in passing, though it does come up on page 454.
• Page 446 - Ajit Pai isn’t mentioned in a discussion about the FCC and net neutrality and the 2018 decision

Further reading

As I said before, the citations and per-chapter bibliographies / further reading lists are among the best parts of this book. I bought several books from these lists, and here I’m including a list of some of the books I bought; I haven’t read all of these yet, so I’ll make a note of the ones I have read already.

• Free to All: Carnegie Libraries & American Culture, 1890-1920 - my review
• The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism - I’ve read part of this as of posting this review
• Fundamentals of Electronic Resources Management - I’ve read part of this as of posting this review
• Exploring Digital Libraries: Foundations, Practice, Prospects
• Relationships in the Organization of Knowledge
• Looking for Information - my review
• The Elements of User Experience - my review
• Foundations of Information Policy - I read this, but haven’t posted a review yet

I’m definitely glad I spent the time to read this book, and if you’re interested in knowledge management I think it’s valuable to learn about libraries, which are the traditional cultural centers of knowledge. Maybe it’s not worth reading cover to cover, but there’s a lot of information included, and any chapters you decide to spend time on will teach you something!

• Book review - The Elements of User Experience
• Book review - Free to All
• Book review - Celebration, U.S.A.
• Book review - Library as Place
• Book review & notes - Looking for Information

What's on this Page

Introduction to Library and Information Science

(2 reviews)

Reed Hepler, College of Southern Idaho

David Horalek, College of Southern Idaho

Copyright Year: 2023

Publisher: College of Southern Idaho Pressbooks Network (CSI)

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Kathy Evans, Reference & Archive Librarian, Shenandoah University on 11/10/23

This textbook is logically organized, with distinctive chapters covering essential practices of librarianship. Hepler and Horalek do not offer an index in this introductory text. The authors define key concepts within the text, and those words are... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This textbook is logically organized, with distinctive chapters covering essential practices of librarianship. Hepler and Horalek do not offer an index in this introductory text. The authors define key concepts within the text, and those words are conveniently bolded and offer a "pop-out" definition. Unfortunately, these concepts are not in a glossary of terms or a helpful index. However, the text is searchable as an eBook.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

The text reads accurately in regards to librarianship. Some wording in the texts indicates bias. For example, the authors describe OCLC as a monopoly. Which is arguably true, but is it necessary to state that? The authors mention "publisher's whims." Whims? Another word may be more appropriate. Curiously, there is no mention of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Chapter 2 – History of Libraries.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Overall, the text is straightforward and relevant to the subject. Updates should be relatively easy, given the organization and format of the information.

Clarity rating: 4

Current terms may help clarify the different aspects of librarianship and library services. Some sections are wordy and lack confidence in the subject discussed, while others seem almost rushed.

Consistency rating: 4

The text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework. As mentioned under clarity, more current descriptions of library services could be added to the text to clarify the terminology used.

Modularity rating: 5

The authors do a good job organizing the sections into readable chunks of information.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The authors organized the textbook logically.

Interface rating: 5

The interface is easy to navigate. The self-check modules at the end of each section are helpful, albeit clunky, to use.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

The text is wordy in the delivery of the material covered. Some language seems too familiar when presenting the information. Several punctuation errors are apparent.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The authors address the importance of diversity, inclusion, and equity in library collections.

Introduction to Library and Information Science could be a helpful textbook with some added proofreading and revisions.

Reviewed by Taylor Tharpe, Research & Digital Services Librarian, Longwood University on 7/18/23

In Part I of the textbook, the author offers consistent definitions of certain terms, such as data, knowledge, and information. The author does a great job of providing helpful resources and information to go hand-in-hand with each... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

In Part I of the textbook, the author offers consistent definitions of certain terms, such as data, knowledge, and information. The author does a great job of providing helpful resources and information to go hand-in-hand with each chapter/section. However, some of the material that is questioned in the interactive quizzes are not mentioned in that particular section.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I noticed no bias while reading this textbook. All information is presented in an accurate and unbiased manner.

The majority of the content was relevant and up to date.

Clarity rating: 5

This textbook is written in accessible prose and provides a disclaimer and instructions for the interactive features that accompany each section/chapter.

Consistency rating: 5

The textbook is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Textbook is broken into three different parts, that can be separated to support different units of a course or class.

The topics presented are organized in an understandable manner. They flow together nicely.

Interface rating: 4

Pictures and graphs could use some formatting work as the some of the captions aren't directly under the image, but I think this just depends on how you are viewing the textbook. The online version of the textbook is much more user-friendly than the PDF version.

Grammatical Errors rating: 2

This textbook makes many grammatical errors. This includes capitalization, sentence structure, spelling, misusing, etc. I counted numerous errors throughout the entire text.

The author touches on the subject of demographics and knowing how to serve patrons regardless of ethnic group, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. The textbook also has a section on DEI and how important it is for libraries to acquire materials and hold events that meet the DEI initiative.

The author focuses more on the application of skills associated with working within the library field, rather than just lecturing about library theory. However, the author also mentions using ChatGPT, which doesn't seem very reliable to me.

Table of Contents

• Data, Information, and Knowledge
• History of Libraries
• Library Services
• Acquisitions
• Collection Development 
• Classficiation and Cataloging 
• Facilities and Funding
• Circulation
• Reference Librarianship 
• Preservation
• Intellectual Freedom
• Digitial Initiatives and Library 2.0
• Representation in the Library
• Patron Services
• Reader's Advisory
• The Modern Library Experience

Ancillary Material

About the book.

