[WEB4LIB] Re: The "Commercialized" Library

[Bill Teschek]

> The reason why not link to book reviews at Amazon or Barnes & Noble is
> extraordinarily simple.  The vast majority of readers are not qualified as
> reviewers.

This assumes that what people want are the opinions of "qualified 
reviewers". In my experience some of the most useful reviews are 
from the average readers who are just honestly giving their opinions 
of the book after they have read it. This is what makes the amazon-
style reviews so useful. After reading through a dozen or more such 
reviews one can get a pretty good idea of how other readers feel 
about the book. Used in conjunction with the professional reviews 
(which also appear on amazon by the way) they can be very helpful.




Bill Teschek
Assistant Director
Lane Memorial Library
2 Academy Ave.
Hampton, NH 03842
bteschek at hampton.lib.nh.us
(603)-926-3368
(603)-926-1348 (fax)
http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us