This brief guide lists the major resources available to Portland State users for finding book reviews. The print resources are available in the reference area of Porland State Library. The online databases listed are both general and discipline based. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of sources but rather a place to begin. Many disciplines have indexes that may be used to locate book reviews for that subject area (literature, history, religion, and so on). A few examples are listed here. The items are ranked first by their centrality to the purpose and second by their convenience (online access).

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General/Multi-Disciplinary: Starting Points

• Book Review Index (Online Database) Book review citations (and some full text) published in popular magazines and scholarly journals. About this resource: Citations with some full text coverage of book reviews which appeared in ~700 magazines and journals published from 1965 - present. 1965 - present.

• Book Review Digest (Print Resource) Reference Z1219 .C95 (Ask at the Reference Desk for the specific locations.) Provides a brief summary of the book and short excerpts from reviews for books with a citation for where to find the full review. Covers 1905 to the present; general subjects, including children's books, with grade level. Includes some cumulative indexes.
  
  
• Combined Retrospective Index to Scholarly Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974. (Print Resource) Arlington, VA: Carrollton Press, 1979. 15 volumes. Covers 1886-1974. Indexes "one million book reviews which appeared in the complete backfiles of 459 scholarly journals in History, Political Science, and Sociology." [Introduction] Reference Z7164 .C81 B98.
  
  
• Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802 - 1974 (Print Resource)Includes both author and title listings for book reviews published in major humanities journals for the years indicated; comprises 10 volumes total. (Volumes 1-9 make up the author index, while volume 10 contains the complete book title listings--both are ordered alphabetically.) "Quick-Reference User's Guides" at the front of each volume explain both how to use and interpret the listings. 1802 - 1974. Reference Z1035 .A1 C65
  
  
• Academic Search Premier (Online Database). Humanities, social scienes, news and events, sciences, policy -- mutli-disciplinary coverage of journals. Includes many full text articles. Note: scroll down to box labelled "Document Type" and limit to Book Review.
  
  
• JSTOR (Online Database).Historical backfiles of full text articles from a selected number of major research journals. Varies by publisher. Select Advanced Search and narrow the search by type=Review.
  
  
• Lexis/Nexis (Online Database).Provides access to articles from hundreds of newspapers and journals, the majority of which are full text. To access book reviews, select the Arts & Sports News, and then as Step Two, select Book, movie, music, & play reviews. Be sure that Book, movie, music & play reviews is selected in the source field (step two). The date range can be changed either through the pull-down menu or a date range can be inputted.
  
  
• New York Times (Online Database) (Final NYC Edition) full text articles via Lexis Nexis Academic Universe. June 1, 1980-Present.
  
  
• New York Times Historical File (1851- 2001) (Online Database). Complete, searchable archive of the New York Times from 1851-2001 with full-page and article PDFs. 1851 - 2001. Note: pull down to Document Type and select Review from the list.
  
  
• ProjectMuse (Online Database). Full text articles from scholarly humanities and social science journals. Select Advanced Search and limit search by type=Review.
  

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In the Disciplines

Arts & Humanities

• America: History & Life. (Online Database). Principal resource for articles on American and Canadian history. 1969 - present; and Historical Abstracts, the principal resource for articles on world history from 1450-present. 1969 - present. Note: limit to Book Review on the search screen.
  
  
• Art Fulltext. (Online Database). Citations from 400 art journals, 1984 - present. Selected full-text coverage,1997 - present. Indexing: 1984 - present | Selected full text: 1997 - present. Note: scroll down to "Document Type" and select Book Review.
  
  
• Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, 1920- (ABELL). (Online Database through LION). ABELL contains over 860,000 citations for scholarly books, articles and reviews in the field of English studies, from 1920 to the present. Note: scroll down and limit to Reviews.
  

Science

• Applied Science and Technology Index (Online Database). Citations to articles in engineering and physical sciences magazines and journals. Note: scroll down to "Document Type" and select Book Review.
  
  
• Biological and Agricultural Index Plus (Online Database).Citations and some full text for articles in ~350 core life sciences magazines and journals. 1983 - present. Note: scroll down to "Document Type" and select Book Review.

Social Sciences

• Education Fulltext (Online Database). Research in peer reviewed education journals -- citations, abstracts and some full text. Indexing coverage from June 1983- present. Abstracting coverage from June 1984 - present. Full text coverage (of 155 periodicals) from January 1996. Note: scroll down to "Dcoument Type" and select Book Review.
  
  
• Sociological Abstracts (Online Database).Citations to the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

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Popular Only

• MasterFILE Premier (Online Database). Full text of over 1800 periodicals, covering many general interest topics.Note: scroll down to box labelled "Document Type" and limit to Book Review.
• Readers' Guide Retropective (Online Database) Citations to articles in general and popular magazines. Coverage of popular magazine publishing from 1890-1982. 1890 - 1982. Note: limit your search to BOOK REVIEW in the Document Type field.

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Internet Sites

• Acqweb's Directory of Book Reviews on the Web.
  
  
• Amazon.com. This site has its own editorial reviews, as well as reviews from reviewing periodicals such as The New York Times Book Review, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences is a free resource on the Internet, published by a self-described "international consortium of scholars and teachers."
  
  
• H-net. This site describes itself as sponsoring 100 free electronic, interactive newsletters ("lists") edited by scholars in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. Each network has its own "personality," is edited by a team of scholars, and has a board of editors. Many are cosponsored by a professional society. The editors control the flow of messages, commission reviews, and reject flames and items unsuitable for a scholarly discussion group. Each list includes both reviews and discussions via e-mail lists by writers, reviewers and readers. Examples of lists includes Appalachian History and Studies, Sports Literature, and Art History. Search by keyword using the title of the book or the name of the author. There is also a link to reviews.

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Tips

You might want to consult book reviews:

• as shortcuts to learning about the content of books
  
• for information about the status and importance of a book
  
• as summaries of work in your subject area

Before you look for the review you need the following information to find a book review:

• book's title
• author's name
• publication year
• edition - in the case of several editions, find out when the first edition was published

The first place to look for this information is in the book itself. The title page of the book should contain the title, the author, and the publication or copyright date. If the date is not on the title page, look on the page immediately after the title page (called the "verso"), and you should find it there. If the library owns the book, you can also find this information on Vikat (the Portland State Library catalog) for the book.