Buley Library

Book Reviews

    A book review is a critical analysis of a book that is usually published in a periodical. Reviews are written by a critic or journalist and reflect the personal opinions of the reviewer. Book reviews generally provide comments on the book's style, content, appeal and significance. They are written as soon as a book is published and serve as a great, evaluative tool. Reviews can vary in length from a short paragraph to an essay.

    Book reviews can be located using print or online resources. Print indexes/abstracts are published annually and are located on the second floor of the library. To locate reviews using a print index or abstract, you should know the book's title, author, and date of publication. Look up the volume that corresponds to the year the book was published. On occasion, it may be necessary to check volumes that appear a year or two after the book was published as there could be a time lag between the publication of the book and the publication of the review. A print index provides only the citation, not the review. Find the citation to the review by using the author/title index. An abstract will provide a summary of the review. To access the full review, check Journal Locator on the library home page to determine if we subscribe to the periodical in which the review appears. If the library does not have the periodical you can request the article through interlibrary loan.

    In addition to print indexes, book reviews can be located using bibliographies and guides, databases, and web sites. The databases appear in alphabetical order on the database page. This guide lists general book review resources that can be used for finding book reviews in all subject disciplines followed by a subject specific section that lists print and online resources for each major discipline.

Contents

Abstracts and Indexes

Bibliographies/Guides

Databases

Web Resources

Subject Specific Resources

Winnie Shyam

Reference Librarian

Last updated 8/12/08