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Reviewing Reference Resources

Reviewing Reference Resources. Dr. John V. Richardson Jr., Professor UCLA DIS 245 “Information Access”. Presentation Outline. Introduction, Definitions and Functions Publishing - Reviewing Process Publisher; Journal Book Review Editor; “Book” Reviewer Elements and Types of Reviews

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Reviewing Reference Resources

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  1. Reviewing Reference Resources Dr. John V. Richardson Jr., Professor UCLA DIS 245 “Information Access”

  2. Presentation Outline • Introduction, Definitions and Functions • Publishing - Reviewing Process • Publisher; Journal Book Review Editor; “Book” Reviewer • Elements and Types of Reviews • Schools of Criticism • Useful/Least Review Sources • Specific Book Review Indexes • Needed Research on Reviewing

  3. Definitions • “A quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job.” -- George Orwell • REVIEW, • from the Latin (“to see again…”) • CRITICISM, • art of judging; molding taste • connotes need to evaluate or assess...

  4. Are There Reviewing Criteria? • What is good? What is bad? What is the value of this work? • Implies the existence of laws, standards, criteria, or principles

  5. Review Functions (Chen & Galvin) • Three functions: • Alerting (LJ and many RUSQ reviews are notices) • Selection (Choice is designed to aid academic librarians) • use of symbols: + or - or +- or -+ • Peer Appraisal (LQ reviews assist in P and T decisions) • SOURCE: Chen and Galvin, 1975

  6. Review Functions (Woodward) • Notification of the published literature • Current awareness of related fields • Back-up to other literature searching • Searching for alternate techniques • Initial orientation to a new field • Teaching aid • Feedback (appraisal) • SOURCE: JASIS 28 (May 1977): 175-180

  7. Role of Time Lag • Alerting must be prompt • 5-12 months or more

  8. The Reviewing Process • Publisher / Journal Book Review Editor • Reader Book Reviewer

  9. Creating a MRW • Initiation of idea (author or publisher: series or acquisitions editor) • Book proposal (rationale, subject and scope, approach, grade level, market, manuscript characteristics including camera-ready copy or not, competition, qualifications, schedule, tentative table of contents, and sample pages, if not entire chapter or two)

  10. MRW continued: • Negotiate contract (title, number of pages, index, royalties--10-15% net, advance, due date) • Publisher sets price, graphic design, and advertising including sending pr to book review editors, provides the author with galleys or page-proofs; requests the index be prepared; sends books to review media; and finally sends reviews to author

  11. MRW Which Should Exist But Don’t • Statistical Abstract of Europe • Directory of Specialists in Alternative Medical Fields • Historical Guide to Prices in the United States • Los Angeles Times Index, 1881 - 1971 • SOURCE: “Great Reference Books,” SCAN (LAPL), September/October 1983, p. 8

  12. Tiers of Publishers • University Presses (i.e., Cambridge or Oxford; Chicago, Harvard, or Yale) • Trade Publishers (i.e., Academic, Elsevier, Wiley) • Specialty Publishers • for example, ALA, Bowker/Saur, Gale, Garland, Greenwood, H. W. Wilson, Haworth Press, Libraries Unlimited, McFarland, Oryx, Scarecrow • Vanity Publishers (pay to be published)

  13. Reviews to Assess Reputation • Based on a comparison of reviews of commercial and university press publishers in Book Review Digest and Choice: • number of reviews, de Gruyter (99) to Doubleday (1386) • price ($57.85 average; high, $158.89 for de Gruyter) • and quality (0--descriptive; 1--outstanding; 2--very good; 3--average, adequate, pretty good; and 4-- negative) • SOURCE: Jordy, McGrath, and Rutledge, CRL March 1999

  14. Reviews to Assess Reputation • SOURCE: Jordy, McGrath, and Rutledge, CRL March 1999

  15. Publishing Output World-wide • Monographic literature is growing world-wide • 269-285 K titles (1955) • 332-364 K (1960) • 521-546 K (1970) • 715 K (1980) • 842 K (1990) • 950 K* (2000) *(projected) • SOURCE: UNESCO or UN Statistical Yearbook, (year)

  16. United States Publishing • United States monographic literature is slow growth (about 10%) • 42K titles (1980); 46K (1990); 50K (1993); 53K (1997) • SOURCE: Bowker Annual, “American Book Title Production, Books” (year).

