Finding Book Reviews

A book review is a descriptive, evaluative discussion of a book that appears in a periodical (either popular or scholarly / peer reviewed ) or newspaper usually a short time after the book's publication date.

Although the Internet is a rich source of information, book reviews included, you want to be sure and balance what you find on the Internet with reviews accessed through Cofrin Library's subscription databases. Most of the content available through the databases is not available for free on the Internet.

Also, be careful that the review is not simply one readers reaction. For example, although Amazon.com contains reviews, the majority are from general readers and not experts of specialists.

Keep in mind that every year hundreds of thousands of books are published and only a very small percentage of these books are ever reviewed. It is very likely that some of the books you are interested in were never reviewed in a magazine or newspaper.

Step 1: Identify bibliographic information

To locate a book review, you must know the basic bibliographic information about the book: author's name, title of the book, and year of publication. The title page will give you publication information. If you only have a title or an author, you can plug that information into http://www.google.com to learn more.

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Step 2: Consult the appropriate index

There are a number of online databases you can consult that provide references to book reviews. Depending on the book's publication date and subject matter, you may need to look for book reviews in several different databases.

Print indexes
For older publications, it may be necessary to consult a print index. There are many indexes available for many different subject areas. The focus of this guide is on online resources, but if you have questions about print indexes you can consult a librarian.


Online Databases
Hundreds of online databases covering hundreds of different topics are available through the Cofrin Library. The indexes below are general-interest indexes that include references to book reviews. When accessing these databases from off campus you will need to enter a username and a password (the same information you enter to log in to the network or to access your UWGB email account from off campus).

Some of the resources below contain full text articles, while other provide only citations. If you find a citation to a review that does not include the full text, you can contact a librarian to determine how to go about getting the actual article.

NOTE: If you are connecting from off campus you will need to enter a username and password (the same information you use to log into the campus network or to access your Outlook email from off campus) -- call 465-2309 if you do not have this information.


• Academic Search Complete Description: Indexing and full-text from over 3,000 academic publications and many mass-market periodicals. Covers all fields of study. Use and "book review*" to narrow a search.
  Coverage: Indexing, 1984-; selected full-text, 1990-.
  
  
• MasterFILE Premier
  Description: Abstracts and Indexing for over 2,700 periodicals, plus searchable full text for nearly 1,800 active periodicals. Covers all subject areas and includes a large number of mass-market and popular publications.Use and "book review*" to narrow a search.
  Coverage: Indexing, 1984-; selected full-text, 1990-.
  
  
• Lexis-Nexis Academic
  Provides access to thousands of full-text news, business and legal sources. Time coverage varies from publication but in some cases goes back to the 1970s.
  
  
  
• Book Review Digest Retrospective
  Description: Book Review Digest Retrospective provides excerpts from, and citations to, reviews of adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction. Virtually every book has at least one substantial review excerpt, and most have at least two. Reviews of the following types of books are excluded: government publications, textbooks, and technical books in the sciences and law. However, books on science for the general reader are included. The reviews originate in a group of selected periodicals in the humanities, social sciences, and general science published in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.
  Coverage: 1905-1982
  
  
• Web of Science (ISI Citation Databases). 1980-.
  Despite the title, includes the Arts & Humanities Citiation Index, the Science Citation Index and the Social Sciences Citation Index. Not the first or best source to search for book reviews but may yield results. Pick Full Search then Cited Ref Search. Use author's last name and first initial followed by *, to truncate. Titles are iffy and may be abbreviated in different ways in the database. Dates may vary from original publication date depending on dates of reviews. Do the initial Lookup and click on Set Language and Document Type Limits. At the bottom of the page use the dropdown menu to select Book Review, then Search.
  Coverage: 1980-.
  
  
• JSTOR
  An archive of interdisciplinary scholary journal literature. All articles are available as full-text images. Coverage goes back to the first issue of the publications included in the archive. Useful for finding reviews of older publications. Current content of journals is not indexed (in most cases the previous 5 years).
  
  
• Project Muse
  Description:  An electronic full-text database of scholarly journals, which is available off campus. Searching is by keywords. Search for reviews by typing the title of the book in the text box and then changing the search fields from "All Fields (w/text)" to "Title Reviewed."

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Internet Sites

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/283155/102-8093640-4577700
This commercial site can be useful for finding brief reviews from numerous publishers, periodicals, and customers.

The Atlantic Unbound
http://www.theatlantic.com
The Atlantic Monthly in electronic form contains the current print issue. This site includes interviews with authors and reviews of current popular books.

BookPage
http://www.bookpage.com/
BookPage is a monthly general interest book review focusing on new releases. It typically reviews up to 100 of each month's new fiction, nonfiction, business, children's, spoken word audio, and how-to books. The searchable archives includes issues back to 1996.

BookReview.com
http://www.bookreview.com/
This site reviews of books that may be overlooked due to odd subjects, or unknown authors. The reviews draw on a variety of publishers and cover a multitude of subjects and genres. Includes a searchable archive.

The Boston Book Review
http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/bbr/bbr-home.html
In addition to publishing original fiction, poetry, interviews, and essays, this publication reviews numerous books in a wide variety of of subject areas.

H-Net Reviews
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/
H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences is an online scholarly review resource. The reviews are published online via discussion networks and the H-Net web site. It makes interactivity possible, as reviewers, authors and readers engage in discussions of the reviews online. The Reviews archive is separated into annual volumes. You can browse through the volumes or use the search feature to find a particular review.

Law & Politics Book Review
http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/
The Law and Politics Book Review is sponsored by the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association. They attempt to review almost every book about the legal process and politics, to do longer reviews than are usually published, and to make the reviews available within six months of our receipt of the book. The review presently remains available for an indefinite period on the Review's World Wide Web home page. The database of reviews is searchable by author of the book being reviewed.

The New York Times on the Web--Books
http://www.nytimes.com/
The New York Times on the Web Books site has a complete archive of New York Times book reviews since 1996and are searchable by author or title. The site also includes book reviews and book-related news from every day's New York Times. Also, Only-on-the-Web features first chapters from a selection of recently reviewed books and bestsellers. Go to the front page of The New York Times; click on "books," then register. There is currently no subscription fee.


For further assistance with any aspect of finding book reviews, ask at the reference desk at the Cofrin Library, or give us a call at 465-2303. You can also send us an email at refdesk@uwgb.edu.

rev. 16 Sept 2009