Book Reviewing

Hip Librarians post information about books they like. Or loathe.

About Hip Librarian's Book Blog

History

The Hip Librarian's Book Blog was started in September 2003 by friends and former Simmons College GSLIS comrades April Mazza and Allison Peters. The motivation behind the blog was to share the names of books they liked in a more organized manner rather than constantly saying "email that to me!" or writing titles on (and then losing) post-it notes, napkins, the backs of receipts, etc. Other librarian friends were invited to post to the blog; similar backgrounds and occupations lent a distinct children's and teen bent to the content. While both April and Allison have moved on from blogging on the site, the blog and its contributors continue to happily evolve and hopefully inspire a great deal of reading.

Hip Librarian's Book Blog screenshot

The Hip Librarian's Book Blog ideally would have one new review posted every day. If you think you can write one review a month, take a look at the site and send a sample review of any title with appeal to ages 0-18 (picture book, poetry, fiction, biography, etc.) to Beth Gallaway at informationgoddess29@gmail.com. Beth will share with the others in the group. Members will vote on adding new reviewers.

Please note that multiple reviews of a title are fine—feel free to re-review a title we liked or loathed. You can also leave a review as a comment on a title that has already been reviewed—if we like it and you provide your contact information, we'll get in touch with you.

We are looking for a critical, honest eye and unique voice. Reviews should be 200-300 words and include summary and evaluation to discuss literary, artistic, and other merit. You must use your real name and stand behind the reviews you write. It's fine to say if you didn't like something but the ratings (1-5 stars) must be justified through analysis. Tone may be personal or professional. We are not looking for summaries, booktalks, or personal attacks on books or their authors.

We currently pick up books at conferences, and Beth receives and distributes review copies, galleys and ARCs from:

Reviewers are welcome to solicit their own review copies or to get titles through the YA ARC blog at http://yaarc.blogspot.com. It is highly recommended that reviewers submit copies of their reviews to publishers.

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How to Become a Hip Librarian Reviewer:

Register with Blog-City

  1. Go to http://www.blog-city.com
  2. Set up a free account
  3. Send an email to Beth at informationgoddess29@gmail.com, using the same email address you used to set up the Blog-City account
  4. Beth will invite you to join the Hip Librarian's Book Blog

How to Post a Review

  1. Compose and spell check your review in Word
  2. Go to http://hiplibrariansbookblog.blog-city.com
  3. Log in with your email address and password
  4. Click "Compose"
  5. Use [Title] by [Author] as the title of the entry
  6. Paste in your review
  7. Click "Save Entry" from the menu on the right
  8. Go back to the review and adjust formatting and font settings as needed
  9. In the menu on the right, click "Settings"
  10. If you would like to add a 1-sentence abstract, you can—it's optional
  11. In the tags field, add the names of authors or illustrators and the title or series
  12. Click on the image of the notepaper & pencil to check off book categories, like age range and genre, then click "OK"
  13. For the Entry URL, use the book title with no spaces
  14. Click "Save Entry" from the menu on the right

If you are happy with how it looks, you are ready to publish!

  1. Click the "Info" tab
  2. Change status from Draft to Publish
  3. Click "Save Entry" from the menu on the right

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Sample Letter

Don't forget to email the link to the review, or even the full review text, to the publisher! They really appreciate it and will usually start to send you books to review. Sample Letter

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Book Review Workshops

Book Review Workshops are available upon request! Participants are recruited to write reviews for Hip Librarian's Book Blog.

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For Publishers

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Disclaimer

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