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Book Review Digest

January 01, 1970

Book Review Digest is a reference work by H. W. Wilson Company that compiles recent book reviews. Printed monthly with annual compendia, it digests American and English periodicals from 1905 to the present day. Before the Internet, Book Review Digest was a significant reference tool and bibliographic aid used by the American public and librarians alike to find current literature. An online edition of the collection is offered in two subscription products: Book Review Digest Retrospective (1905–1982) and Book Review Digest Plus (1983 through present day).

Title page of the digest's first volume, 1905

Description and usage edit

During the 20th century, Book Review Digest was a common American library bibliographic aid for the public to find current literature.[1] The reference work compiles book reviews from major periodicals of the period beneath each book's bibliographic entry.[2] Beginning in 1905, the H. W. Wilson Company issued Book Review Digest monthly, with cumulative compilations.[1] By the 1950s, Book Review Digest covered 4,000 books annually.[2]

Each book's bibliographic entry is introduced with a noncritical description,[2] annotating discrete features with no assessment of quality.[3] Beneath each is a digest of reviewer commentary in brief excerpt. Plus and minus symbols indicate the review's favorability, if apparent, letting readers quickly summarize critical consensus towards the book.[2] (Generally, listed reviews tend towards praise.[4]) Each volume additionally lists the review source publications, which are both American and English. For a sense of expansion over time, the 1905 volume had 386 pages while the 1948 volume had 1,067.[5]

While also used to aid libraries in their acquisition selection, as a compilation of book reviews often published and compiled after the book's release, Book Review Digest was not as useful to acquisition librarians as the American Library Association's Booklist new book guide, which is based on short descriptions rather than compiled, printed reviews.[1] Book Review Digest nevertheless was a mainstay for new book selection.[6] Some libraries clip and paste each book's digested review summary within the reviewed book itself or in the library's card catalog.[2]

Print cumulative and index edit

Like other Wilson bibliographies, Book Review Digest was printed as a cumulative catalog. Issued as a monthly, Book Review Digest collected book reviews for each catalog entry, printing each month's new reviews alongside the reviews compiled in prior issues. When the issue became too expensive to print, twice a year, Wilson issued a cumulative list: a six-month cumulation in August, and a bounded, full-year annual in February. Wilson released a cumulative index, compiled continuously, every five years.[7]

The cumulative format is based on the technical linotype print production technique. Each catalog entry is typeset as a linotype slug, i.e., a small metal bar, and can be kept in alphabetical order, simply adding reviews beneath each slug between monthly issues. This let the monthly issue remain current and uniform while building towards the annual cumulative volume.[7]

Its subject–title index additionally classifies books by type or special interest. Fiction, for example, is divided into "Cheerful Stories", "Ghost Stories", "Historical Novels", "Mystery Novels", and "Novels of Locality" (with subdivisions), as well as groupings by theme, such as school or sex.[8]

The 1905–1974 author/title index, published in 1976 across four volumes, alphabetically compiled bibliographic references for Book Review Digest's roughly 300,000 reviewed books in its first 75 years. It contains cross references for variant forms of each title and author.[9]

Digital edit

Wilson publishes its digest online as two products: Book Review Digest Retrospective and Book Review Digest Plus, respectively covering 1905–1982 and 1983 through the present day. At the time of their launch in the mid-2000s,[10][11] Retrospective compiled 1.5 million reviews from over 500 English-language publications on 300,000 books published between 1905 and 1982. The equivalent of Book Review Digest's first 78 annual cumulative volumes, Retrospective replaced 14 linear feet of reference material.[10] At its launch, Plus compiled over a million reviews from thousands of periodicals on 700,000 books published from 1983 through the present day. Updated daily, it also pulled reviews from other Wilson periodical databases, including Readers' Guide Full Text.[11] Retrospective does not contain full text reviews, only excerpts up to 500 words.[12] Plus extended coverage beyond general fiction and nonfiction reviews to include full-text reviews of reference works, children's books, and textbooks.[13][14]

