Book Reviews   Tags: book reviews  

See the links at the far right of this LibGuide to this subject librarian.

However, many of your questions can be answered by librarians at the Reference Desk, which is open most hours the library is.

Assistance is also provided by 24/7 Real Time Reference, live internet chat help.

You can also schedule a consulation with a subject librarian.

This guide is designed to provide an introduction for finding book reviews in general topics, humanities and social sciences using a variety of research tools, either those which CSULB provides, or that are freely available on the Internet.

Please note that many of our databases may provide book reviews for publications within their respective disciplines. Remember to consider searching any number of subject specific databases to find reviews.

Finding Book Reviews in General Topics, Social Sciences and History

1. Find Date of Publication.
   Check the book you want to review. Look at the title page, or the backside of the title page. What is the earliest date you see? Look for the earliest date the book was published because that is likely when most of the reviews were written. If a book is reprinted from an earlier edition, may have first appeared in another country, or now is in paperback, look for the date of first publication. If you cannot find the date, check the title in COAST and see what year the book was published.
2. Note the First Named Author (or Editor) of the Book.
   This may also be found inside the title page or on the cover of the book. If in doubt, check COAST to verify author and date.
3. Take the Earliest Date (e.g. 1968) and Add One or Two Years. (e.g. 1968-1970)
   So you will be looking in book review indexes and databases for the years 1968-1970. This is because it sometimes takes a few months or a couple of years before a title gets reviewed in magazines, newspapers or journals.