This book explores the history, present, and future of library science, both in theory and in practice. It examines the place of the librarian as arbiter of information access in a constantly-changing and modernizing global community.

About the Contributors

Reed Hepler , College of Southern Idaho

David Horalek , College of Southern Idaho

Contribute to this Page

Ask Yale Library

My Library Accounts

Find, Request, and Use

Help and Research Support

Visit and Study

Explore Collections

Finding Book Reviews in the Sciences: Journals to Browse for Book Reviews

• Finding Book Reviews in Articles+
• Journals to Browse for Book Reviews
• Web Sites for Book Reviews
• Book Review Index 1965-2008
• The New York Review of Books 1963-
• Choice Reviews

Journal List

• General Purpose
• Life Sciences
• Physical & Applied Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Mathematics

American Scientist

Library Journal

New Scientist

New York Review of Books

Reference & User Services Quarterly

Science News

Scientific American (October: Recommended Books)

American Biology Teacher

American Entomologist

BioScience (not every issue)

Bulletin - Entomological Society of Canada

Canadian Field-Naturalist

Condor: Bulletin of the Cooper Ornithological Club

Economic Botany

Electronic Green Journal

Journal of Mammalogy

Kew Bulletin

Marine Mammal Science

Plant Science Bulletin

Quarterly Review of Biology

T.L.S. (Times Literary Supplement)

The best way to locate book reviews in physics journals is to use a database like the Web of Science, located at webofknowledge.com . From the main screen, click on the Advanced Search tab.

Your main search will follow the example, such as TS=(quantum mechanics). Restrict the results to the Book Review type.

It is likely that you will not go directly to the search results. The Web of Science will show you a Search History preview. Click on the number of results for your latest search to see them.

This search yielded 378 results. You can click on the Yale Links button to find a copy of the review at Yale or click on an item title to read more about it. 

Here are some of the journals represented in the results:

• Philosophy of Science
• British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
• Contemporary Physics
• Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
• Physics Today
• American Journal of Physics
• Current Science
• Nuclear Physics

Of course, if you search for something else — like  cosmology  (or  cosmolog* , which will catch more forms of the word), string theory, telescopes, colliders, and other topics (either using the topic search or the all fields search), the journals that come up may be a bit different. The important thing to do is to explore your options!

Some publications may not be indexed in the Web of Science. Here are a few more resources to explore:

• Physics Education
• Physics World Magazine

There are two major ways to find book reviews you need in Earth sciences journals. (If you're looking for introductory content or don't know if the review for a  specific book title  will be in a scholarly journal or not, please see the tabs on finding book reviews in Articles+ and Choice Reviews.) The first is to use the GeoScienceWorld platform, and the second is to use the Web of Science.

Outside of databases, a good, general-purpose place to explore book reviews is the AGU portal on the Wiley Online Library. You can search for the book title or a topic with the words  book review  included in the search.

GeoScienceWorld

Go to the GeoScienceWorld.org main page . From there, use either the basic search or the advanced search to query the topic you need. From here, there are two basic things you need to do to find all book reviews on your topic.

When you search, first add book review . Some items ingested into GeoScienceWorld have not been tagged as book reviews even though they are; this is because GeoScienceWorld is aggregating information from many sources. If you search for  Cambrian book review , you will see results like this:

Second, you can just do a basic search for something like  Cambrian Explosion  and select Article Type — Book Review on the lefthand side. That will catch most of the remaining reviews.

Web of Science

The Web of Science Advanced Search will help you find book reviews in the scholarly literature. If we do a search for the word  Cambrian  in the advanced search like so:

and we see 28 results for this search, most of them in the geosciences. 

Here are some of the journals represented:

• Geographical Journal
• American Historical Review
• Annals of Science
• Geological Magazine

The journals you find will vary depending on the topic you are searching for.

MathSciNet, the premier literature database in mathematics, makes it possible to look at book reviews in the search. The following search is for  fractal*  (where the * serves as a wild card to include other forms of the word). 

Use the drop-down menu to select where you want your search term to appear — such as "anywhere" — and choose the publication type "Books" from the radio menu just below.

Once on the results list, use the left-hand filters to narrow down to "Reviewed." The reviews you see will be a mix of peer reviews from MathSciNet and publishers' descriptions (from a publication's table of contents).

For popular works, we recommend looking at the tabs Finding Book Reviews in Articles+ and Web Sites for Book Reviews. If you would like more assistance locating books in mathematics, please contact our mathematics librarian, Andy Shimp ([email protected]), who contributed content for this page.

• << Previous: Finding Book Reviews in Articles+
• Next: Web Sites for Book Reviews >>
• Last Updated: Dec 18, 2023 10:20 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.yale.edu/sciencebookreviews

Site Navigation

P.O. BOX 208240 New Haven, CT 06250-8240 (203) 432-1775

Yale's Libraries

Bass Library

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Classics Library

Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

Divinity Library

East Asia Library

Gilmore Music Library

Haas Family Arts Library

Lewis Walpole Library

Lillian Goldman Law Library

Marx Science and Social Science Library

Sterling Memorial Library

Yale Center for British Art

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

@YALELIBRARY

Yale Library Instagram

Accessibility       Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion      Giving       Privacy and Data Use      Contact Our Web Team    

© 2022 Yale University Library • All Rights Reserved

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Book Title: Introduction to Library and Information Science

Authors: Reed Hepler and David Horalek

Download this book

• Digital PDF
• Pressbooks XML
• WordPress XML
• OpenDocument
• Common Cartridge (Web Links)

Book Description: This book explores the history, present, and future of library science, both in theory and in practice. It examines the place of the librarian as arbiter of information access in a constantly-changing and modernizing global community.