Wilson first released Plus online in 2003,[11] followed by Retrospective two years later.[12] Both were initially offered through Wilson's redesigned WilsonWeb online interface.[11] Users had three modes of search: Basic, Advanced, and Browse. While Basic search let users use natural language and Boolean operators in a simple search box to search the database, the default mode was Advanced search, which let users select search fields by parameters like book title, book author, publication year, publisher, subject,[12] and ISBN. Users could also filter by date and by type of text result (excerpt, full text, peer reviewed, or PDF), when available.[10] The Browse mode let users navigate the database like an index. For retrieval, users could save, print, or email individual entries, which also saved in a search history.[12] WilsonWeb features also included connection to the individual library's online public access catalogs,[11] OpenURL interlibrary loan, multi-window pane navigation, citation formatting and citation manager export.[12] While Book Review Digest had been available in some form on EBSCOhost, OCLC, and SilverPlatter platforms as early as July 2003, Plus was exclusive to WilsonWeb.[15] EBSCO Publishing deprecated WilsonWeb upon acquiring the H. W. Wilson Company in 2011, with all Wilson databases being converted to the EBSCOhost platform.[16]

Among initial reviews of Retrospective and Plus in WilsonWeb, Harvard College Library's Head of Instructional Services described the online catalog as "an essential acquisition for every public, academic, and research library" in 2006.[10] Other called the catalogs powerful[12] and exciting.[17] Lack of a Retrospective search field for review source was an absence palpable among reviewers,[17][10] who struggled to separate reviews by Choice, Booklist, and History from other uses of those keywords in a general search. The workaround of using ISSN search to identify the review source was not obvious.[17] A 2003 Online magazine comparison between Plus and Amazon.com found that the latter was mostly sufficient for bestsellers, between Amazon's use of published reviews as well as their own. Amazon's customer reviewers were only worthwhile in the case of some specialized and technical books. Book Review Digest, on the other hand, only sourced professional opinions. While Amazon was quicker to post new excerpts and reviews since the late 1990s, Plus had 20 years of history. Plus also had a more robust search function and integration with library catalogs, but was only accessible through subscribing libraries whereas Amazon was accessible everywhere. While Plus was more complete, Amazon's accessibility and quickness provided for general audience needs.[15]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Haines 1957, p. 70.
  2. ^ a b c d e Haines 1957, p. 71.
  3. ^ Haines 1957, p. 73.
  4. ^ Haines 1957, p. 101.
  5. ^ Haines 1957, p. 72.
  6. ^ Haines 1957, p. 382.
  7. ^ a b Haines 1957, pp. 70–71.
  8. ^ Haines 1957, pp. 71–72.
  9. ^ Olevnik, Peter P. (September 1, 1976). "Rev. of Book Review Digest: author/title index, 1905–1974, 4 vols". Library Journal. 101 (15): 1758–1759. ISSN 0363-0277. EBSCOhost 5939337.
  10. ^ a b c d e LaGuardia, Cheryl (January 2006). "A Bibliophile's Heaven: Book Review Digest Retrospective: 1905-1982". Library Journal. 131 (1): 36. ISSN 0363-0277. EBSCOhost 19426602. ProQuest 196831122.
  11. ^ a b c d e "H.W. Wilson Introduces Book Review Digest Plus". Information Today. 20 (1): 3. January 2003. ISSN 8755-6286. EBSCOhost 8877540.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Quinn, Mary Ellen (November 1, 2005). "Book Review Digest Retrospective: 1905–1982". Booklist. 102 (5): 69. ISSN 0006-7385. EBSCOhost 18857430.
  13. ^ Shigo, Kimberly (February 2003). "H.W. Wilson Expands Book Review Digest". Computers in Libraries. 23 (2): 47. ISSN 1041-7915. EBSCOhost 8986969.
  14. ^ Rogers, Michael (2003). "WilsonWeb Adds Expanded BRD". Library Journal. 128 (1): 29. ISSN 0363-0277. EBSCOhost 8936380.
  15. ^ a b O'Leary, Mick (July 2003). "Book Review Digest Plus Battles Amazon for Title". Online. 27 (4): 49–51. ISSN 0146-5422. EBSCOhost 10099212.
  16. ^ Kelley, Michael (June 15, 2011). "In Major Deal, EBSCO Acquires H.W. Wilson". Library Journal. 136 (11): 15. ISSN 0363-0277. EBSCOhost 61428285.
  17. ^ a b c Jacso, Peter (February 2006). "AnaVist, Book Review Digest Retrospective, and Past Pans". Online. 30 (1): 58–60. ISSN 0146-5422. EBSCOhost 19292440.

Works cited edit

  • Haines, Helen E. (1957). "Familiar Friends and Companions". Living with Books: The Art of Book Selection. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 63–77. OCLC 580015.

