InfoTech: Gale Releasing Books & Authors Reader's Advisory Tool
by Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 01/15/2008
- Based on What Do I Read Next
- Subscription database includes book reviews, book jackets
- Draws from Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, more
At the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, Gale Cengage Learning’s Marc Cormier January 13 provided a very hot demo of its forthcoming reader’s advisory tool, Books and Authors. The subscription database pulls from the vendor’s What Do I Read Next? print series (also an online resource, which this replaces) but has been adapted for the digital world to include book reviews from more than 30 sources such as Publishers Weekly (and users can generate their own reviews), bibliographies, and links to related social sites like del.icio.us. Users also can create reading and search lists in their user accounts, which remain intact from visit to visit in a “My Reading Room” feature.
The tool has a separate web component so that users searching for book and author info on Google and elsewhere will see Books and Authors listings in their results. The web listing gives searchers very basic info, with a hot button connecting the user to their local library for fuller access. The database features book jackets as well as selected background information from such established Gale series like the Dictionary of Literary Biography and Contemporary Authors.
