Special Topics Paper: NoveList a Brief Review
For my special topics paper I conducted a brief review of EBSCO's NoveList. To understand my appreciation for NoveList I need to give you a little bit of my back story. When I was hired as a reference clerk seven years ago I had not been reading much for several years and what I had been reading was nonfiction. It wasn't that I couldn't read, but due to an illness, I struggled with compression and retention. I couldn't focus, it was a mess. I'm much better now. Needless to say, because I hadn't read much in a long time readers' advisory was a really intimidating proposition. Thankfully my library has NoveList which I used and still use for these interactions. To sum it up: NoveList made me look smart!
NoveList was created by CARL Corporation in 1994. In 1999 CARL sold the resource to EBSCO Publishing. When sold in 1999 the database contained over 17,000 subject headings to provide enhanced access and was used in one out of five public libraries (Information Today, 1999). Since then NoveList has grown in market share and added more features such as K-8, Reviews, NextReads, LibraryAware, and Audiobook recommendations to name a few. A variety of NoveList subscriptions are available Plus, Select, and Complete (EBSCO NoveList). My library of employment uses NoveList Plus so that was the version I briefly reviewed for my paper.
NoveList is designed to be used by both librarian and patron. The following elements were covered in varying detail:
NoveList was created by CARL Corporation in 1994. In 1999 CARL sold the resource to EBSCO Publishing. When sold in 1999 the database contained over 17,000 subject headings to provide enhanced access and was used in one out of five public libraries (Information Today, 1999). Since then NoveList has grown in market share and added more features such as K-8, Reviews, NextReads, LibraryAware, and Audiobook recommendations to name a few. A variety of NoveList subscriptions are available Plus, Select, and Complete (EBSCO NoveList). My library of employment uses NoveList Plus so that was the version I briefly reviewed for my paper.
NoveList is designed to be used by both librarian and patron. The following elements were covered in varying detail:
- Toolbar
- Basic Search
- Appeals Browser
- Featured Read-alikes
- Recommended Reads List
- The Genre page(s)
- Appeal
- Advanced Search
- Elements of a record
NoveList has many tools useful to both patron and librarian. It can both provide a quick read-alike recommendation and can be used for training and research. It's my go-to database for readers' advisory.
Works Cited
EBSCO NoveList. (2019). Our Products Retrieved from https://www.ebscohost.com/novelist/our-products/novelist-complete
Information Today. (1999). EBSCO Aquires CARL Corporation’s NoveList. 16(6). Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/it/jun99/news18.htm
This is a very interesting topic that I had not thought about for this paper. It is interesting to see the start of such a powerful reader's advisory tool. Thank you for sharing this.
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