Book Reviews
Yes, I am still a practicing librarian, so if you happen to stumble upon my blog because you wanted to read blogs by (conservative) librarians, here's one for you...
I'm behind on my book ordering, so I'm reading older reviews. As I was perusing the November 15, 2005 Library Journal, I stumbled upon the article entitled, The State of the Union by Karl Helicher. It is a compilation of the reviews of "Nine new books on Red State and Blue State politics".
Well, true to form, reviews of books written from the Red State/Conservative/Republican angle or slightly critical of the Blue Staters, conclude with statements such as "...libraries can pass on this one". One title on morality and the presidency is considered to be "...of limited value for public libraries". "Not a necessary purchase." was the statement granted to a Bush bashing book because it also faulted the Democrats.
On the other hand, the numerous reviews of books pro Blue State, conclude with such sentiments as, "Strongly recommended...", "...suitable for public libraries", "recommended for public libraries, " and the ever popular, "Highly recommended for public and academic libraries". These titles alone are very telling: Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy and How the Republicans Stole Christmas: The Republican Party's Declared Monopoly on Religion and What Democrats Can Do to Take it Back, among other similiarly sentimented titles.
I didn't expect any different from the very reliable, ever biased Library Journal.
While on the topic of book reviews, I will give a nod to my colleague for his collection development dilligence. I noticed a copy of the National Review in his brief case and I mentioned that my Dad subscribes to that for me. He said that his Dad subscribes to it for him, hoping it will be a good incluence on him. My colleague then shared the he personally subscribes to Mother Jones and Reason. I said, "well, it is important to get a balance of views". He agreed and said that he uses the NR book reviews when he purchases books for his other job
I'm behind on my book ordering, so I'm reading older reviews. As I was perusing the November 15, 2005 Library Journal, I stumbled upon the article entitled, The State of the Union by Karl Helicher. It is a compilation of the reviews of "Nine new books on Red State and Blue State politics".
Well, true to form, reviews of books written from the Red State/Conservative/Republican angle or slightly critical of the Blue Staters, conclude with statements such as "...libraries can pass on this one". One title on morality and the presidency is considered to be "...of limited value for public libraries". "Not a necessary purchase." was the statement granted to a Bush bashing book because it also faulted the Democrats.
On the other hand, the numerous reviews of books pro Blue State, conclude with such sentiments as, "Strongly recommended...", "...suitable for public libraries", "recommended for public libraries, " and the ever popular, "Highly recommended for public and academic libraries". These titles alone are very telling: Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy and How the Republicans Stole Christmas: The Republican Party's Declared Monopoly on Religion and What Democrats Can Do to Take it Back, among other similiarly sentimented titles.
I didn't expect any different from the very reliable, ever biased Library Journal.
While on the topic of book reviews, I will give a nod to my colleague for his collection development dilligence. I noticed a copy of the National Review in his brief case and I mentioned that my Dad subscribes to that for me. He said that his Dad subscribes to it for him, hoping it will be a good incluence on him. My colleague then shared the he personally subscribes to Mother Jones and Reason. I said, "well, it is important to get a balance of views". He agreed and said that he uses the NR book reviews when he purchases books for his other job
posted by Susan at 12:23 PM
2 Comments:
An excellent post. I've suggested that our library subscribe to Books and Culture to get a balance in the review material--not just for librarians but the general reading public. LJ definitely has a strong bias. I suppose it is up to conservative librarians to volunteer to be reviewers.
Thanks for your nice comment. Yes, I think we need to do some reviewing. I almost became a reviewer for YOYA...those YA novels would have been something I'm not so sure I'd want to be reading, let alone reviewing at this point!
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