Book Information

Introduction to Library and Information Science Copyright © 2023 by College of Southern Idaho is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Library and information services

Library Science and How to Become a Librarian

A master's degree in library science or information studies is necessary for most librarian jobs.

How to Become a Librarian

Getty Images

An inquisitive mindset is a beneficial character trait for a future librarian, since the mission of libraries is to encourage intellectual exploration.

Someone who enjoys sharing knowledge with others may like the idea of working in a library, since that is a place where visitors often seek answers to questions.

In those scenarios, librarians become sleuths, using their investigative skills to find whatever is sought after whether a particular fact or an amalgamation of all the credible scholarship on a specific topic.

There are also situations where librarians help people locate one-of-a-kind items such as authenticated historical manuscripts or genuine legal documents. Though it may not be possible to gain direct access to the original versions of rare objects, reliable copies are often available via digital archives. Librarians are skilled at discovering valuable resources in places where others might not think to look.

These information professionals often have a significant amount of authority, since they frequently choose which items are included and excluded within a particular library. Making that decision in an informed and thoughtful way requires encyclopedic knowledge about old and new publications.

Perceptiveness about people is helpful because librarians who understand the needs and wants of their patrons are more likely to provide helpful recommendations.

Why People Choose to Become Librarians

"Although the common perception is that people choose to become librarians because they love books, in reality what we see in our students – who often do love books – is the desire to become a librarian because of a passionate commitment to service, learning and community engagement," wrote Maria Bonn, an associate professor at University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign's School of Information Sciences .

"Librarianship is both a service and a leadership profession, offering many opportunities to both assist the community and its members by meeting information needs and to shape and guide that community," adds Bonn, the program director of her school's Master of Science program in library and information science.

"People who are innately curious about the world find this field deeply satisfying, as they spend their time helping others explore their questions and find answers," Brian W. Sturm, associate dean for academic affairs with the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science , wrote in an email. "Students are also attracted to our field from a desire to preserve information for future generations."

Julie Peters, director of the James B. Carey Library in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations in New Jersey, says librarianship is a timeless and meaningful profession. "Libraries are not going anywhere," she wrote in an email. "There will always be a need to find, evaluate and organize information so that it can be accessed and used by others."

What Library Science Is and How to Study It

Library science is an academic discipline that is sometimes referred to as information studies. This field focuses on how to classify and use data or objects and emphasizes the importance of preserving knowledge and promoting literacy. Contrary to the myth that libraries are old-fashioned, the academic discipline surrounding the thoughtful management of libraries is not stodgy, explains Peters, who has a master's degree in the field.

"Library science is not about card catalogs and rows of dusty books," she explains. "It's a field that is constantly changing and evolving, as technology creates new strategies for sharing, managing and organizing information."

Specializations within library science often concentrate on how to oversee particular types of libraries, such as legal libraries or public libraries, Peters says. However, regardless of what area of library science a student focuses on, he or she will typically study how humans behave when they seek information and which technologies can help people learn, she says.

Bonn notes that graduates of library science programs don't always wind up working in libraries, since they have skills that are valuable in a variety of industries ranging from publishing to music to technology. "They work for the Culinary Institute of America and National Public Radio," she notes. "The skills that support connecting users with information are in high demand in many settings."

Anind Dey, dean of the University of Washington Information School , explains that library and information schools differ from one another, so content that is emphasized in one school's curriculum might not be highlighted at a different academic institution. Courses at his school cover an array of subjects ranging from the future of libraries to misinformation.

Librarian Qualifications and Job Prospects

Most librarian positions require a master's degree in library science, though a bachelor's degree coupled with a teaching certification may be sufficient for some school library jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Master's programs in library science can usually be finished within two years and some can be finished within a single year.

Some library jobs require a degree from a library school that is accredited by the American Library Association, commonly known as the ALA.

Laura Robinson, the university librarian at Clark University in Massachusetts, says an education in library science can lead to an enjoyable career path.

"Librarianship is a great place to help people, to support communities, and to be always learning and growing," Robinson, who has a master's in library and information science, wrote in an email. "It’s a profession that changes all the time due to all the technology and knowledge that evolves so quickly. It is great for those who are flexible, creative, and endlessly curious. As a librarian for over 20 years my day-to-day work changes on a regular basis."

The BLS predicts that the number of librarians and library media specialists employed in 2029 will be 5% higher than it was in 2019, which is slightly above the average predicted job growth rate for all U.S. occupations within that time frame.

However, aspiring librarians should be aware that paychecks within the profession are generally modest. The median annual salary among U.S. librarians and media collections specialists in 2020 was $60,820, according to bureau statistics.

The ALA Allied Professional Association, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the professional interests of librarians and other library workers, supports initiatives to improve salaries in the profession. But because library positions generally aren't high-paying, prospective library science students should investigate all of their financial aid and scholarship options before applying for a degree in the field, experts say.

Another key fact to keep in mind is that academic libraries often provide higher compensation than public libraries, and library jobs in major metropolitan areas tend to pay better than positions in rural areas, according to the ALA.

