Multi-Disciplinary Databases | Subject-Specific Databases | Internet Sites | Print Sources
Recommended Databases (Multi-Disciplinary)
- Academic Search: Indexes almost 3,000 popular magazines and academic journals and provides full-text articles from more than 1,200 journals.
Date Range: 1984–current (updated daily)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select the "Advanced Search" option and select the "Keyword" button underneath the "Advanced Search" tab. Enter the author's name and/or the title of the book in the corresponding search boxes, placing the book title in quotation marks. To limit your search to book reviews, choose the "Book Review" option from the drop-down menu under "Document Type." Click on "Search." - Book Review Digest Plus: Provides citation information, excerpts, or full text for reviews of more than 550,000 fiction, nonfiction, social science, and general science books. Includes popular, scholarly, and specialty English-language journals; reviews covered are both positive and negative in nature. "Master" records for each book link users to multiple reviews when available.
Date Range: 1983–current (updated daily)
Tips: To search for book reviews, in the first search box enter the title or author of the book and then choose "Book Review" from the "Document Type" drop-down menu below. Click on "Start." - Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe: Contains full-text articles from U.S. and international newspapers (including the New York Times, June 1980–current), as well as some news and business magazines and trade journals.
Date Range: Dates vary (updated daily)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select "Guided News Search," then select "General News," then choose either "Major Papers" or "Magazines and Journals." In the headline box, type "book review" and in the next box enter the author or the title of the book and choose "Full text" from the corresponding drop-down menu. Click on "Search." - ProQuest Research Library: Indexes more than 2,000 general-interest and academic journals. Nearly 1,000 periodicals are full text. Dates vary, but many full-text journals go back to 1988.
Date Range: 1988–current (updated daily)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select the "Advanced" search option. In the first search box, type "book review" and choose "Document Type " from the drop-down menu. In the next search box, enter the author or the title of the book and choose "Citation and document text." Click on "Search." - Times (London) Digital Archive: Includes page facsimiles of all the issues of the London Times published from 1785–1985.
Date Range: 1785–1985 (not updated)
Tips:To search for book reviews, select the "Advanced Search" option. In the "Entry" box at the top, type the book title or name of the author. Then mark the box next to "reviews," which is in the "Features" section of the "Limit..." menu. Click on "Search." - Web of Knowledge: Indexes more than 8,000 peer-reviewed journals, providing complete bibliographic data and author abstracts.
Date Range: 1982–current (updated weekly)
Tips:To search for book reviews, select "General Search." Type the title or subject in quotation marks in the search box. Then select "Book Review" from the second drop-down menu under "Restrict search by..." Click on "Search."
Recommended Databases (Subject-Specific)
- America: History and Life: Indexes and abstracts more than 1,700 social science and humanities journals in the field of United States and Canadian history. (See Historical Abstracts for non-North American coverage.)
Date Range: 1964–current (updated monthly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, enter the author's name or title of the book under "Keywords," placing the title in quotation marks. Mark the box next to "Book Reviews," and then click on "Search." - Art Full Text: Indexes approximately 450 key English- and foreign-language periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins.
Date Range: 1984–current (updated monthly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select the "Advanced Search" option. In the first box enter the title or author of the book and then choose "Book Review" from the "Document Type" drop-down menu below. Click on "Start." - Ethnic Newswatch: Indexes more than 200 newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press.
Date Range: 1960–current (updated monthly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select the "Advanced Search" option. Then enter the title or author in the first search box, placing the title in quotation marks. In the second search box, type "book review" and select "Document Type" from the corresponding drop-down menu. Click on "Search." - GenderWatch: Indexes women's and gender issues periodicals.
Date Range: 1980–current (updated quarterly)
Tips:To search for book reviews, select the "Advanced Search" option. Enter the title or author in the first search box, placing the title in quotation marks. In the second search box type "book review" and select "Document Type" from the corresponding drop-down menu. Click on "Search." - Historical Abstracts: Indexes and abstracts information in world history and the related social sciences and humanities, excluding the U.S. and Canada. (See America: History and Life for U.S. and Canadian coverage.) Lists articles covering the years 1450 to the present, including approximately 1,700 periodicals published in 90 countries in 40 languages.
Date Range: 1955–current (updated monthly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, enter the author's name or title of the book under "Keywords," placing the title in quotation marks. Under "Subject Terms " enter "Book Reviews," and then click on "Search." - Humanities Full Text: Indexes 566 scholarly journals on archaeology, classical studies, art, film, folklore, history, journalism, linguistics, literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, and religion.
Date Range: 1984–current (updated monthly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, in the first search box, enter the title or author of the book and then choose "Book Review" from the "Document Type" drop-down menu below. Click on "Start." - International Index to the Performing Arts: Covers the arts and entertainment industry, including dance, film, television, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, broadcast arts, circus performance, comedy, storytelling, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, and more. The majority of titles' coverage begins in 1998, with 46 important journals having been added retrospectively, some back to 1864.
Date Range: 1864–current (updated quarterly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select the "Search" option. Enter the author's name or the title of the book under "Keyword," placing the title in quotation marks. Under "Document Type" enter "book review," and then click on "Search." - JSTOR: Includes full text of more than 500 journals in the fields of African-American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, botany, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, population/demography, sociology, statistics, and more. Graphs, photographs, and other images are included.
Date Range: Dates vary (updated irregularly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select "Search" and then "Advanced Search." In Advanced Search, type the title of the book or the name of the author in quotation marks within the search box provided. Under "Narrow your Search," check the box for Reviews. Next, mark the subject areas you would like to search. Then click on "Search." - Literature Resource Center: Includes information on a large number of authors and literary works taken from Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and other sources. In addition to biographical information, LRC includes full-text articles from more than 130 literary journals, a dictionary of literary terms, and links to 5,000 relevant Web sites and special collections.
