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Chemistry book reviews serve as an aid to collection development, as well as an educational function for bibliographers and subject specialists. This study aims to outline a methodology for locating book reviews for a subject literature and characterizing the books reviewed.

This study utilized UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory to identify chemistry periodicals containing book reviews. Criteria were applied to limit the periodicals identified to those publishing ten or more book reviews in 2009 and held by 25 or more libraries. The books reviewed by the periodicals were characterized in terms of the quantity, subject coverage, overlap, lag time, and compared to chemistry books published in 2009. Books reviewed by the chemistry periodicals were also compared to general science and other periodicals known to contain chemistry book reviews.

A total of 11 chemistry periodicals met the criteria and collectively they published 445 book reviews in 2009. Three chemistry periodicals accounted for 72.1 percent of the chemistry books reviewed, thus following Bradford's Law of Scatter. The LC Classification of the books reviewed ranged widely and QDs only comprised 41.1 percent of the 380 unique titles reviewed. The overlap was low with only 17.5 percent of the chemistry titles reviewed more than once. Books reviewed were generally representative of the chemistry books published based on publisher. Few, if any, chemistry books were reviewed by general science periodicals.

This paper provides a methodology that is applicable to other disciplines, as well as updating and expanding previous research by characterizing the subject coverage of books reviewed.

No one concerned for the dignity of letters can have failed to notice the increasing voracity and audibility of publishers' advertising of recent years. With this in mind I have been studying the literary section of an issue of the Observer. The results are disquieting. The “Books of the Day” feature runs from page 4 to page 9. On page 4 the text proper occupies three centre columns (not quite full columns, for Michael Joseph butts in with an advertisement across the foot). It is flanked on the left by Hodder and Stoughton, a two‐column spread from top to bottom; on the right is another two‐column spread of which Victor Gollancz has the lion's share. Hodder's display is a series of drab shaded panels, Gollancz's is a characteristically resonant proclamation in heavy type: the two in opposition strike discords in the midst of which the actual matter of the book reviews twitters faintly like a virginal trying to be heard in a mass‐meeting of trombones and bugles. Page 5 is split clean in half, three columns being devoted to text and the remainder—a massive four‐column spread—being again dedicated to Mr. Gollancz's commercial purposes. Page 6 repeats the tale—three columns of text to four of advertisements. On pages 7 and 8 the proportion of advertisement to text is equally heavy. On page 9 (the last of the literary section) the comparatively “decent pomp” of Harrap and Cassell is to the forefront—but by some oversight a dividend of two half‐columns of text above the average quota has been allowed to creep in. In all, the six book pages of one of our leading Sunday journals are carved up, roughly, as: text, nineteen columns; advertisements, twenty‐three columns.

“Where HAS that book been reviewed?” This question seemed to arise daily during my work as Adult Services Consultant for an upstate New York library system. Since I was responsible for the selection of new titles for the system pool collection as well as preparing buying lists for member libraries, I felt the need to have some way of “pulling together” all the reviews for new titles as they appeared in the book review media. It seemed to me that the book review indexes currently being published were inadequate in several ways, especially in the timely listing of current reviews and in the fact that you usually had to know the author's name in order to find citations to the reviews. How did I progress from perceiving a need for a more current listing of citations to book reviews and actually publishing my own index, Title Index of Current Reviews? Initially, several seemingly unrelated events led me in the direction I was eventually to take.

This paper aims to investigate the quality of access to translated fiction published between 2007 and 2011 in six large Canadian public libraries, answering the question about what public libraries can do to help acquaint their readers with international translated fiction.

The article uses the method of bibliographic data analysis based on 2,100 catalog records.

As the results demonstrate, enhanced bibliographic catalog records deliver a wealth of information about translated fiction titles and facilitate meaningful subject access to their contents. At the same time, promotional activities related to translated fiction have room for improvement.

Despite the fact that the study focuses on public libraries, its findings will be of interest not only to public but also academic librarians, any librarian tasked with the selection and acquisition of translated fiction, reference and readers’ advisory librarians in any type of library, Library and Information Science students and anyone interested in access to translated fiction.

While many recent studies have turned their attention to enhanced catalog records and their role in access, discovery and collection promotion, there are no studies dealing with translated fiction specifically. The article also contributes to seeing an in-depth understanding of bibliographic records and cataloging as part and parcel of reference librarians’ knowledge and skill set, which improves retrieval practices and access provision.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the economic perspective in open access publishing. The status of the article processing charges in open access journals is explored and highlighted.

The study is based on the analysis of journals indexed by Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the fee structure levied by them as article processing charges (APCs).

Open access journal publishers have to evolve a mechanism that will share the burden of the authors interested in publishing in OA journals that levy article processing charges.

The study can act as an eye‐opener for the publishers and associations affiliated with authors to support them and their works in making them publishable in open access journals which charge fees for article publishing. Also, the study can be extended on the basis of economic models that open access journals share in different disciplines and additional work can be carried out to highlight the perception of the authors who are benefitted from article processing charges.

An economic divide between the authors who belong to the developed nations and the authors who reside from third world nations can be bridged.

The study is first of its kind, as it highlights the economic burden that the authors share in a fee‐based open access publishing world.

The selection of materials for library collections serving children remains heavily dependent on reviews for the identification and evaluation of appropriate items. It is desirable, therefore, that librarians and others who select juvenile books have access to reviews of all titles recently published (although one hundred percent coverage may never actually be possible), that this access be prompt, and that the content of reviews be helpful. That is, the review should describe the book sufficiently for the selector to decide on its usefulness for his/her purposes, and should evaluate the title with authority.