Book Reviews Are Essential Tools for Librarians

For Heidi Julavits, a review might be a leisurely conversation or a little piece of art. For Francine Prose, it’s ethically suspect if it isn’t interesting. Folks at the NBCC’s “Crisis in American Book Pages” panel at BookExpo America seemed to agree that the reason we all struggle to find the perfect phrase (or the perfect reviewer to write that phrase) is not to sell books, and both this panel and the NBCC’s “Ethics in Book Reviewing” panel readily dismissed the review as consumer report.

From my perspective as editor of the book review at Library Journal, this is stimulating stuff but somewhat perplexing. (It also seems willfully naïve; I suspect most people pick up, say, the New York Times book review simply to see what to read, which requires a book purchase somewhere along the line by someone, if only the willing librarian.) For my readers, the reviews LJ runs aren’t entertainment over morning coffee; they’re business, and I’m not too fussed that my job is to run straight-shooting commentary aimed at helping librarians decide what to buy and what not to buy. At the NBCC “Book Pages” panel, former Dallas Morning News book columnist Jerome Weeks mentioned from the floor that a farewell letter he received from a librarian explained that she needed his reviews to justify purchases. That seemed to surprise a lot of people, so let me explain.

After a lean few years, book budgets at public libraries are rebounding, and they’re not inconsiderable. Last year, according to Library Journal’s annual book-buying survey, libraries serving populations of 500,000 or more had book budgets averaging $3.3 million. That’s a lot of books, and certainly libraries have got to go beyond my 5,000 to 6,000 reviews a year to get useful commentary (not just spin) on what to buy. More to the point, many public libraries require one and sometimes two reviews to justify purchase as a matter of policy; they can’t simply rely on a sales rep’s pitch. Think about it; they’re spending public money, and they want to do it right.

There’s more. Librarians obviously can’t read all the books they recommend and discuss with patrons, and there’s nothing like a good LJ (or Dallas Morning News) review to move along the conversation. Librarians can draw both content and context from reviews to provide what in professional parlance is called readers’ advisory, and for that purpose it’s really valuable to have a range of reviews instead of cookie-cutter wire copy. Finally, books do get challenged, and when that happens (as it does hundreds of times a year nationwide), it can be crucial to produce an encouraging review from a reputable source.

So, reviews as entertainment or part of the great intellectual conversation? Yes, librarians read them that way, too; they’re among the biggest book nuts on earth. But reviews are really the tools they need to help other people do their reading. All of which is to say that cutbacks in review space across the country really hit libraries hard, right where they do their core business. --Barbara Hoffert, NBCC Board Member