Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS

INTRODUCTION

In another portion of Module III, you found some information about book reviews. You noticed that these reviews are published in scholarly journals, popular magazines, newspapers, and even in Internet sites. In most cases a book will be reviewed within a year after it is published. So, the date of publication helps you to determine what sources or what volumes to look at in order to find the review of the work you are examining.

There are other elements you need to know to locate a book review: the author and the title. Sometimes the country of publication and the publisher itself can be helpful pieces of information.

Once you have located the basic bibliographic information about the book, you need to know where to go to locate the book reviews. Below is a list of indexes to book reviews.

GENERAL AND MULTI-DISCIPLINARY INDEXES TO BOOK REVIEWS

Book Review Digest (BRD) 1905-
Published monthly (except Feb. and July) with quarterly and annual cumulations. This is a general but selective index to reviews published in about 80 periodicals covering the areas of humanities, social sciences, and general science published in the United States and Canada. It contains brief excerpts from reviews it indexes. It also indicates the length of the reviews. Among the types of books excluded are government publications, textbooks and technical books in sciences and law. The reviews are arranged by author with a subject and title index. Two of the main advantages of the BRD over other indexes are the inclusion of abstracts or excerpts of the reviews and a long time span of coverage: 1905 to the present.
Ref. Z1219 .C96

Book Review Index. 1965-
Quarterly, with semiannual and annual cumulations. It indexes reviews in hundreds of periodicals including poetry and juvenile books. It is arranged by author with a title index. It does not contain excerpts of reviews. The Book Review Index is the most comprehensive of the indexes to book reviews.
Ref. Z1035.A1 B6

Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals. 1886-1974.
This 15 volume work is a comprehensive backfile of 459 scholarly journals in History, Political Science and Sociology. It contains separate title and author indexes. It does not provide excerpts of the reviews.
Ref. Z1035.A1 C64

Cumulated Magazine Subject Index. 1907-1949.
Reviews listed under subject, except fiction, which is by author.
Ref. AI3 .C76 2 vol.

Current Book Review Citations. 1976-1982.
No longer published. Index to over 1000 general and specialized periodicals. Brings together citations to book reviews in the H.W. Wilson indexes. An excellent source for the period 1976 1982. Arranged by author with title index.
Ref. Z1035.A1 C86

Expanded Academic Index. 1993-
The Expanded Academic Index database provides bibliographic references to and abstracts of articles from more than 960 scholarly and general-interest publications. Covered subject areas include the social sciences, humanities, and non-technical general sciences. The database spans three to four years of information, and is updated weekly. Check under author or book title. To access it use the World Wide Web and go to the Library home page at http://www.lasierra.edu/library/ From there choose the "On-line Databases" option. Then select "Expanded Academic Index and Business Index." Login as guest.

New York Times Book Review Index. 1896-1970
This work is made up of five volumes: v. 1. Author Index; v. 2. Title Index; v. 3. Byline Index; v. 4. Subject Index; v. 5. Category index (children's, fiction, drama, mystery, etc.).
Ref. Z1035.A1 N411

New York Times Index. 1851-
The Library has bound volumes of this index going back to 1851. To find book reviews in this source look under "Books-Reviews." This section contains separate listings by author and title.
Ref. AI21 .N45 (Date)

Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. 1890-1899.
Reviews cited by author of book. Covers only reviews printed in the 1890's. with supplementary indexing, 1900-1922.
Ref. AI3 .R496

Poole's Index to Periodical Literature. 1892-1907.
Reviews of fiction, poetry and drama are by author, others under subject.
Ref. AI3 .P7 1938

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. 1900-
Monthly with quarterly and annual cumulations. For 1905- also check the Book Review Digest above. Books not listed in BRD are sometimes listed in Readers' Guide. Beginning 1976 (V. 36) there is a separate Book Review section in back of each volume of the Readers' Guide.
Ref. AI3 .R48Latest volumes located on Index tables

REVIEWS BY SUBJECT AREA

ART

Art Index. 1929-
Separate book review section in the back of each volume.
Ref Z 5937 A78 The Library holdings start in with vol. 7, 1947

BUSINESS

Business Periodicals Index. 1958-
Separate book review section in the back of each volume.
Ref. Z5781 .P2

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Children's Book Review Index. 1969-
A separate list of reviews of children's books which also appear in Book Review Index.
Ref. Z1037.A1 C475

EDUCATION

Education Index. 1929-
Separate book review section in the back of each volume.
Ref. Z 5813 E 23

ERIC database. 1966-
If you are using the SilverPlatter interface, Search for "Book-reviews" or "Book-reviews in de." This database is available in the Reference area.

HISTORY

America History and Life. 1964-
Until 1988, this resource contains separate section for book reviews each year. From 1989 on, book reviews can be found by title, author or subject. The letter b at the end of a citation indicates that the source is a book review. This index is located at the end of the Reference collection with other indexes arranged in alphabetical order.

HUMANITIES

Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities. 1960-1990 Quarterly publication with annual cumulations. It contains more reviews than BRD (above), but without excerpts. The titles of the periodicals are identified by code numbers explained in front. The number of journals indexed varies but the last volume, 1990, includes 702 titles. The reviews are listed only by author.
Ref. Z1035.A1 I63

Humanities Index. 1974-
Separate book review section in the back of each volume. Covers book reviews in arts and humanities journals.
Ref. AI3 .H85

MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES

Medline 1967-
There are few book reviews in Medline. They can be found under the subject heading "Book Reviews." This database is available at the Reference area.

SCIENCE

General Science Index. 1978-
Separate book review section in the back of each volume.
Ref. Z7403 .G4

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Social Sciences Index. 1967-
Separate book review section in the back of each volume.
Ref. AI3 .S67

Social Sciences Citation Index. 1972-
Look under author's name in Citation Index; reviews are identified by letter "B." (Also listed by reviewer in Source Index.) The most recent volumes are on the index tables. Older volumes are located at the end of the Reference collection with other indexes arranged in alphabetical order.