Monday, July 06, 2009

Book Reviews--We Need More of Them

Sanford Levinson has a wonderful article in the May 2009 Texas Law Review, "The Vanishing Book Review in Student-Edited Law Reviews and Potential Responses." What he does not mention in his excellent article is how much a librarian like myself relies upon book reviews for collection development and reference. A good review compares a book to others in the field and points out its strengths and weaknesses. The New York Law Journal's book reviews have helped me develop reference skills. I would like more reviews of practice books, something Levinson does not mention. I don't like relying on publishers' blurbs. Law reviews from the 1950s and 1960s evaluated practice books. Those articles are so valuable. I have used them to help me weed collections. I need reviews on current publications.
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1 comment:

  1. Betsy McKenzie12:49 PM

    Don't overlook the book reviews being posted on the AALL Spectrum blog. This is covering more of the practice type materials. Visit http://tinyurl.com/mewpg4
    Or go to http://aallspectrum.wordpress.com
    and look for book reviews under the categories on the right hand side of the main page.

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