  17. How Many Get Reviewed? • Choice reviews about 6,000 titles a year • Calculate that in percentage terms of all books published • SOURCE: “Book Reviews in Volume Year,” Choice November 1985, p. 403

  18. Publisher’s Objective? • To get attention • Judith Serebnick’s study of number of reviews (as opposed to direction) influencing purchase • Wants review and does not care so much about direction of review (either positive or negative)

  19. Publisher’s Objective • “A review is better than no review.” • Anonymous publisher

  20. Journal Book Review Editor • “Gatekeeper” -- decides what to review • Paid/unpaid position • Scholarly journals do not pay this position • Professional service; national visibility • Shaping taste in the field

  21. Review Editor continued: • Maintains a file of reviewers (resumes) and their interests • Determines length of the review based on space and importance • LJ, 150 words; LQ, 1100 words (review essays, 2500); NYRB, 1500 words

  22. Review Editor continued: • Maintains a statement of reviewing policy (e.g., advance copies) • Sets deadline for review (two weeks to several months)

  23. Review Editor continued: • Reads review • Corrections--return to reviewer • Edits manuscript • May send advance review to publisher for comment on factual errors

  24. Reference Reviewers: Who? • Who are they? • Library school educators (F. N. Cheney holds record: 5,819 “Current” in WLB and 2,044 in “Recent” RSR). • Practitioners • Non-librarians (Choice policy)

  25. Reference Reviewers: How Much? • Compensation: • Copy of book, CD-ROM or software • Review in print (national audience); line on resume • Copy of the journal or offprints of review

  26. “Too Many Positive Reviews?” • “A sample of 300 reviews shows they • tend to be too positive (not really critical) • tend not to evaluate or compare • tend not to be reliable • tend to provide recommendations that don’t follow evaluations” • SOURCE: Sweetland, James H. "Reference Book Reviewing Tools: How Well Do they Do the Job?" In The Publishing and Review of Reference Sources. Ed. by Bill Katz and Robin Kinder. New York: Haworth Press, 1986. The Reference Librarian 15. • SOURCE: Fialkoff, LJ 119 (January 1994): 90.

  27. Elements of Review • Bibliographic Citation (aka house style) • may be provided by journal • reputation for exactness or sloppiness • Price of Reference Books • 17 MRW are increasing faster than CPI (1981-1984) • “Pricing us out of the market,” AL July/August 1985, p. 506-507. • Contents

  28. Review Contents • Catchy opening (NOT “This book…” or “The author…”) such as an idea of interest • Thesis • Main points (3) • Additional points; own ideas • Objections and shortcomings • Relate to other works • How does it change our concept/approach to topic • Snappy close

  29. Review Closing • Direction of review should be clear by now • Need not give a specific recommendation • Author’s name, position, and institutional affiliation

  30. Research on Reviewing • Age and • Professional experience as well as • Present and past institutional affiliation • of author and reviewer • influence the direction of the review • SOURCE: Snizek and Fuhrman, Am. Sociologist (1979).

  31. Types of Reviews (Butler, 1934) • Descriptive • contents; list of table of contents; shorter reviews are more likely to be merely descriptive • Evaluative • analysis; longer review; “verbosity is no automatic indicator of excellence.” • Incidental essay • springboard for some topic • Orientation • historical; comparative; lengthy; LQ “Review Essay”

  32. Schools of Criticism • Older Tradition • Longinus: strong feeling is necessary; blow you away all at once • Historical Critical Approach • criteria are relevant only to that particular period • 20th Century • influence of psychology and technology

  33. 20th Century Schools • Impressionistic • Absolutist • Freudian • Marxist • Theoretical • Textual • New Criticism • Post-Modern movements

  34. Impressionistic • Immediate personal reaction • Sole purpose of art (books) is to move one’s being. Purpose is emotion. Books, CD-ROM, or software for review must grab you. • “Alienation effects”--justifying not reading the book • Book as prop. Entertainment value.