Libraries targeted toward a particular group of people frequently pay higher salaries than libraries aimed at a general audience, according to library science faculty. "Corporate information officers at places like Google or Amazon often start at six-figure salaries, archivists and academic librarians may start around $70,000, and public librarians may start around $45,000," Sturm explains.

Libraries sometimes concentrate on a single topic such as art, law or theology, and they occasionally serve the needs of a particular institution such as a hospital, museum or prison. These types of libraries are called special libraries. Librarians who cater to a specific clientele may opt to join the Special Libraries Association, a nonprofit professional organization.

Robinson notes that compensation within library science depends a lot on the type of job someone has. "Many positions pay quite well," she notes, adding that university libraries tend to offer generous vacation and tuition remission benefits. "Librarians also enjoy much personal freedom in the workplace, to create projects, to dress as we wish, and to occasionally have flexible work schedules."

One perk of a career as a librarian is that the job often allows someone to complete a variety of assignments rather than sticking to a single routine and becoming bored by repetition.

"I have worked in archives and special collections, book repair and preservation, taught college students on efficient ways to find high quality information in fields ranging from engineering to English, and collaborated with faculty to build instruction programs and promote their faculty research beyond the 'ivory tower,'" Robinson says.

"There are so many exciting ways to be a librarian. The challenge is getting past the stereotype of the 'shusher' and realizing that this profession is so much more."

Searching for a grad school? Access our complete rankings of Best Graduate Schools.

Grad Degree Jobs With $100K+ Salaries

Tags: libraries , education , students , graduate schools

You May Also Like

Mba programs that lead to good jobs.

Ilana Kowarski and Cole Claybourn April 10, 2024

B-Schools With Racial Diversity

Sarah Wood April 10, 2024

Law Schools That Are Hardest to Get Into

Sarah Wood April 9, 2024

Ask Law School Admissions Officers This

Gabriel Kuris April 9, 2024

Grad School Housing Options

Anayat Durrani April 9, 2024

U.S. News Ranks Best Graduate Schools

MBA Scholarships

Sammy Allen April 4, 2024

Special Master's Programs and Med School

Renee Marinelli, M.D. April 2, 2024

15 Famous Fulbright Scholars

Cole Claybourn April 1, 2024

When to Expect Law School Decisions

Gabriel Kuris April 1, 2024

Harvard Library removes human skin from book binding

Harvard University removed human skin from the binding of "Des Destinées de L'âme" in Houghton Library on Wednesday after a review found ethical concerns with the book's origin and history.

French physician Dr. Ludovic Bouland “bound the book with skin he took without consent from the body of a deceased female patient in a hospital where he worked,” according to Harvard Library .  

Bouland included a handwritten note inside stating that “a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering,” associate university librarian Thomas Hyry said in a published Q&A . The note also detailed the process behind preparing the skin for binding.

The removal was prompted by a library review following the Harvard University report on human remains in its museum collections.

"Harvard Library and the Harvard Museum Collections Returns Committee concluded that the human remains used in the book’s binding no longer belong in the Harvard Library collections, due to the ethically fraught nature of the book’s origins and subsequent history," a statement from the library said Wednesday.

The removed skin is now in "secure storage at Harvard Library," Anne-Marie Eze, Houghton Library associate librarian, said in the Q&A.

The library will be conducting additional research into the book, Bouland and the anonymous female patient. It is also working with French authorities to determine a "final respectful disposition," it said.

Bouland received his copy of "Des Destinées de L'âme," or "Destinies of the Soul," from the author, Arsène Houssaye, in the early 1880s. The book has been in the Harvard Library collection since 1934 on deposit from John B. Stetson Jr., a philanthropist and businessman.

Katherine Itoh is a news associate for NBC News.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

An Appraisal

John Barth, a Novelist Who Found Possibility in a ‘Used-Up’ Form

By merrily using fiction to dissect itself, he was at the vanguard of a movement that defined a postwar American style.

By Dave Kim

Dave Kim is an editor at the Book Review.

Nobody likes the comic who explains his own material, but the writer John Barth, who died on Tuesday , had a way of making explanations — of gags, of stories, of the whole creative enterprise — sing louder and funnier and truer than punchlines. The maxim “Show, don’t tell” had little purchase with him. In novels, short stories and essays, through an astoundingly prolific six-decade career, he ran riot over literary rules and conventions, even as he displayed, with meticulous discipline, mastery of and respect for them.

He was styled a postmodernist, an awkwardly fitting title that only just managed to cover his essential attributes, like a swimsuit left too long in the dryer. But it meant that much of what Barth was doing — cheekily recycling dusty forms, shining klieg lights on the artificiality of art, turning the tyranny of plot against itself — had a name, a movement.

For many years, starting in the 1960s, he was at the vanguard of this movement, alongside writers like Thomas Pynchon and William Gaddis. He declared that all paths for the novel had already been taken, and then blazed new ones for generations of awe-struck followers. He showed us how writing works by letting us peer into its machinery, and reminded us that our experience of the world will always be dictated by the instruments we have to observe and record it. While never abandoning narrative, he found endless joy in picking apart its elements, and in the process helped define a postwar American style.

Were Barth the author of this article, for example, he might pause here to point out that the lines above constitute what journalists like to call the nut graf , an early paragraph that provides larger context for the topic at hand and tries to establish its importance — and is sometimes wedged in last-minute by a harried writer or editor ordered to “elevate” a story or “give it sweep.” Then Barth might explain why this one is lousy, why the whole business of nut grafs is more or less absurd.

