The world of self publishing, eBook only publications, and print on demand has made librarians working in collection development rethink the way they consider materials for their library. Just because an item has not been picked up by a major publishing house and given a print run does not mean that it is a valuable work of literature or that it isn’t worthy of being added to the collection. The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy by E.L. James is a good example of this. “James, a former TV executive based in London, published the first installment of the Fifty Shades trilogy as an e-book. Without traditional distribution by a big-name publisher in the United States, the series caught on via word-of-mouth and Facebook” (Fay). These books have proved to be extremely popular in library systems that have them and have now been turned into a big screen adaptation. When it comes to items that are only published as eBooks, or items that are self published, collection development librarians can still turn to reviews in order to judge whether or not the item is a good fit for their collection. The reviews may just be of a different sort than the the professional reviews published for big name authors and those represented by major publishing houses. “...Clark explained how she currently assesses self-published material on Amazon, for example--she looks for books whose reviews show that the reader really pondered the book and whose fans are geographically dispersed…” (On).
The Billionaire's First Christmas
The reviews for this book were both written by romance readers and, while far from professional quality, do give the opinions of people who are the target audience for this item. These individuals have grammatical and spelling errors present throughout their reviews, but they do give an accurate picture of what they thought of the book. The reviews are reliable in that they give the true opinion of these readers, but I’m not sure they would be convincing enough on their own to make a decision about whether or not to purchase this romance for my library system. These reviews, in addition to sales and rank numbers on Amazon, might be enough to convince the addition of this item to the collection.
Angela’s Ashes
This book, written by Frank McCourt, is one that I have personally read and thoroughly enjoyed. McCourt’s story is one of heartbreak and triumph and the author does a great job of telling the tale in a way that is enticing to readers. All four of the reviews give a positive overview of this memoir and all highlight different aspects of the book. The Library Journal review gives more of an overview while the Booklist and School Library Journal reviews give a few more specific details about elements from the story. All of these reviews would be helpful in making a decision about this item and would encourage collection development librarians to add this book to their library’s collection.
Reviews can be extremely important to the collection development department when making decisions about what to purchase. I have spent some time working with acquisitions in my own library and they do look at Library Journal, Booklist, and other review publications in order to help them make decisions. It is fine if certain publications don’t want to publish negative reviews, but it is important for libraries to look at sources that do publish them in order to gather as much information as possible when making collection development decisions.
This is not the only thing they consult however, because reviews are only part of the equation. Just because an item is really well reviewed does not mean that it will be a book that your readers will be interested in and just because a book has bad reviews does not mean your patrons won’t want it. There are many books that are not great works of literature destined to become classics that are extremely popular with patrons and that is just fine. Patrons should read what they like and the library should provide those materials for them. Ultimately the most important opinion to take into consideration when purchasing material is that of the patron. “Customer use is the most powerful influence on the Library’s collection. Circulation, customer purchase requests and holds levels are all closely monitored, triggering purchase of new items and additional copies of high demand items” (Collection Development Policy). If a book gets terrible reviews but your patrons want to read it, the library should make sure it has plenty of copies on hand to meet their users demands.
In general I do not tend to look at reviews when I am making decisions about my own reading choices. I have access to Library Journal and Booklist through work and do look at these publications each month. Occasionally these items will feature a book I had not heard about and their reviews will prompt me to read an item. I just finished recently finished reading Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans by Gary Krist because I saw it in a “Best of 2014” list by Library Journal. Most often though I read a book because I am interested in it regardless of what reviews say about it.
Resources
"Collection Development Policy." Denver Public Library, May 2014. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://denverlibrary.org/content/collection-development-policies>.
On, Henrietta Verma. "Collection Development 2020: Library Journal's Day of Dialogue." Library Journal (n.d.): n. pag. 30 May 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2013/05/collection-development/collection-development-2020-library-journals-day-of-dialog/>.
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