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Locating Book Reviews


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Indexes
  • Book Review Digest (INDEX Z1219 C95)
  • Book Review Index (INDEX Z1035 A1 B6)
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    1. Locate the volumes of Book Review Digest and/or Book Review Index that correspond with the year that your book was published. For example, if you are looking for Beloved by Toni Morrison, published in 1987, the best place to start your search is in the 1987 volume. (If you do not find a review in the 1987 volume, look in the succeeding 2-3 years, such as 1988, 1989, and 1990. Reviews may have come out in the years following publication.)

    2. Search alphabetically by the author's last name: Morrison, Toni.

    3. In Book Review Digest each author entry provides review excerpts arranged alphabetically by the name of the review journal. Example journal excerpts included for Morrison's Beloved are: The New York Times Book Review, Commonweal, Nation, National Review, New Republic, The New York Review of Books, Newsweek, Time, and The New Yorker. (NOTE: The journal code lists are located at the beginning of each volume.)

    4. Book Review Index provides a listing of review journals. Example journals included for Morrison's Beloved are: Kirkus Reviews, Nation, New Republic, Newsweek, New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Time, Times Literary Supplement, and Tribune Books (Chicago). (NOTE: The journal code lists are located at the beginning of each volume.)

    5. Check the Library Catalog for the library's holdings..
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  • Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals: 1886-1974 (INDEX Z1035 A1 C64)

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    1. Search by Author (Volumes 1-12) or by Title (Volumes 13-15). The Title listing will refer you to the corresponding Author entry.

    2. For example, if you are looking for a book review on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, you can search in Volume 5 under Hemingway, Ernest or in Volume 14 for The Old Man and the Sea (a worthwhile search if you did not know that Hemingway was the author).

    3. The entry for Hemingway, Ernest -- The Old Man and the Sea lists the following two scholarly journals: Freeman and Sociology and Social Research. (NOTE: The Journal Code List is located at the beginning of each volume.)

    4. Check the Library Catalog for the library's holdings..
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  • InfoTrac: Expanded Academic ASAP
    •  DISCUS - South Carolina's Virtual Library

    1. Use a KEYWORD search by entering the book title and/or the author's name (order of first and last name does not seem to make a difference).

    Examples:
    Angela's Ashes and reviews
    Angela's Ashes    		 McCourt and Angela's Ashes
    Frank McCourt

    (A few of the periodicals referenced for Angela's Ashes are: The Sewanee Review, JAMA, American Journal of Psychiatry, Commonweal, The New York Times Book Review, Newsweek, and Poets and Writers Magazine.)

    **If the library does not have the periodical that you need, we can usually provide you with the article/book review through Interlibrary Loan. Fill out the request form by the reference desk or the form on the library's web page. Items usually take at least 8 days to arrive.
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    Individual Periodicals
    The following periodicals, held by the Edens Library, are also excellent resources for locating book reviews:
    *Black Issues Book Review
    Booklist
    *Brightleaf: New Writing for the South
    *CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries
    *The Horn Book Magazine: About Books for Children and Young Adults
    Library Journal
    *The New York Times Book Review
    *The New York Review of Books
    Publisher's Weekly
    *Women's Review of Books
    *An especially good model for writing a book review

    Summer 2000
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    Page last modified by Sarah Hood
    Date: 6/13/06
    [Columbia College]
    [Edens Library, Columbia South Carolina]