Week Five 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 you first log into Libby, the first thing that one tends to notice is the large number of popular books that are displayed on the home page in various curated lists. Many people are self-publishing now, so there is a likelihood that those books will not end up on services like Libby and Hoopla. In that case, people who want to read those books are more likely to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited rather than attempt to find something similar at the library.  

Reviews for A Billionaire for Christmas - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library?

I feel that both reviews were honest reactions, though I have no way to guarantee that fact. Typically, we try to get books that patrons show an interest in. I would consider adding this book to the digital collection if we were able. 

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

The reviews that were provided for this book were glowing reviews. The review for Library Journal claimed that the novel was " almost impossible to put down, may well become a classic." Given that the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, this would more than likely get added to our 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?  

I don't think that it is fair that books that are published in print and in ebooks are covered more than ebook-only books. Many books that are becoming popular are and are published only electronically because people are able to self-publish that way. This affects the collection because then the library isn't carrying what the patrons are looking for and carrying what is popular to the public. 

And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate? If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources? 

I don't really trust sources that don't publish negative reviews. I think that you have to take the good with the bad in order to get a well-rounded picture (of anything, quite frankly). I do not do the purchasing for my library, my lovely coworker does that (though we are able to recommend books for purchase through her if we'd like). I don't typically look at reviews for books I am reading until after I have read the book (backwards, right?). As far as book review sources, the most that I do is read through Book Page when we get them in every month to the library.