The constructive disruption, the literary public service announcement: It became something of a signature for Barth, and it’s best expressed in his story collection “Lost in the Funhouse” (1968). The title piece, a masterwork of metafiction, follows a teenage boy lurching about the revolving discs and mirrored walls of an amusement-park fun house, where he realizes, dolefully, that he is better suited to construct such contrivances than experience them.

Throughout, a comically pedantic narrator critiques the very tale he’s telling by identifying the flashy tricks of the “funhouse” that is fiction: symbolism, theme, sensory detail, resolution. The story is simultaneously a rigorous analysis, vivid example and ruthless dismantling of how literature operates.

“Is anything more tiresome, in fiction, than the problems of sensitive adolescents?” the narrator asks, in his fiction about a sensitive adolescent. “And it’s all too long and rambling.”

David Foster Wallace called the collection a “sacred text,” even drafting one of his stories in the margins of his copy. Although he later, in an act of literary parricide, denounced his hero as a stagnant has-been, Barth’s influence is unmistakable in Wallace’s work, as it is in that of so many others, including Zadie Smith, Jonathan Lethem, Jennifer Egan, George Saunders and David Mitchell — writers who hauled postmodernism off its ivory tower, who integrated Barth’s fourth-wall breaches, parodic masquerades or typographical pyrotechnics into more accessible, more sincere and, fine, more marketable narratives.

Barth himself was a writer who wore his influences on his sleeve, though he was careful to make his tributes his own, often with an awl-sharp irony. “You do not mistake your navigation stars for your destination,” he said in a 2001 interview with the critic Michael Silverblatt. “These are compass points that you steer by, but you’re not trying to be Joyce or Beckett or Nabokov or Calvino or Borges just because you steer by those stars. They help you fix your own position.”

In 1967, he wrote an essay called “ The Literature of Exhaustion ,” a state-of-the-union address for Western letters that would come to be known, to Barth’s befuddlement, as a manifesto for postmodernism. It is one of those loosely read, perennially misinterpreted early-career works that both forge their writers’ reputations and drive them nuts for the rest of their lives.

In it, he points to the “used-upness” of literary forms, the exhaustion of creative possibilities, as a rousing opportunity for new methods based on pastiche and revival — “by no means necessarily a cause for despair,” he insisted. But many readers still took it as a death knell for the novel. Barth had to write a follow-up years later to set the record straight.

Much of his raw material actually came from writers of classic texts, not the modern and postmodern navigation stars he steered by. He was Dante reworking the “Aeneid” into “The Divine Comedy” — if Dante were a shiny-pated, bespectacled Marylander with a police-detective mustache. “The Sot-Weed Factor” (1960) is an epic imitation of the 18th-century bildungsroman, something A.I. bots might aspire to if the prompt were, say, “‘Tom Jones’ plus ‘Tristram Shandy,’ but hornier.” (It’s great.) His 2004 story collection, “The Book of Ten Nights and a Night,” is a “Decameron” set in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Scheherazade, whom Barth called his “literary patron saint,” is a regular presence in his work.

And, of course, there’s Barth’s opus “Giles Goat-Boy” (1966), a bonkers Cold War allegory that draws from the Bible, “Oedipus Rex,” “Don Quixote” and “Ulysses,” among other works. I tried to summarize its many forking paths for a curious bartender once and started to feel dizzy midway through. A bitterly divided college campus is overrun by a tyrannical computer system called WESCAC, and the only one who can save humanity is a boy named George Giles, who was raised as a goat and somehow turns out to be the offspring of WESCAC and a virgin named Lady Creamhair. (It’s great.)

Giles tries his best to live up to the mythic hero archetype, but soon learns, over and over, that simply being human is complicated enough. For all of Barth’s outrageous experiments, he always seemed to find his way back to the basic moral question that every great fiction writer has tried to wrangle: How should one be?

His second novel, “The End of the Road” (1958), is a profound deliberation on the dominant Western philosophy of its time, existentialism, which Barth, in a Camus-like story of a marital affair, first seems to value and then exposes as obscenely inadequate. Anchoring even his most arcane metafictions are recognizable characters who try to commit to a principle or an identity — and often fail spectacularly.

In this way, Barth was closer to the comforts of traditional fiction than he was given credit for. A true postmodernist, he wrote in 1980, keeps “one foot in fantasy, one in objective reality.” His books are long — the novels tend to gallivant far past the 500-page mark — and laborious. But like an abstract painter proving he still has some realist portraiture left in him, he could sometimes play it straight and write fiction that, as he put it, “just tells itself without ever-forever reminding us that it’s words on paper.” Take a peek at “Ambrose His Mark” (from “Lost in the Funhouse”) and “Toga Party” (from his 2008 collection “The Development”) for superb examples.

But Barth’s most memorable writing remains the stuff that works on both levels: the gently rising and falling slopes of narrative and the zany mirror maze of self-reflexivity. You get the sense that he found the latter a wearying realm to read in, let alone write in, but couldn’t help veering into it, that the phoniness of the whole endeavor, including his own persona as the artist, had to be accounted for. “It’s particularly disquieting to suspect not only that one is a fictional character,” he wrote, “but that the fiction one’s in — the fiction one is — is quite the sort one least prefers.”

