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Jed’s Library Book Review Database
Review scoring guide in detail
Advice for suggesting book purchases to TAFE or public Libraries
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Are you short on time yet high on pressure to find useful sources for library assessments or background knowledge 😵?
Maybe this part of the blog can be of help to you 👌
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Hi there! My name is Jed 🙂. I have been studying about Libraries at a vocational college in Australia.
I believe that Libraries are wonderful places - special spaces situated somewhere between the comfy leisure of a home and the communal learning of a school, which come alive as people flow in and out of the doors and books circulate from shelves, just like a beating heart at the center of a lively community (though that may just be my background as a science grad talking haha 🔎).
The opportunity arose for me to enrol in a library studies course, so I took it! I want to find out more about Libraries as organisations, and perhaps even work within one someday.
This book review blog section is an attempt for me to keep track of some of the books related to librarianship in some way that I’ve read through (in part or in full, most likely the former unless there is an underlying narrative or if it’s a graphic novel 😉). In terms of DDC, it would be 010s Bibliographies (see LibraryThing).
A major feature of this blog is a database collection of reviews about those books (’Jed’s Library Book Review Database’), scored in a (hopefully) quantitative manner with some level of rigor, along with some subjective commentary. Unfortunately, not all books are created equally, and some are less actionable or helpful than their covers would lead a reader to believe.
Anecdotally, any of my favourite songs, movies, games, books, shows, etc. were recommended to me through compilations that were created, critiqued, and curated by benevolent strangers on the internet, and I hope that these reviews can in turn act as a way of directing library students’ and attention towards useful, high-quality, and even enjoyable resources to help develop insight and skill for their future work.
A Review Scoring Guide in brief is shown in the below table/grid/matrix. See the ‘Review Scoring Guide in detail’ page for an explanation of these characteristics and additional description of the scoring in terms of each characteristic.
| Score out of 5→ | Lowest | Highest | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Pictures and diagrams | None | A few | Some | Several | Many | Abundant |
| Referencability/Ease of Navigation | Only page numbers but nothing else | Has a Table of Contents + page numbers | The previous features + | |||
| Title page in detail + index | The previous + Glossary with definitions | The previous + bibliography/links to other relevant sources | The previous + key terms are emphasized + in-text citation is included | |||
| Direct usefulness to library study | Unhelpful | Briefly mentions some library concepts | Mentions library concepts but unactionable | Somewhere between 2 and 4 | Inspiring/insightful with some instruction | Highly instructive and encouraging |
| Pedagological (teaching) value | No learning aids | Has summaries and/or concept explainers | The previous features + learning outcomes | The previous features + review questions/activities | The previous features + thinking tips/mnemonics | The previous features + worked solutions to questions |
| Complexity in language | Junior-level | Elementary-level | Pre-Adolescent-level | Young adult-level | Adult-level | Specialist/professional-level |
| Realism | Total fantasy | Fairy tales with ‘morals of the story’ | Fictional but with some basis in reality | Based in reality or educational but oversimplified | Educational but not replicable | Highly detailed and actionable |
| Readability | Dreary and boring | Requires effort | Not bad, not great | Interesting and/or entertaining | Insightful and fascinating | Delightful and enthralling - a ‘page-turner’, a ‘bestseller’! |
As a side note, typing up everything here is also an opportunity for me to practice publicising my thoughts onto an online platform - Notion in this case. It is free to use and it seems as if I can publish this into a website that can be perused by fellow library-learners, library workers, or anyone with a passing interest in the topic.
All instances of using copyrighted pictures or works in this blog are covered by the Copyright Act 1968, namely Division III Section 40 Fair dealing for purpose of research or study and Division III Section 41 Fair dealing for purpose of criticism or review.