This just in from DPLA:
We are pleased to announce a partnership with BiblioBoard’s Indie Author Project, through which a collection of over thirty independently-published books are freely available for anyone to download and read now in the SimplyE app. BiblioBoard’s Indie Author Project supports emerging, diverse, independent writers and promotes stronger relationships between self-published authors and local libraries. Through library partnerships across the country, the project provides programming, such as the Indie Author Project contests, that generate greater visibility and exposure for new and emerging writers and their works.
The Summer Reading collection, which will be available until Labor Day (September 2), includes award-winning works by authors across the country and features Daykeeper by Ran Walker, Indie Author of the Year awardee. This constantly growing selection of titles includes winners of statewide indie author contests, the Black Caucus of the ALA awards, Library Journal eBook awards, and more. Curated by professional reviewers and librarians alike, this collection delivers diverse and exciting new literary voices directly to readers with no holds, checkouts, or waitlists.
During my years as a Library Journal book review editor, I spent countless hours each week sorting through books (then physical objects only) to figure out what goes where. When I started my editorial career (in the late 1990s), book categories made a lot more sense than they did when I left the book review job in 2010. I can’t count the times I went back and forth with my Library Journal colleagues about whether a newly arrived print galley belonged in my or someone else’s “pile,” to be assigned for review.
What is a book review? Many have attempted to answer this question over the last few decades in a multitude of ways—from informed scholars, librarians, and booksellers to publishers, authors and readers. While their views differ widely on how successful book reviews are in bringing us closer to a book’s quality—and whether this is even possible—their definitions of book reviews and their core purpose seem to be in sync. To start, book reviews are a ‘genre’ in their own right, as they have features specific to them, and they can be as entertaining to read as the books they put under the microscope. These features, of course, depend on the context in which the books are reviewed (e.g., reviews found in academic journals are more in-depth and lengthier than those found in mainstream newspapers and magazines), but the general purpose of book reviews is always to serve as kind of an economic model, helping readers—whoever they may be—to decide if they should spend their money on a book, be it for entertainment, enlightenment, or scholarly pursuit. In other words, the main purpose of book reviews is to reduce search costs and uncertainty (Clement & others 78). In this sense, then, readers hope that book reviews will guide them in the direction of the books they both want and need.