Reading Barth is like taking a cross-country flight while sitting in the cockpit with the pilot, a journey made more thrilling by our observation of the mechanisms that make it possible: We can stare in awe at the instrument panels, or just look out the window. But, through it all, his impossible desire to be his own reader, a naïve experiencer of his own narrative, never waned. One imagines the maestro himself snapping his fingers impatiently at the text. “Enough with the diversions,” he might say. “On with the story!”

Book Review: Jen Silverman’s gripping second novel explores the long afterlife of political violence

The Associated Press

April 8, 2024, 10:29 AM

• Share This:
• share on facebook
• share on threads
• share on linkedin
• share on email

Earlier this year a former member of the far-left Baader-Meinhof gang who spent decades in hiding was arrested by German police in connection with a string of crimes. It was just another example of the long afterlife of the anti-war movement of the late 1960s, which Jen Silverman explores in a brilliant, beautifully written new novel, “There’s Going to Be Trouble.”

Titling it after a line from an Allen Ginsberg poem — “My mind is made up there’s going to be trouble” — Silverman constructs an intricate, clever plot that braids together two separate stories connected by the main characters.

One takes place in 1968 when Keen, an apolitical grad student at Harvard, gets drawn into the takeover of a campus building because of his desperate love for Olya, one of the organizers. When the demonstration goes awry, he must live with the disastrous results for the rest of his lonely life as a chemistry professor and single dad. His one consolation is the daughter Olya bore him before going on the run. Everyone calls her Minnow, though she will grow up to embody the fierceness of her namesake Minerva, the Roman goddess of war.

The second storyline unfolds in 2018 during the yellow vest protests in France, where Minnow, now a 38-year-old teacher, has fled after being engulfed in a scandal in the U.S. whipped up by the religious right for helping an underage girl at her school obtain an abortion. In Paris, she gets caught up with a group of activists who, like their counterparts a half century earlier, are willing to go to virtually any length to challenge what they see as the inequities of French society.

Once again, love plays a decisive role. Just as her father fell head over heels for Olya, Minnow becomes enamored with Charles, the 23-year-old scion of a powerful French family whose father is a confidant of French President Emmanuel Macron. Though she has serious qualms about the 15-year age difference, she can’t keep her hands off him — and the feeling is mutual. Meanwhile, another brazen action is being planned that will also have deadly consequences.

Though the novel is a little slow to get off the ground and might have benefited from being 50 pages shorter, eventually it gathers unstoppable force as it moves toward a dramatic denouement that offers no easy conclusions. The questions Silverman poses about the ends and means of political violence are as relevant today as they were in the ’60s — or, for that matter, any era.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Related News

Mister Cee, a famed hip-hop DJ and key figure behind Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album, dies at 57

Universal Pictures teases ‘Wicked’ and announces ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’

Kishida cracks jokes and invokes ‘Star Trek’ as he and Biden toast US-Japan alliance at state dinner

Recommended.

Man killed, 5 others injured in Northeast DC shooting

Back-to-back hit and runs have Montgomery Co. police asking for the public's help

Will DC put the brakes on Circulator buses?

Related categories:.

Advertisement

The best new science fiction books of April 2024

There’s an abundance of exciting new science fiction out in April, by writers including The Three-Body Problem author Cixin Liu, Douglas Preston and Lionel Shriver

By Alison Flood

1 April 2024

The last remaining free city of the Forever Desert has been besieged for centuries in The Truth of the Aleke

Shutterstock / Liu zishan

There are some huge names with new works out this month: Cixin Liu and Ann Leckie both have collections of shorter writing to peruse, plus there’s a dystopic future from the award-winning Téa Obreht and a world where woolly mammoths have been brought back from the bestselling Douglas Preston. I also love the sound of Scott Alexander Howard’s debut The Other Valley , set in a town where its past and future versions exist in the next valleys over, and of Sofia Samatar’s space adventure The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain . So much to read, so little time…

A View from the Stars by Cixin Liu

This is a collection of short works from Liu, the sci-fi author of the moment thanks to Netflix’s new adaptation of The Three-Body Problem , ranging from essays and interviews to short fiction. I love this snippet from an essay about sci-fi fans, in which he calls us “mysterious aliens in the crowd”, who “jump like fleas from future to past and back again, and float like clouds of gas between nebulae; in a flash, we can reach the edge of the universe, or tunnel into a quark, or swim within a star-core”. Aren’t we lucky to have such worlds available to us on our shelves?

3 Body Problem review: Cixin Liu's masterpiece arrives on Netflix

Cixin Liu's novel The Three-Body Problem has been turned into an eight-part series for Netflix by the Game of Thrones team. There is much to admire so far, but will the adaptation stay on track, wonders Bethan Ackerley

Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie

Leckie is a must-read writer for me, and this is the first complete collection of her short fiction, ranging across science fiction and fantasy. On the sci-fi side, we will be able to dip back into the Imperial Radch universe, and we are also promised that we’ll “learn the secrets of the mysterious Lake of Souls” in a brand-new novelette.

The Morningside by Téa Obreht

In a catastrophic version of the future, an 11-year-old girl arrives with her mother at The Morningside, once a luxury high-rise, now another crumbling part of Island City, which is half-underwater. Obreht won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011 for her debut, The Tiger’s Wife .

