[WEB4LIB] Re: The "Commercialized" Library

[Gerry Mckiernan]

Dan and Bill

   Why not both Amazon.com and/or banesandnoble.com AND Choice and/or Library Journal ! You'd have user reviews AND publisher reviews AND professional  reviews - all of potential value for judging a work for a user's particular purposes.

/Gerry McKiernan
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu 
 
P.S. I believe there was / is some effort to link library catalog to Choice reviews [?]

c: Web4Lib 

>>> "Drew, Bill" <drewwe at snymorva.morrisville.edu> 08/07/00 02:43PM >>>

<BillDrew>
The students in any of our libraries are probably just as qualified as most
of the reviewers on Amazon.Com.  I found that could submit a review under
any name for my own book if I had wanted to.  Perhaps what would really be
valuable would be links to Library Journal or Choice Magazine reviews.  Now
that could have a real impact and add great value to the catalog.
</BillDrew>
   
              **********************************************
<BillDrew>
I think it is questionable if links to online bookstore reviews add any value to the library catalog.  I think it may actually take away from it.  I
 would rather see a way for users to add their own comments about a book to a
 catalog in some way.  Such reviews would need to be reviewed by the library
</BillDrew> before inclusion in the catalog.

<DanLester>
I wonder why the reviews submitted by the students at the home
institution would be any better or more useful than those submitted
from the world at large.  Yes, some review of the reviews would be
necessary, just as I assume is done with Amazon or others (only since
I've yet to see any slanderous or obscene reviews on those sources).
But as to why "my students" are any smarter than the general Amazon
user, I just don't see it
</Dan Lester>.