When you are searching for a review, knowing the correct spelling of the author’s name and the correct title of a book is important. The publication date is useful, too. If you need help verifying any of this information, contact the reference desk. Many of the sources described in this guide include the full-text of the review, others provide only citations, and some include both.
America: History and Life (1954-pres.)
AH&L covers books related to North America history. At the opening search screen, limit your search to book reviews. Enter words from the book’s title or the author’s name in the keyword search box.
BIP includes millions of titles, both in-print and out-of-print. Using the Quick Search drop down box, you can search by exact title or keywords in the title. Entries that include reviews are marked with a red star. After selecting the title, click on the “Title Reviews” tab near the top of the screen.
These newspapers include reviews and discussions of writers and their books, as well as reviews of the movies adapted from the works. Searches can result in hits that only mention the author or the book in another context. Select the advanced search option and set the drop-down search boxes to “citation and abstract.” Enter the author’s last name and the title of the book (in quotation marks) in the search boxes. Go to the “More Search Options” section at the bottom of the screen and set the document type choice to “Review.”
These are multi-disciplinary databases which index scholarly and general interest publications. Select the advanced search option from the banner on the opening screen and type “book review” into one of the keyword search boxes. Then, put the author’s name or book title keywords into the other search boxes.
JSTOR (Scholarly Journal Archive) (Excludes last 3-5 years, depending on the publication)
JSTOR is a full-text database that covers scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Select the search option on the main page and then select the advanced search option. Under the “Limit by” option, chose the type “Review.” In the full-text boxes, enter keywords for the author’s name and the book’s title.
Periodicals Index Online (1665-1995)
PIO does not have full-text links, but it does include citations to reviews in the humanities and social sciences in over 5,000 journals from their first issue to recent times. The coverage spans three-hundred years! Select “Article Search” on the opening screen and then under Search Options check “Book Reviews.” Enter the author’s last name and key words from the title in the article/title/keywords box.
Project Muse (Coverage varies depending on the journal. Most titles begin in the mid 1990’s.)
Project Muse provides full-text access to over 300 scholarly journals in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. After entering the author’s name or the title in the “Search for” box, set the field to be searched to “Author Reviewed” or “Title Reviewed” using the drop-down fields menu.
Amazon.com
http://amazon.com/
Reader beware. Amazon includes publishers’ blurbs and reviews written by readers, as well as standard review sources. A search combining the author’s name and the book title is the most efficient, due to the size of the data files.
H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Coverage begins in the mid-90’s)
This is a scholarly review resource that features a discussion network component. Enter keywords in the “Search Reviews” box at the upper left of the screen. An advanced search option is also provided.
New York Times Book Reviews (1981-pres.)
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/
This site includes reviews from the New York Times books section. You are required to register to view the full text of the reviews, but it’s free.
Book Review Digest (1905-pres.)
Reference Index Area—REF Z 1219 .C96 year
This annual index “provides citations to and excerpts of reviews of current juvenile and adult fiction and nonfiction in the English language.” The citations are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the author or by the title when that is the main entry.
Book Review Index (1965-pres.)
Reference Index Area—REF Z 1035 .A1 B6 year
BRI provides citations to reviews of “thousands of books, audiobooks, and e-books,” appearing in over 400 publications. The main section of the index is arranged by the name of the author. There is a title index, if you don’t know the author’s name.
New York Times Index (1913-pres.)
Reference Index Area—REF AI 21 .N45 year
Many important books are reviewed in the NY Times. Look under the subject heading “Books and Literature.” Within that section, following citations to news articles about books, the book reviews are listed alphabetically by title. In older volumes of the Index, the section heading “Book Reviews” is used.
Times Index (London) (1973-pres.)
Reference Index Area—REF AI 21 .T46 year
The Times Index includes citations to reviews that appear in The Times books section and in The Times Literary Supplement (TLS). Listings appear under the author’s last name.
Wilson Company Indexes
Humanities Index Reference Index Area—REF AI 3 .H84 year (1974-pres.)
Readers’ Guide to Periodical Lit. Ref. Index Area—REF AI 3 .R48 year (1900-pres.)
Social Sciences Index Reference Index Area—REF AI 3 .S63 year (1974-pres.)
Citations to reviews of books appear in the “Book Reviews” section at the end of the annual volumes. Entries are arranged by the author’s last name or the title, if the book is a compilation. Prior to 1974, the Humanities and Social Sciences Indexes were published as a single volume.
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802-1974
Reference Index Area—REF AI 3 .C65 10 Volumes
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974
Reference Index Area—REF Z 1035 .Al C64 15 Volumes
Both of these indexes are arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name. The last volumes in each set are title index volumes.