The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar

Samatar won all sorts of prizes for her first novel, A Stranger in Olondria . Her latest sounds really intriguing, following the story of a boy who has grown up condemned to work in the bowels of a mining ship among the stars, whose life changes when he is given the chance to be educated at the ship’s university.

A boy grows up working in a mining ship among the stars in The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain

D-Keine/Getty Images

Extinction by Douglas Preston

This is set in a valley in the Rockies, where guests at a luxury resort can see woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths and Irish elk brought back from extinction by genetic manipulation. But then a string of killings kicks off, and a pair of investigators must find out what’s really going on. This looks Jurassic Park -esque and seems like lots of fun. And if you want more mammoth-related reading, try my colleague Michael Le Page’s excellent explainer about why they won’t be back any time soon.

Mania by Lionel Shriver

The award-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin brings her thoughts about so-called “culture wars” to bear on her fiction, imagining a world where a “Mental Parity Movement” is in the ascendent, and “the worst thing you can call someone is ‘stupid’”.

The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

This speculative novel is set in a town where, to the east, lies the same town but 20 years ahead in time and, to the west, the same town but 20 years behind, repeating endlessly across the wilderness. The only border crossings allowed are for “mourning tours”, in which the dead can be seen in towns where they are still alive. Odile, who is 16, is set for a seat on the Conseil, where she will be able to decree who gets to travel across borders. I love the sound of this.

The best new science fiction books of March 2024

With a new Adrian Tchaikovsky, Mars-set romance from Natasha Pulley and a high-concept thriller from Stuart Turton due to hit shelves, there is plenty of great new science fiction to be reading in March

What If… Loki was Worthy? by Madeleine Roux

Many will question whether the Marvel superhero stories are really science fiction, but I’m leaning into the multiversal aspect here to include this, as it sounds like it could be a bit of fun. It’s the first in a new series that reimagines the origins of some of the biggest heroes: here, Thor died protecting Earth from one of Loki’s pranks and, exiled on our planet, the Norse trickster god is now dealing with the consequences.

The Truth of the Aleke by Moses Ose Utomi

The second book in the Forever Desert series is set 500 years after The Lies of the Ajungo , following a junior peacekeeper in the last remaining free city of the Forever Desert, which has been besieged for centuries. It was actually out in March, but I missed it then, so I’m bringing it to you now as it was tipped as a title to watch this year by our science fiction contributor Sally Adee.

Anomaly by Andrej Nikolaidis, translated by Will Firth

It is New Year’s Eve on the last day of the last year of human existence and various stories are unfolding, from a high-ranking minister with blood on his hands to a nurse keeping a secret. Later, in a cabin in the Alps, a musicologist and her daughter – the last people left on Earth – are trying to understand the catastrophe. According to The Independent , Nikolaidis “makes Samuel Beckett look positively cheery”, but I’m definitely in the mood for that kind of story now and then.

Martin MacInnes: 'Science fiction can be many different things'

The author of In Ascension, the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club, on why he wrote his novel, cultivating a sense of wonder and the role of fiction in the world today

Mal Goes to War by Edward Ashton

In this techno-thriller, Mal is a free AI who is uninterested in the conflict going on between the humans, until he finds himself trapped in the body of a cyborg mercenary and becomes responsible for the safety of the girl she died protecting.

• science fiction /

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox! We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

More from New Scientist

Explore the latest news, articles and features

In Frank Herbert’s Dune, fungi are hidden in plain sight

Subscriber-only

Is the woolly mammoth really on the brink of being resurrected?

Popular articles.

Trending New Scientist articles

Cool Green Science

Stories of The Nature Conservancy

Earth Day Book Review 2024

Share this article, share this:.

The poet Sydney Lea described himself as “a man in the woods with his head full of books, and a man in books with his head full of woods.” 

I suspect this resonates with many for whom the love of nature is inseparable from a love of books. Indeed, Earth Day encapsulates this. For many of us, it’s a day to be outside, whether enjoying a festival or taking a hike. It’s also an event that was in no small part initiated by nature writing such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac . 

Our selections this year show how the nature writing genre continues to evolve and surprise. From “climate fiction” to fresh reporting on charismatic species, from extreme wilderness travel to Central Park birding, we hope you find something here that resonates – and that inspires you to help protect the natural world.

Top 10 List

After world.

By Debbie Urbanski

Be careful what you ask of Artificial Intelligence. In this wildly inventive novel, humans turn to AI for a solution to the world’s escalating environmental problems. AI comes up with a quick and decisive solution: eliminate all humans.

After World centers around the last person left on earth and the AI writer tasked with documenting her final days—and AI’s complex (almost human?) feelings that arise out of that act. Urbanski’s debut novel is a dystopian novel that turns many of the tropes of dystopian novels inside out. (In fact, as the AI programs accomplish human extinction, they refer to and frequently mock the dystopian genre and its premise of human hope).

The story is haunting, disturbing and often moving, a fresh take in what can seem a crowded genre. I continue to find myself pondering the uneasy questions it raises, including what we are trying to conserve, and why. (MM)

Eight Bears

By Gloria Dickie

Eight species of bears remain on Earth: Asiatic black bears, brown bears, giant pandas, American black bears, polar bears, sloth bears, spectacled bears and sun bears. In her new book, Eight Bears , author Gloria Dickie travels around the globe to visit these diverse species.

Along the way she weaves together stories of human-bear interactions in life and literature. Dickie does not shy away from exploring just how fraught that dynamic is by citing troubling examples, from a young woman fatally mauled by a grizzly in Glacier National Park to polar bears doomed to slow starvation on melting sea ice.

