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BOOK REVIEWS are important for immediate critical reaction to a
published work.
TO FIND A BOOK REVIEW, you need to know the author, title, and
year the book was published. If you do not have the book in hand and
you are not sure of this information, check the CTW
Online Catalog, Books
in Print, or OCLC FirstSearch's WorldCat.
Reference librarians are always glad to assist in your search.
Citations to many book reviews (and the full text of some)
published since the mid 1980s, and most since the early 1990s, can be
found online as well as in print sources. Before then, most are
indexed only in paper sources.
Find book review sources
Online Sources for Book
Reviews
General
Online Sources for Book Reviews
- Book
Review Digest - Contains citations to book reviews; most
citations include excerpts from the reviews. Log in to the OCLC
FirstSearch page with your email user name and password, and
select Book Review Digest. Enter the book's title in the "Search
for" box, and select "Title" in the "Keyword Index." Covers
reviews published from 1983 to the present. (Also available
In Print from 1905 to the present)
- Lexis-Nexis
- Full text articles, including book reviews, from newspapers,
magazines, and other sources. Select "General News Topics," then
select to search major newspapers, regional news sources
(including international regions), or magazines. Type the book's
title in the Keyword field; to further specify your search, add
the book's author, a newspaper title (e.g. New York Times), or a
phrase such as "book review" in the Additional Terms field. Covers
some publications from the mid 1980s, many more from the early
1990s, to the present.
- Periodicals
Contents Index - Searchable tables of contents of
journals, covering publications from 1770 to five years before the
present. Enter the book's title in the "General Keyword" field and
limit Scope to "Book reviews only."
- Readers'
Guide - A general index covering a wide range of subjects,
offering abstracts and some full text for articles from popular
and news magazines, with online coverage since 1983. Select the
SearchPlus option, where you can type the title in one search
field, and then select "book review" as the "Article type" to
search for. For reviews before 1983, consult the Print
version of Readers' Guide.
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From the WilsonWeb set of online databases, these indexes
offer abstracts and some full text for articles from
academic and scholarly publications since 1984, including
book reviews, in their subject areas. Select the SearchPlus
option, where you can type the title in one search field,
and then select "book review" as the "Article type" to
search for. For reviews before 1984, consult the Print
versions of these indexes.
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Subject
Specific Online Sources for Book Reviews
This list is not comprehensive, but it includes databases which
allow searching specifically for book reviews. For a complete list
of online indexes, see the Indexes,
Abstracts, and Databases page.
- Applied
Science & Technology Abstracts - A WilsonWeb database,
indexing scientific and technical publications from 1983 to the
present. Select the SearchPlus option, where you can type the
title in one search field, and then select "book review" as the
"Article type" to search for.
- Art
Abstracts - A WilsonWeb database, indexing art
publications from 1984 to the present. Select the SearchPlus
option, where you can type the title in one search field, and then
select "book review" as the "Article type" to search for.
- Avery
Index to Architectural Periodicals - Indexes over 1,000
periodicals on archaeology, city planning, interior design,
historic preservation, and architecture, from 1977 to the present.
Select "Advanced Search" and search for the book's title and the
phrase "book review."
- Bibliography
of the History of Art - Indexes about 2500 periodicals on
European and American art, from 1973 to the present. Select
"Advanced Search" and search for the book's title and the phrase
"book review."
- EconLit
- Indexes the literature of economics from 1969 to the present,
and includes the full text of book reviews. Enter the book's title
in the search box and click to "Perform Search." If you get more
than a few hits, you can click to "Limit" your search: select
"Book Reviews" as the "Publication Type" and click to "Limit
Search."
- International
Index to Music Periodicals - Indexes about 400 music
journals, dating as far back as 1874; citations since 1996 include
abstracts. Search for the book's title, and set the "Document
Type" field to "Book Review."
- Religion
Database - Enter the book's title in the search box and
click to "Perform Search." If you get more than a few hits, you
can click to "Limit" your search: select to limit to "Review" and
click to "Limit Search."
Print Sources for Book
Reviews
For annually published indexes, start with the volume from the
year of the book's publication, and then also search the next few
volumes, since some reviews may not be published until a few years
after the book is published.
General
Print Sources for Book Reviews
- Book Review Digest - Ref Z 1219 .B66 - Currently
covering about 100 periodicals, Book Review Digest provides
citations to and excerpts from reviews of English language books.
Covers from 1905 to the present. (Also available Online
from 1983 to the present)
- Book Review Index - Ref Z 1035 .A1 B65 - Covering over
600 publications, Book Review Index provides more comprehensive
coverage than BRDigest, especially of academic and scholarly
books, but it provides only citations to book reviews, with no
excerpts. Covers from 1964 to the present.
- Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly
Journals 1886-1974 - Ref Z 1035 .A1 C6 - Offers more thorough
coverage of reviews of older academic and scholarly books than
BRDigest's coverage; indexes book reviews from about 450 scholarly
journals, focusing on the social sciences.
- Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities - Ref Z 1035 .A1
I63 - Covers over 350 English and foreign language journals,
indexing reviews to humanities and some social sciences books.
Covers from 1960-1990.
- Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities
Journals 1802-1974 - Ref AI 3 .C652 - Indexes book reviews
from over 150 humanities periodicals.
- Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature - Ref AI 3 .R48
- Indexes general interest magazines, with separate sections for
book reviews. Covers 1890 to the present. See Online
section for online coverage from 1983 to the present.
- Social Sciences Index - Ref Z 7161 .S654
- Humanities Index - Ref AI3 .H84
- Social Sciences and Humanities Index - Ref AI3
.S63
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Indexes to the general scholarly literature of the social
sciences and humanities. Combined title covers from 1907 to
1974; divided titles cover from 1974 to 1993. Each has a
separate section listing book reviews. See Online
section for online coverage from 1984 to the present.
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- Subject
Specific Print Sources for Book Reviews
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- There are too many subject specific indexes, published
serially or as separate volumes, to list all the ones useful
for finding book reviews. The following list is far from
comprehensive, and includes only some examples of serially
published indexes which have separate sections for book
reviews, to give a few examples of available sources. Many
other indexes include book reviews but do not list them in a
separate section. Consult the CTW Online Catalog or ask a
reference librarian for subject specific print sources if the
sources listed above are inadequate.
- Philosopher's Index - Ref Z 7127 .P5
- Women Studies Abstracts - Z7962 .W64
- Education Index - Ref Z 5813 .E23
- American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies -
Ref Z 2483 .A652
- Art Index - Ref Z 5937 .A78
last updated: Jan 5, 1999
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