Date Range: Dates vary (updated continuously)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select either the "Author by Type " or "Title Search" option. Enter the author's name or the title of the book in the appropriate search box. If you have chosen "Author by Type," to view book reviews, select "Literary Criticism" under the "Theme" option below. Click on "Search." - PIO (Periodicals Index Online–formerly PCI): Contains citations to articles from more than 3,500 periodicals in the social sciences and humanities published in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Germany. There are occasional abstracts, primarily consisting of contents notes.
Date Range: Late 18th Century–1996 (present minus 8 years; updated annually)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select "Search" option and type the author's name or the title of the book (in quotation marks) in the "Keyword" box. Then unmark the "Articles" option under "Search Options" and click on "Search." - PsycINFO: Indexes 1,300 scholarly journals, along with books, book chapters, and dissertations in psychology, educational psychology, and behavioral sciences.
Date Range: 1872–current (updated weekly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, select the "Advanced Search" option. In the first search box, enter the author or the title of the book being reviewed, placing the title in quotation marks. Then choose "Review" from the "Document Type" drop-down menu below. Click on "Search." - Readers' Guide Full Text and Readers' Guide Retrospective: Indexes 240 popular magazines in a wide range of subject areas. Full-text coverage of 131 titles begins with 1994.
Date Range: 1890–current (updated monthly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, in the first box, enter the title or author of the book. Then choose "Books Review" from the "Document Type" drop-down menu below. Click on "Start." - Social Sciences Full Text: Indexes more than 415 periodicals in the areas of economics, politics, public administration, public health, sociology, criminology, environmental and urban studies, psychology, and anthropology.
Date Range: 1983–current (updated monthly)
Tips: To search for book reviews, in the first box, enter the title or author of the book. Then choose "Book Review" from the "Document Type" drop-down menu below. Click on "Start."
Internet Sites
- AcqWeb Directory of Book Reviews on the Web: Links to numerous well-categorized book review web sites. The general-interest book review sites include both popular press magazines and scholarly journals. Subject-specific book review sites include topics such as children, young adults, computing, science, education, social science, history, literature, music, mysteries, science, science fiction, and romance.
- BookPage: Reviews general interest books monthly, focusing on new releases. It typically reviews up to 100 of each month's new fiction, nonfiction, business, children's, spoken-word audio, and how-to books. The searchable archives include issues back to 1996.
- BookReview.com: Reviews books that may be overlooked due to odd subjects or unknown authors. The reviews draw from a variety of publishers and cover a multitude of subjects and genres. A searchable archive is included.
- BookSpot.com: Links to numerous "book sections" of major metropolitan newspapers online. Additionally, it includes links to a handful of review magazines and book review web sites.
- H-Net Reviews: Publishes reviews of scholarly materials online, via discussion networks and the H-Net web site, making interactivity possible. Reviewers, authors, and readers are able to engage in discussions of the reviews online. The Reviews archive is separated into annual volumes. It is possible to browse through the volumes or use the search feature to find a particular review.
- The New York Times on the Web: Books: Archives New York Times book reviews since 1981; reviews are searchable by author or title. The site also includes book reviews and book-related news from every issue of the New York Times. Also, a special feature called "Only-on-the-Web" provides first chapters from a selection of recently reviewed books and bestsellers. Go to the front page of The New York Times, click on "Books," and then register. There is currently no subscription fee.
Print Sources
- Book Review Digest: Indexes (and in some cases, provides excerpts of) reviews of juvenile and adult fiction and nonfiction in the English language. Entries are listed alphabetically by author's last name. Each volume of this multi-volume set also includes a combined subject and title index at the back, as well as a list of periodical abbreviations used at the fore. Current issues are retained until cumulation (same call number) is received.
Date Range: 1905–current
Location: Memorial Library Reference, Room 262, Reference Stacks, Call Number: Z1219 C96 - Book Review Index: A Master Cumulation: Composed of multiple cumulative sets: 1965–1984, 1985–1992, 1993–1997, 1998–2002, and so on. Each set includes author and title indices and is arranged alphabetically. A complete list of periodicals indexed, along with the periodical abbreviations used in the entries, can be found inside the front cover of each volume. An introductory guide to use is located at the beginning of volume 1.
Date Range: 1965–current
Location: Memorial Library Reference, Room 262, Center Cases, Call Number: Z1035 A1 B62 - Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals, 1802–1974: 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.
Date Range: 1802–1974
Location: Memorial Library Reference, Room 262, Center Cases, Call Number: AI3 C652 - Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886–1974 : Includes both author and title listings for book reviews published in scholarly journals for the years indicated; comprises 15 volumes altogether. (Volumes 1-12 compose the author index, while volumes 13-15 contain the complete book title list; both sections are ordered alphabetically.) "Quick-Reference User's Guides" at the front of each volume explain how to use and interpret the listings.
Date Range: 1886–1974
Location: Memorial Library Reference, Room 262, Center Cases, Call Number: Z1035 A1 C64 - The New York Times Book Review Index, 1896–1970: Includes author, title, byline, subject, and category indices for New York Times book reviews for the years indicated. At the front of each volume, an introduction and an abbreviation key explain how to use the set and interpret records. (Once the citation information for a particular book review is known, use the ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times database to find the full text online.)
Date Range: 1896–1970
Location: Memorial Library Reference, Room 262, Center Cases, Call Number: Z1035 A1 N4
Last updated: 05 June 2007