Week 5 Prompt

 Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular (especially in the romance genre) see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author. How does this affect collection development?

When ebook only books don’t get any reviews, I think it makes it harder for selectors at libraries to confidently purchase those books for the library’s collection. I know that at the library where I work, the selectors heavily rely on reviews from sources like Booklist and Kirkus. Therefore, when books aren’t reviewed within those sources, it makes it so that the selectors have to look for reviews in other places which may or may not be reputable. This could compromise decision making in the process, which in turn impacts collection development since that development depends on the decisions made by selectors.

I have posted two more documents in the week five files. One is two reviews of an ebook only romantic suspense novel, one from a blog and one from Amazon. Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library? The other document contains some reviews of Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, an incredibly popular memoir. How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?

Given the two reviews of The Billionaire’s First Christmas by Holly Rayner, I really don’t feel confident that either one is reliable. While, yes, they are reviews completed by consumers who have read the book and have good things to say about it, they are just by random people instead of a respected review source. In my personal experience with reading (and writing) reviews, feelings about a book can greatly influence the kind of review that is written. In some cases, people will even “downvote” an upcoming book just because they didn’t like the previous installment in the series. (I’ve seen it happen all over Goodreads.) In terms of purchasing The Billionaire’s First Christmas for my library, I would want to find a few more reviews just to gauge the popularity of the book better so I could make a more educated purchase in lieu of reviews being found from more reputable sources. 

The reviews on Angela’s Ashes make me feel very well-informed and confident about adding the book to a library collection (or even my own personal collection). They largely touch on important plot points without giving away too much or being too vague, which I appreciate. In reading the reviews, I feel encouraged to read Angela’s Ashes for myself, and the reviews also give me a good idea of where it would best fit in the library’s collection.

Do you think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed to death and other types of books get little to no coverage? How does this affect a library's collection?  And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate? If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources?

Honestly, while I can understand why and how ebook only books are not reviewed as much as other kinds of books, I still don’t think that it is fair. Libraries are meant to have a vast collection filled with a variety of materials, and that can’t happen when books are not reviewed equally. Additionally, I don’t have a problem with review sources that won’t print negative content because I really feel like each source should be able to print what they want. However, I don’t feel like that is necessarily an appropriate decision on their part, and if I bought for my library I’d want to look at multiple review sources to form a well-rounded opinion on books to purchase. As far as reviews for personal reading, I occasionally will look at Goodreads or Amazon before picking up a book, but I mostly talk about books with my friends, family and coworkers to influence what I read, especially because they know my preferences the best.