Further reading edit

  • Altschiller, Donald; Wenzel, Sarah G. (2003). "Finding book reviews in print and online". Reference & User Services Quarterly. 42 (3): 193–198, 200–205. ISSN 1094-9054. ProQuest 217893528.
  • Cleland, Nancy Dean (1984). "Comparison of Sports Coverage in 'Book Review Digest' and 'Book Review Index'". RQ. 23 (4): 451–459. ISSN 0033-7072. JSTOR 25827226.
  • Connell, Tschera Harkness (June 1991). "Techniques to improve subject retrieval in online catalogs: flexible access to elements in the bibliographic record". Information Technology and Libraries. 10 (2): 87–98. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.954.936. ISSN 0730-9295.
  • Foulds, M.S.; Foulds, L.R. (1990). "CD-ROM Disk Selection and Evaluation". Reference Services Review. 18 (2): 27–44. doi:10.1108/eb049091. ISSN 0090-7324.
  • Golderman, Gail; Connolly, Bruce (2012). "eReviews". Library Journal. 137 (12): 105–109. ISSN 0363-0277. EBSCOhost 77692299. Gale A323858281.
  • Irwin, Ken (2003). "Book Review Digest Plus". Reference Reviews. 17 (5): 7–9. doi:10.1108/09504120310480779. ISSN 0950-4125. ProQuest 215216959.
  • Jordy, Matthew L.; McGrath, Eileen L.; Rutledge, John B. (March 1999). "Book reviews as a tool for assessing publisher reputation". College & Research Libraries. 60 (2): 132–142. doi:10.5860/crl.60.2.132. ISSN 0010-0870.
  • Palmer, Joseph W. (December 16, 1979). "Review Citations for Best-Selling Books". RQ. 19 (2): 154–158. ISSN 0033-7072. JSTOR 25826333.
  • Robson, J. M. (February 2006). "Book review digest retrospective: 1905-1982". Choice. 43 (6): 979. ISSN 0009-4978. ProQuest 225744803.
  • Spencer, Michael D. G. (1986). "Thoroughness of Book Review Indexing: A First Appraisal". RQ. 26 (2): 188–199. ISSN 0033-7072. JSTOR 25827832.
  • "SIRSI Forms Alliance with Wilson, Installs Systems in Connecticut Libraries". Information Today. 19 (3): 43. March 2002. ISSN 8755-6286. EBSCOhost 6313348.
  • Tallent, Ed (February 15, 2003). "Book Review Digest Plus". Library Journal. 128 (3): 177. ISSN 0363-0277. ProQuest 196831779.
  • Tenopir, Carol (March 1, 1991). "Wilson Branches Out". Library Journal. 116 (4): 73–74. ISSN 0363-0277. EBSCOhost 9103251934.
  • Wall, C. Edward; Gercken, Richard (December 15, 1970). "Book Reviewing Indexes". RQ. 10 (2): 140–142. ISSN 0033-7072. JSTOR 25824085.
  • Wood, Floris W. (April 1980). "Reviewing Book Review Indexes". Reference Services Review. 8 (2): 47–52. doi:10.1108/eb048681. ISSN 0090-7324. Gale A31417030.

