What’s the purpose of
reviewing various media and presentations, physical and digital? For
librarians and archivists, reviewing is a way to share our opinions about the
content, authority, and importance of produced works. Those reviews are
important for collection development, for making lists of “read-alikes” for
readers’ advisory, or compiling subject bibliographies. We cannot read
everything that comes into the library, nor can we even look at all the titles
that are available for selection. Even
if we went to the bookstore every day, we would not be able to look through all
the books that are published every month. It’s too big a job. On top of that,
we are not all subject specialists. We must rely upon the expertise of subject
specialists and scholars to review books for their content and their quality. As librarians, we need to be able to write an
abstract of a book or journal article, to review the same for their importance
to the field, both librarianship and the academic field. To do that, we need to
think about how each title fits within the field and helps shape the field.
One approach to reviewing
is to put together a list of questions you would like to ask the author about
what he or she wrote. I always imagine what the questions I would ask if we
went for coffee and I wanted to get to know the author better through her book.
Why did he approach the topic in this manner? What was missing or unclear? Did
the conclusion make sense? There are so many excellent questions to ask. One
thing to keep in mind while reviewing is that it’s the text the author wrote
that you are considering, not what you wanted them to write. I always get stuck
at this issue.
One
thing to remember when you write review and analyze books and articles is to
draw in other literature and authors to support your arguments. Don’t just
comment based upon your own attitudes and feelings. Including other resources
makes your arguments stronger and helps provide a context for the materials you
review.
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