Week 5 Prompt Response

How do reviews affect collection development?
When reviews are sought out for collection development I think it is important to look at more than one review from more than one source.  While reviews are opinion, they still need to be credible.  Kirkus allows the reviewer to be as honest as they would like because they are anonymous, for me this opens up concerns and credibility of anonymity. "The knowledge of how BRs are written in different disciplines is of overarching importance to those interested in genre studies. Besides, cross-cultural investigations can be conducted in order to see how cultural specificities might affect the formation of BRs and whether the overall organization of a BR would remain intact across different cultures and languages," was the conclusion of Jaliffar and Tanivar in their study on book reviews, albeit academic focused, and the politeness factor used to reduce an FTA (Face Threatening Act), was an interesting point to consider.  If reviewers aren't anonymous will they be more guarded in their written review? 

Are the two review examples reliable?  How likely would I be to buy this for my library?
In my opinion all reviews need to be taken with grain of salt.  When I am reading reviews on anything that I might buy, read or watch I look at how many reviews there are.  One great and one terrible- then they cancel each other out.  Reviews are often written because the consumer was really happy with the whole product or at least most of it or they really disliked it and were unsatisfied. If an item or book has many reviews I find it more reliable, more people have read/used the item.  It is also important to note that reviewers on Amazon, as in the example have no connection to you, however if you are reading a review on a blog it is often because you follow that blogger.  You have already identified that you have something you like about the person or what they read and so you typically will value their opinion over that of a stranger that happened to read a book that you looked at online.

Would I buy this book for my library- probably not.  Although both reviews give it an average rating there is nothing about it that either reviewer is raving over. A short 185 page easy read most likely has dozens of read alikes within the library for patrons to read.

Angela's Ashes- how do the reviews make me feel about adding it to the collection?
Each of the exampled reviews of Angela's Ashes are vastly different.  The Kirkus review comes across as a brutal review of the father in the story, but ultimately makes for a compelling description and review of the book itself. I feel like all four reviews were positive for the book and the author and based on them I would purchase this book for a library collection.  

As a side note I found the Library Journal and the School Library Journal reviews written in a sterile matter of fact manor, while the other reviews drew me in and made me want to read the book. Interestly I just looked up reviews for a book I recently read and didn't really enjoy and it was compared to Angela's Ashes as a read alike.  So while the 4 reviews make me interested in reading the book, knowing it is comparable to what I just finished makes me less inclined to read it myself.  

Is it fair one type of book is reviewed a lot and others get little to no coverage?  
I did a search for Danielle Steel in Kirkus, Library Journal, and the New York Times Reviews.  I was surprised that I was unable to find any reviews.  I then search for another well known romance novelist, Robyn Carr and found reviews for her in both Kirkus and Library Journal.  In general I think romance novels get fewer reviews, especially those written by those well known in the genre.  I would venture to say their literature worth is deemed less important and once a fan has found their romance novels they tend to stick with them, with or without reviews.  Is it fair, probably not but they seem to have a good circulation without reviews. 

How does this affect a libraries collection?  
I think this has more of an affect on new authors than established ones, which then makes it difficult for a library to determine if it should be added to the collection.  While reviewers might not find value in them, the readers of this genre are typically loyal readers and it is a responsibility of the collection manager to provide a collection for all. 

How do you feel about review sources that don't print the negative?  Is that appropriate?  
I have a tendency to distrust those that don't allow for negative reviews.  It limits the purpose of the review of only positive reviews are made and it doesn't allow consumers/patrons to have all the information about the book.

If you buy for a library- how often do you use reviews?  
When I was purchasing books for the international school library I used reviews from Amazon, GoodReads, Scholastic or the site I was purchasing books on.  I took into consideration if the books I was purchasing were for students pleasure reading, if they were books we wanted to supplement english classes or if they were for our IPC (International Primary Curriculum) units.  The IPC site often had books that it recommended to include in a reference library to support the unit.  

If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading?  What are your favorite review sources? 
I've never been in the habit of looking up reviews on  regular basis for books I am picking up from the library.  I am either there to browse the shelves or I have a recommendation for a specific book I am looking for.  The recommendations are often verbal reviews from friends, although I will sometimes do a quick search for a book on Amazon or Goodreads for a review.  I just finished a book which I picked out during my secret shopper experience.  I just looked up a couple of reviews for the book which were mostly positive, however at the end of the book I can't say I would recommend it. Reviews are very personal and I think unless I know the reviewer or the person recommending the book it's a gamble.  However I will say if I check reviews for personal reading and they are positive I am far more likely to try a book and hope that I am not disappointed. 

Jalilifar, A. “Ahvaz,” & Tanavar, L. “Shiraz.” (2015). In search of the generic identity of the book review: a chronological and pragmatic study. Linguistik Online, 3, 51.