External links edit

January 01, 1970
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Book Review Digest is a reference work by H W Wilson Company that compiles recent book reviews Printed monthly with annual compendia it digests American and English periodicals from 1905 to the present day Before the Internet Book Review Digest was a significant reference tool and bibliographic aid used by the American public and librarians alike to find current literature An online edition of the collection is offered in two subscription products Book Review Digest Retrospective 1905 1982 and Book Review Digest Plus 1983 through present day Title page of the digest s first volume 1905 Contents 1 Description and usage 2 Print cumulative and index 3 Digital 4 References 5 Works cited 6 Further reading 7 External linksDescription and usage editDuring the 20th century Book Review Digest was a common American library bibliographic aid for the public to find current literature 1 The reference work compiles book reviews from major periodicals of the period beneath each book s bibliographic entry 2 Beginning in 1905 the H W Wilson Company issued Book Review Digest monthly with cumulative compilations 1 By the 1950s Book Review Digest covered 4 000 books annually 2 Each book s bibliographic entry is introduced with a noncritical description 2 annotating discrete features with no assessment of quality 3 Beneath each is a digest of reviewer commentary in brief excerpt Plus and minus symbols indicate the review s favorability if apparent letting readers quickly summarize critical consensus towards the book 2 Generally listed reviews tend towards praise 4 Each volume additionally lists the review source publications which are both American and English For a sense of expansion over time the 1905 volume had 386 pages while the 1948 volume had 1 067 5 While also used to aid libraries in their acquisition selection as a compilation of book reviews often published and compiled after the book s release Book Review Digest was not as useful to acquisition librarians as the American Library Association s Booklist new book guide which is based on short descriptions rather than compiled printed reviews 1 Book Review Digest nevertheless was a mainstay for new book selection 6 Some libraries clip and paste each book s digested review summary within the reviewed book itself or in the library s card catalog 2 Print cumulative and index editLike other Wilson bibliographies Book Review Digest was printed as a cumulative catalog Issued as a monthly Book Review Digest collected book reviews for each catalog entry printing each month s new reviews alongside the reviews compiled in prior issues When the issue became too expensive to print twice a year Wilson issued a cumulative list a six month cumulation in August and a bounded full year annual in February Wilson released a cumulative index compiled continuously every five years 7 The cumulative format is based on the technical linotype print production technique Each catalog entry is typeset as a linotype slug i e a small metal bar and can be kept in alphabetical order simply adding reviews beneath each slug between monthly issues This let the monthly issue remain current and uniform while building towards the annual cumulative volume 7 Its subject title index additionally classifies books by type or special interest Fiction for example is divided into Cheerful Stories Ghost Stories Historical Novels Mystery Novels and Novels of Locality with subdivisions as well as groupings by theme such as school or sex 8 The 1905 1974 author title index published in 1976 across four volumes alphabetically compiled bibliographic references for Book Review Digest s roughly 300 000 reviewed books in its first 75 years It contains cross references for variant forms of each title and author 9 Digital editWilson publishes its digest online as two products Book Review Digest Retrospective and Book Review Digest Plus respectively covering 1905 1982 and 1983 through the present day At the time of their launch in the mid 2000s 10 11 Retrospective compiled 1 5 million reviews from over 500 English language publications on 300 000 books published between 1905 and 1982 The equivalent of Book Review Digest s first 78 annual cumulative volumes Retrospective replaced 14 linear feet of reference material 10 At its launch Plus compiled over a million reviews from thousands of periodicals on 700 000 books published from 1983 through the present day Updated daily it also pulled reviews from other Wilson periodical databases including Readers Guide Full Text 11 Retrospective does not contain full text reviews only excerpts up to 500 words 12 Plus extended coverage beyond general fiction and nonfiction reviews to include full text reviews of reference works children s books and textbooks 13 14 Wilson first released Plus online in 2003 11 followed by Retrospective two years later 12 Both were initially offered through Wilson s redesigned WilsonWeb online interface 11 Users had three modes of search Basic Advanced and Browse While Basic search let users use natural language and Boolean operators in a simple search box to search the database the default mode was Advanced search which let users select search fields by parameters like book title book author publication year publisher subject 12 and ISBN Users could also filter by date and by type of text result excerpt full text peer reviewed or PDF when available 10 The Browse mode let users navigate the database like an index For retrieval users could save print or email individual entries which also saved in a search history 12 WilsonWeb features also included connection to the individual library s online public access catalogs 11 OpenURL interlibrary loan multi window