Week 5 Prompt

Libraries are under budget constraints when purchasing titles for their collection. They have to decide the best way to spend money while meeting patron demand. Reviews from professional publications assist librarians in choosing titles. But ebook only books do not have adequate professional reviews. I think librarians would be less likely to add titles to the collection when ebooks have not been reviewed by professional reviews. It comes down to using the public tax money for the greatest quality of literature. It would be very difficult to grow an ebook collection without reliable professional reviews. Professional reviews will contain appeal factors, whereas other reviews may not utilize these factors. Without reviews, it would be difficult to discern the quality of literature written by unknown authors.

I would say that neither of the reviews for The Billionaire’s First Christmas seems reliable. We really do not know about the qualifications of these reviewers and even the blog review didn’t give it great reviews, even saying that the story was kind of odd. I would not add The Billionaire’s First Christmas to my library collection based off of these personal reviews. Besides, it is already free on Amazon, so readers with Kindles could purchase it that way. If it had some professional reviews, I might then give it consideration. I would not spend library money on purchasing titles based on reviews that I did not view as credible, such as those found on Amazon. I would have to do some checking about the blog reviewer to see about his or her qualifications, which would also take extra time. It is just faster (and reliable) to use professional resources for reviews. If an ebook title is not mentioned in professional reviews, then I would more than likely skip the purchase when using library funding.

The ebook does not look like romantic suspense. It does not have any of the appeal factors that make a romantic suspense. Appeal factors for romantic suspense include: the heroine is in danger in which she has to save herself; the heroine has to choose between two men; storyline is fast paced and told from the heroine’s point of view.  The Amazon review states that it is told from the point of view of both of the main characters, Robyn Hurst and Aaron Winters (the only man involved). The summary does not say anything about Robyn saving herself, nor is she ever in any danger. Both reviews list it as a romance and even the cover gives the appearance of a romance book.

The reviews for Angela’s Ashes are vastly different in the aspect that they are professional with rich detail and information. The reviews are from credible sources qualified to provide book reviews. It is interesting as well that all four reviews are comparable to each other. I would have no problem adding Angela's Ashes to my collection. 

Reviews that offer negative content can at times provide a more trustworthy evaluation. Since we all have different likes/dislikes, I think that negative comments help readers know what they might be reading and that they might consider that is not the book for them. Reviews that provide both positive and negative content allows for a more honest evaluation of the book.

Sometimes one type of book does get reviewed more often and it is unfair because you can be missing out on a really good book that just is not receiving any reviews. It affects collection development because libraries rely so heavily on the reviews that these other great titles are being missed, and leads to only providing titles that are heavily reviewed in our collections.

While I don’t purchase for my library, typically I will read Library Journal and occasionally Kirkus reviews. I also use reviews from Goodreads for a lot of my book selections. I do like to read personal opinions for my own reading and I like to get opinions from friends and other librarians. That being said, I still take reviews with a grain of salt, knowing they are based on someone else’s personal opinion. What one person likes (or dislikes) will be different from someone else’s viewpoint. If and when I get the opportunity to purchase for a library, I would rely on professional sources.