Prompt Response Two

The perception of eBooks and eBook exclusive content is very interesting. In some ways, it has been super helpful for up-and-coming authors--they release a free version of their debut book and then subsequent ones cost money so if they win over their readers, they’ll have dedicated customers as well. In other ways, for traditional physical book readers, it’s frustrating because there may be books they want to read that just can't be accessed, like the Amazon Kindle exclusive releases. The debate surrounding artificial scarcity in relation to eBooks and eMaterial is also very interesting and impacts a library’s ability to provide eContent. Many patrons express their displeasure with the long hold times on Libby, but without buying multiple copies of the same eBook, there isn’t really a way for us to improve the system. 

I actually have very little insight into how we purchase eBooks or even what eBooks we purchase for the collection. I actually just requested the report for titles we own from our selection team earlier this week, so I should be getting that information soon, and I’m curious to see if it will be primarily eBook and eAudiobook versions of the popular bestsellers which is my prediction. 

The romance novel The Billionaire's First Christmas sounds like a Hallmark Christmas movie as a book. This doesn’t surprise me as a lot of the Hallmark Christmas movies are actually books first. These movies circulate fairly well at my library, so I could see similar books circulating too. That being said, I’m not sure how well this particular eBook would do against Debbie Macomber’s work or the other big name authors. As far as the reviews go, I do think they are reliable. That being said, I also think they both come from readers who are already inclined to read books of this genre which colors opinions as well. 

In regards to Angela’s Ashes, the fact that it has been reviewed by so many of the major review sources makes me inclined to think that it would do well in my library (I actually did pull up its item record and it has a lifetime circulation count of 73, with 2 of those being in the previous year). One of my tasks is to examine our Dead On Arrival rate at my library, and I’ve noticed that nothing seems to circulate as well as the best-selling titles. A telling indicator of a best-seller, is the number of professional reviews it has. However, if we hadn’t already owned this book, I would not have advocated for putting it on a purchase order. Seeing as it was published in 1996, I don’t think I could justify ordering it now. The same would be true if it ends up on our weeding list (we are in the midst of an intensive adult nonfiction weed), I would not recommend ordering a replacement copy. 

I’ve actually never cared much for book reviews. It’s a little funny because I’ll read a book, not enjoy it, and then go look for book reviews to see if other readers had the same opinion I did. I always have that hindsight thought of ‘oh, if I had looked for reviews before reading this book, I could’ve saved myself the time of reading it,’ but despite that reflection, I don’t do anything differently the next time. With that being my main purpose in reading reviews, I definitely feel like negative reviews are important! For instance, I am seriously offended by Erin Young’s thriller The Fields which has so many reviews but is a horrible portrayal of Iowa and Iowans. I combed through reviews looking for other people who recognized those issues (AND I just found out she wrote a sequel because it arrived in a brand new Baker & Taylor box on Friday … seven pages in and she had already written something problematic about Iowa). 

I think part of the distaste I have for reviews is that the field is oversaturated with a very specific type of book just as the prompt says. It’s so obvious that I feel like I can unpack a box of new releases at the library and point out which ones probably have professional reviews. The selection in our library has been outsourced via our contract with the company LibraryIQ which means I am not privy to the exact methods the team uses to select titles. I have noticed that we receive the majority of the books that are featured in BookPage Magazine, so I’m assuming that our selector is looking at reviews to some extent. But, our Dead On Arrival rate has increased this year, so as we move into budget season, we’re trying to identify where we need to make changes in our selection.