pane navigation citation formatting and citation manager export 12 While Book Review Digest had been available in some form on EBSCOhost OCLC and SilverPlatter platforms as early as July 2003 Plus was exclusive to WilsonWeb 15 EBSCO Publishing deprecated WilsonWeb upon acquiring the H W Wilson Company in 2011 with all Wilson databases being converted to the EBSCOhost platform 16 Among initial reviews of Retrospective and Plus in WilsonWeb Harvard College Library s Head of Instructional Services described the online catalog as an essential acquisition for every public academic and research library in 2006 10 Other called the catalogs powerful 12 and exciting 17 Lack of a Retrospective search field for review source was an absence palpable among reviewers 17 10 who struggled to separate reviews by Choice Booklist and History from other uses of those keywords in a general search The workaround of using ISSN search to identify the review source was not obvious 17 A 2003 Online magazine comparison between Plus and Amazon com found that the latter was mostly sufficient for bestsellers between Amazon s use of published reviews as well as their own Amazon s customer reviewers were only worthwhile in the case of some specialized and technical books Book Review Digest on the other hand only sourced professional opinions While Amazon was quicker to post new excerpts and reviews since the late 1990s Plus had 20 years of history Plus also had a more robust search function and integration with library catalogs but was only accessible through subscribing libraries whereas Amazon was accessible everywhere While Plus was more complete Amazon s accessibility and quickness provided for general audience needs 15 References edit a b c Haines 1957 p 70 a b c d e Haines 1957 p 71 Haines 1957 p 73 Haines 1957 p 101 Haines 1957 p 72 Haines 1957 p 382 a b Haines 1957 pp 70 71 Haines 1957 pp 71 72 Olevnik Peter P September 1 1976 Rev of Book Review Digest author title index 1905 1974 4 vols Library Journal 101 15 1758 1759 ISSN 0363 0277 EBSCOhost 5939337 a b c d e LaGuardia Cheryl January 2006 A Bibliophile s Heaven Book Review Digest Retrospective 1905 1982 Library Journal 131 1 36 ISSN 0363 0277 EBSCOhost 19426602 ProQuest 196831122 a b c d e H W Wilson Introduces Book Review Digest Plus Information Today 20 1 3 January 2003 ISSN 8755 6286 EBSCOhost 8877540 a b c d e f Quinn Mary Ellen November 1 2005 Book Review Digest Retrospective 1905 1982 Booklist 102 5 69 ISSN 0006 7385 EBSCOhost 18857430 Shigo Kimberly February 2003 H W Wilson Expands Book Review Digest Computers in Libraries 23 2 47 ISSN 1041 7915 EBSCOhost 8986969 Rogers Michael 2003 WilsonWeb Adds Expanded BRD Library Journal 128 1 29 ISSN 0363 0277 EBSCOhost 8936380 a b O Leary Mick July 2003 Book Review Digest Plus Battles Amazon for Title Online 27 4 49 51 ISSN 0146 5422 EBSCOhost 10099212 Kelley Michael June 15 2011 In Major Deal EBSCO Acquires H W Wilson Library Journal 136 11 15 ISSN 0363 0277 EBSCOhost 61428285 a b c Jacso Peter February 2006 AnaVist Book Review Digest Retrospective and Past Pans Online 30 1 58 60 ISSN 0146 5422 EBSCOhost 19292440 Works cited editHaines Helen E 1957 Familiar Friends and Companions Living with Books The Art of Book Selection New York Columbia University Press pp 63 77 OCLC 580015 Further reading editAltschiller Donald Wenzel Sarah G 2003 Finding book reviews in print and online Reference amp User Services Quarterly 42 3 193 198 200 205 ISSN 1094 9054 ProQuest 217893528 Cleland Nancy Dean 1984 Comparison of Sports Coverage in Book Review Digest and Book Review Index RQ 23 4 451 459 ISSN 0033 7072 JSTOR 25827226 Connell Tschera Harkness June 1991 Techniques to improve subject retrieval in online catalogs flexible access to elements in the bibliographic record Information Technology and Libraries 10 2 87 98 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 954 936 ISSN 0730 9295 Foulds M S Foulds L R 1990 CD ROM Disk Selection and Evaluation Reference Services Review 18 2 27 44 doi 10 1108 eb049091 ISSN 0090 7324 Golderman Gail Connolly Bruce 2012 eReviews Library Journal 137 12 105 109 ISSN 0363 0277 EBSCOhost 77692299 Gale A323858281 Irwin Ken 2003 Book Review Digest Plus Reference Reviews 17 5 7 9 doi 10 1108 09504120310480779 ISSN 0950 4125 ProQuest 215216959 Jordy Matthew L McGrath Eileen L Rutledge John B March 1999 Book reviews as a tool for assessing publisher reputation College amp Research Libraries 60 2 132 142 doi 10 5860 crl 60 2 132 ISSN 0010 0870 Palmer Joseph W December 16 1979 Review Citations for Best Selling Books RQ 19 2 154 158 ISSN 0033 7072 JSTOR 25826333 Robson J M February 2006 Book review digest retrospective 1905 1982 Choice 43 6 979 ISSN 0009 4978 ProQuest 225744803 Spencer Michael D G 1986 Thoroughness of Book Review Indexing A First Appraisal RQ 26 2 188 199 ISSN 0033 7072 JSTOR 25827832 SIRSI Forms Alliance with Wilson Installs Systems in Connecticut Libraries Information Today 19 3 43 March 2002 ISSN 8755 6286 EBSCOhost 6313348 Tallent Ed February 15 2003 Book Review Digest Plus Library Journal 128 3 177 ISSN 0363 0277 ProQuest 196831779 Tenopir Carol March 1 1991 Wilson Branches Out Library Journal 116 4 73 74 ISSN 0363 0277 EBSCOhost 9103251934 Wall C Edward Gercken Richard December 15 1970 Book Reviewing Indexes RQ 10 2 140 142 ISSN 0033 7072 JSTOR 25824085 Wood Floris W April 1980 Reviewing Book Review Indexes Reference Services Review 8 2 47 52 doi 10 1108 eb048681 ISSN 0090 7324 Gale A31417030 External links editOfficial website Book Review Digest at the HathiTrust Digital Library Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Book Review Digest amp oldid 1217353926, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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