But as she draws on history, ecology, mythology and folklore to help us understand our undoubtedly complex relationship with these massive mammals, the importance of conservation efforts to preserve the remaining bear species—and the space they occupy in our collective imagination—becomes clear. (JW)

Colorado River: Chasing Water

By Pete McBride

Although his career has taken him to more than 75 countries, for photographer and Coloradan Pete McBride, documenting the Colorado River was a deeply personal journey to save an iconic piece of his own backyard.

McBride has trekked, floated, swam and flown along the entirety of the Colorado to capture the wonder of this life-giving river and communicate the crisis it now faces. Essays and images intermingle to showcase the ways in which the Colorado, which starts as snowmelt in Rocky Mountain National Park and sustains more than 40 million people and myriad species along the way, is being gobbled up before it can reach its historic terminus in Mexico’s Gulf of California.

The Colorado River: Chasing Water tells the somber tale of a diminishing resource—its stark beauty and extraordinary utility—and hints at what life could look like without its mighty flow to sustain us.  (JW)

Arctic Traverse

By Michael Engelhard

Craving solitude and a physical and mental test, backcountry guide Michael Engelhard undertakes a solo journey in one of the wildest places remaining in North America, a traverse of Alaska’s Brooks Range.

Traveling by foot and raft, he covers nearly 1,000 difficult miles, enduring bad weather, difficult trails, plenty of injuries and even more bears. Traveling alone for 58 days gives plenty of time for reflection, and Engelhard shares those observations here. There are thoughts on the values of wilderness, Indigenous rights, natural history, the changing Arctic, personal philosophy and more.

Engelhard captures the highs and lows of such an expedition, and he’s by turns cranky and euphoric. He doesn’t shy away from confronting his own contradictions, such as his acknowledgment that the synthetic fibers that make this trek more comfortable originate from the petroleum industry he despises.

And what an adventure! Each day brings hardship and wonder, with dismal fog offset by the antics of foxes and caribou, slogging hikes rewarded with simple pleasures like blooming wildflowers. (MM)

Better Living Through Birding

By Christian Cooper

Christian Cooper was a Black, queer kid with a penchant for science fiction and nature outings. Watching and identifying birds became a source of solace and joy in a racist, homophobic world. As an adult, the spring migration at New York City’s Central Park became the year’s highlight. He’d skimp on sleep and risk being late to work to search each morning for stunning warblers.

It was on one such spring morning that his life was thrust into the spotlight, as an encounter with a dog walker made Cooper a victim of weaponized racism. The video of the incident went viral, putting him in the spotlight.

In this memoir, he reflects on his life as a birder who defies stereotypes. It’s full of the joy of travel, family, science fiction, and yes, plenty of birds.  Few memoirs so eloquently capture the everyday thrills of birding. He sprinkles the story with birding tips and his “joys of birding,” explaining what keeps him going back. It’s a passion that, for Cooper, even weaponized racism can’t diminish. Better Living Through Birding is funny, brutally honest and insightful, a look at a life where birding is not a “lifestyle”, but part of the fabric of living. (MM)

Of Time and Turtles

By Sy Montgomery

Turtles take life at a slower pace, and that unhurried cadence is baked into Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell . Author Sy Montgomery immerses readers in the day-to-day of Turtle Rescue League teammates doing their best to protect turtle nests, incubate eggs, rescue turtles and release hatchlings.

Although the book is a skillful mix of science, philosophy and turtle lore, it’s about more than the hundreds of reptiles saved by two dedicated women and the team they built.

By the book’s end, the motto of Turtle Rescue League foundaers Natashia and Alexxia, “Never give up on a turtle,” takes on a broader meaning that feels a lot like a testimony to the power of human compassion and the difference it can make in the lives of animals, no matter how unhurried. (JW)

Join the Discussion

Join the discussion cancel reply.

Please note that all comments are moderated and may take some time to appear.

Continue Exploring

August 31, 2021

Story type: TNC Science Brief

Chemical Science

Controlling regioselectivity of bromolactonization reaction in hfip.

Halolactonization reaction provides rapid access to densely functionalized lactones from unsaturated carboxylic acids. The endo/exo regioselectivity of this cyclization reaction is primarily determined by the electronic stabilization of alkene substituents, thus making it inherently dependent on substrate structures. Therefore this method often afford one type of halolactone regioisomer only. Herein, we introduce a simple and efficient method for regioselectivity-switchable bromolactonization reaction mediated by HFIP solvent. Two set of reaction conditions were developed, each forming endo-products or exo-products in excellent regioselectivity. A combination of computational and experimental mechanistic studies not only confirmed the crucial role of HFIP, but also revealed the formation of endo-products under kinetic control and exo-products under thermodynamic control. This study paves the way for future works on the use of perfluorinated solvents to dictate reaction outcomes in organic synthesis.

Supplementary files

• Supplementary information PDF (10822K)

Transparent peer review

To support increased transparency, we offer authors the option to publish the peer review history alongside their article.

View this article’s peer review history

Article information

Download Citation

Permissions.

T. A. To, N. T. A. Phan, B. K. Mai and T. V. Nguyen, Chem. Sci. , 2024, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D4SC01503G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence . You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication , please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page .

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page .

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content .

Social activity

Search articles by author.

This article has not yet been cited.

Advertisements