Databases | Internet Resources | Print Resources | General Advice

  Do not overlook resources available over the Internet, especially if you are looking for information on a current bestseller--do a title and author search in your favorite search engine. A warning: many publishers are now offering free "reader's guides" for book discussion groups, and many authors have their own websites; remember that these sites are marketing tools and thus do not qualify as impartial reviews.

For a useful list of links to book review web sites, see:
Directory of Book Reviews on the Web  (http://www.acqweb.org/bookrev.html).

Book Review Digest [1905-January,1999] Provides citations and excerpts of book reviews from about 90 periodicals.	Z 1219.C95 Ref. Bookcase 2
Book Review Index [1965-current] Provides citations only of book reviews from a wider range of periodicals than Book Review Digest. Note that abbreviations are used for journal titles.	Z 1035.A1 B62 (1965-84) Z 1035.A1 B6 (1985-current) Ref. Bookcase 2
Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature [1900 - 1997] Book reviews are listed separately at the back of each index.	AI 3.R47 (1890-1899)--2 vols. AI 3.R4 (1900-1959; 1970-1997) AI 3. C84 (1959-1970)--7 vols. Ref. Bookcase 3
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974 Index for book reviews in 150 humanities journals.	Z 1035.A1 C65 Ref. Bookcase 2
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974 Index for book reviews in 459 scholarly journals in history, political science, and sociology.	Z 1035.A1 C6 Ref. Bookcase 2
Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities [1960-1990] Index for book reviews in selected humanities journals.	Z 1035.A1 I63 Ref. Bookcase 2
Social Sciences Citation Index [1956-1998] See online version for 1990-current.	Z 7161.S65 Ref. Bookcase 3
Alternative Press Index [vol. 4 (1972) to vol. 15 (1983)]	AI 3.A27 Central Stacks
Book Review Index to Social Science Periodicals [1964-1974] (4 vols).	Z 7161.A15 B65 Ref. Bookcase 2
C.R.I.S.: The Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History, 1838-1974 (11 vols.)	Z 6205.C18 Ref. Bookcase 4
C.R.I.S.: The Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in Political Science, 1886-1974 (8 vols.)	Z 7163.C18 Ref. Bookcase 4
C.R.I.S.: The Combined Retrospective Index Set to Journals in Sociology, 1895-1974 (6 vols.)	Z 7164.S68 C18 Ref. Stacks
National Library Service Cumulative Book Review Index, 1905-1974 (6 vols.)	Z 1035.A1 N35 1975 Ref. Bookcase 2
The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900 (5 vols.) Index to contents over about 40 British periodicals; look at the tables of contents of each journal to find the title of the book.	AI 3.W45 Ref. Stacks
Palmer's Index to The Times [London] Newspaper, 1790-1941	AI 21.T5 Central Ref.
Index to Book Reviews in England, 1775-1800	Z 1035.A1 F675 1997 Central Ref
Literary Reviews in British Periodicals, 1789-1797: A Bibliography; Literary Reviews in British Periodicals, 1798-1820; Literary Reviews in British Periodicals, 1821-1825	Z 2013.W36 1979 Central Ref
Choice (Association of College and Research Libraries) Print only: This periodical has reviews of books intended for academic libraries.	Z 1035.C5 Central Periodicals vols. 1 (1964/65) to 39 (2002)--subscription cancelled Education Periodicals Shelved by title vols. 1 (1964/65) to current

 

 General Advice:

Be sure that you have the accurate title and/or author of the book. It is helpful to know the date of publication, as this information can help you limit your search in many databases and print indexes. For books aimed at general reading audiences, such as popular fiction or history for the non-specialist, reviews can appear just prior to date of publication and continue appearing up to a year later, depending on the source of the review. For scholarly books, reviews may appear in academic journals as much as 3 years later, depending on the publication schedule of the journal.

You might begin your search with the general or multidisciplinary databases and print resources, listed below. If the book is a scholarly one (i.e., written for an academic audience), use the subject-specific databases and print resources, under the General Print Resources section of this guide.

A warning: not all books get reviewed, but be sure that you have checked many different databases and print resources before you give up your search. Remember that many electronic databases begin their full-text coverage sometime in the 1980s and/or their indexing in the 1960s, so you need to check the dates of coverage for each database. Thus, depending on the date of publication, you might need to begin with the print resources for a general readership book or with the subject-specific resources for an academic book.

Remember that you are searching for information about a book, so you should search for the title and/or author as subject or as keywords--the author of the review is not the author of the book. Another way to limit your search in some databases is to use "review" or "reviews" as part of your search statement; some databases allow you to choose "review" as a document type or publication type. Check the help screen for that database for more information about limiting or narrowing your search.

If you are not able to find the full text online, you need to check in Acorn to see if Vanderbilt carries the periodical that is the source of the review. If this library does not have the periodical, consider the option of interlibrary loan.