Week 5 Prompt Response

• Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author. How does this affect collection development?

As someone who reads romance fairly regularly, I find it very frustrating to find a book that I am interested in reading that is Ebook only. I am the type of reader that prefers holding the physical book and the feel of turning the pages. I also like to use physical books because it is much easier for me to visualize how far along I am and how much more I have until I am finished. The article written by Ann Behler is a great guide for the initial implementation of Ebook circulation. In this article she discusses the pros and cons of Ebook collection, how distribution of Ebooks could occur, and what to look for in a Ebook vendor in terms of how books are purchased and the like. (Behler, 2011) While it is a great guide for how to implement Ebook collection development guidelines, it also notes that there will be downfalls to consider as well. If an item is only available in Ebook format, this can be isolating to those who would like to read the title but do not have access to the resources required for them to be able to read them. If items were Ebook only it would also take money away from being able to purchase physical books for the collection.

• I have posted two more documents in the week five files. One is two reviews of an ebook only romantic suspense novel, one from a blog and one from amazon. Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library?

Of the two reviews, I would be more likely to purchase based off the review on the blog over the Amazon review. The blog review gives more detail of the title and how the reviewer felt about the book. The Amazon is less detailed and doesn't have the appeal factor that the blog has. From the reviews, I would consider purchasing this Ebook for the collection to be part of a "winter reads" collection as a trial of sorts to see how well it circulates.

• The other document contains some reviews of Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, an incredibly popular memoir. These reviews are all from professional publications, feel free to find more on your own I just nabbed a few from the Book Review Digest database for you. How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?

While this book is not something I would personally find myself gravitating towards, I would consider adding this title to the biography collection. Each review was different in describing the book while demonstrating the main theme of the poverty the author experienced growing up.

• 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?  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 think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed Though that may be what is currently popular, reviews should be a tool for all readers to be able to identify new items that might catch their attention. If the library bases their purchases on reviews, the titles that get little to no review coverage are les likely to be purchased. I'm on the fence about not posting negative reviews. I can see why they wouldn't want to post something that can affect the livelihood of an author. I also believe that if the work isn't up to par, only posting positive reviews will give the author a false sense of confidence in their writing that may not be justified. I don't manage purchases for my library, but the person who does doesn't use reviews at all to influence her purchases. She usually focuses on expanding our collection of children's titles because those are the items that circulate the most. From there, any fiction titles purchased start with what she wants to read, then what she thinks sounds interesting from the synopsis/cover art, and finally suggestions from other staff members of items they would like to see added to the collection. For my personal reading, I prefer to hear about books from word-of-mouth. I've noticed that on GoodReads some titles have reviews before its even been published, among other issues that have occurred with the reviewing process. Because if that I tend to not put a lot of weight behind reviews for books.

References

Behler, A. N. N. E. (2011). Collection development for e-books. ALA http://www. ala.    org/aboutala/sites/ala. org. aboutala/files/content/oitp/ebook_co llection_dev. pdf adresinden, 11, 2017.