Books 'R Us
By Meg McCaffrey -- School Library Journal, 6/1/2004
Are patrons borrowing fewer books from your library? To help safeguard against this possibility, EBSCO and Baker & Taylor have launched Book Index with Reviews (BIR), a new online database designed to motivate book lovers and keep them coming back for more.
BIR provides recommendations for and reviews of more than 3.8 million books, both fiction and nonfiction, including large print volumes, books on tape, and paperbacks. Users can select from 800,000 full-text reviews from sources such as School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly.
BIR provides links to a library's own catalog and sets it as the first stop in a patron's search for a title. By consulting BIR, for example, a librarian or library user can search for the latest job-hunt manuals. An alert component will further update the librarian on new titles and maintain a current booklist on the subject, so the librarian doesn't have to. BIR assigns books stars based on feedback from thousands of libraries and retailers. Recommended titles are designated with four stars.
Book Index with Reviews lets librarians and patrons learn about new titles first through a library database instead of through Google or an online bookstore's site. At press time, this product was too new to be reviewed by a librarian. For a free trial, e-mail ep@epnet.com.