  35. Absolutist • One objective truth • “unalterable” law • G. B. Vico (18th century) was initially an absolutist

  36. Marxist • New York Review of Books • social and economic factors • Materialistic reductionism

  37. Theoretical • Analysis • ALA Booklist “Guidelines” (see 220 class Webpage) • Reprinted in Cheney and Williams’ FRS (1980)

  38. Textual • Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America • descriptive or analytical bibliography. Methods of printing or book production generally and how these influence the text.

  39. New Criticism • AKA objective, cognitive, or ontological school • Often associated with John Crowe Ransom (The New Criticism,1941) • Looks at form of literature which provides the meaning and value; individual work is the unit of analysis • Scientific as opposed to the historical context approach • Combines the Freudian and Marxist

  40. Formalism • Victor Shklovsky, Vladimir Propp, and other Russian critics (early 20th century) • plot structure • narrative perspective • symbolic imagery • Developed into structuralism in France

  41. Deconstructivist • Jacque Derrida in France (1960s) • Examination of methodology • Involves a questioning of the many hierarchical oppositions • In order to expose the bias (“the privileged terms”) of those tacit assumptions on which Western metaphysics rest

  42. Role of Reader and Author • Reader may write to editor/reviewer • Author may write to editor/reviewer • disavowal of work • respond to criticism (see P. W. Filby’s October 1989 AL article about his book which received 19 favorable reviews and one periodical which labelled it “Not recommended.”) • policy of publishing letters and responses

  43. Reader Response Theory • A kind of Aesthetics of Reception • German critic Wolfgang Iser and other proponents • which examines readers’ responses to literature in a cultural and historical context.

  44. Develop Your Own Style • Reference books are what they are? • Is there an interior, individual, or practical meaning? • Is there a deeper meaning? Something hidden?

  45. Useful Reviewing Sources • LQ, 4th most, longest reviews, orientation reviews, and critical reviews. 10.8 month lag • WLB, best time, 5.4 month lag • Booklist, second best time, 5.8 month lag • RQ, 6.4 month lag • ARBA and • C&RL, 3rd most titles, more unfavorable • SOURCE: Chen and Galvin, ARBA (1975)

  46. Least Useful Reviewing Source • LJ, • most reviews • descriptive • makes recommendations for type of library • 6.7 month lag • SOURCE: Chen and Galvin, ARBA (1975)

  47. Favorable and Unfavorable Update • Study of Periodical Abstracts-Research II (PAR II) of 1600 journals: • January 1986 (69.4% favorable) to September 1992 (71.8%), reviews are becoming more favorable (Table 2) • Shorter reviews are more favorable (75.3%) than longer ones (64.4%) (Table 3) • Humanities (72.4%) more favorable than social sciences (69.1%) than sciences and technology (68.5%) (Table 5) • SOURCE: Greene and Spornick, JAL (November 1995): 449-453.

  48. Ten Most Favorable LIS Journals • Wilson Library Bulletin (now defunct) • Booklist • Library Journal • Choice • School Library Journal • Publishers Weekly • New York Times • New York Review of Books • RQ (now RUSQ) • TLS • SOURCE: Greene and Spornick, JAL (November 1995): 449-453

  49. Newspaper Reviews • TLS--wide ranging, authoritative, thoughtful, well-written • NYT--strong influence. Esoteric. Boring • Washington Post (“Book World”)--most interesting and enjoyable • USA Today--imaginative in selection of reviewers • SOURCE: “Choosing the Best of the Book Reviews,” LATimes, 11-13 December 1985, part V.

  50. Sources of Reviews (Indexes) • Book Review Digest • Book Review Index • Current Book Review Citations

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