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> blogs, newsletters, and publications covering upcoming books In the film world, there's often a big disconnect between critics and popular sentiment, such as

> blogs, newsletters, and publications covering upcoming books In the film world, there's often a big disconnect between critics and popular sentiment, such as when a RottenTomatoes critics score and the popular score are basically opposites. Does this happen frequently in the book world, and how would you go about measuring that?

Mezzie 4y ago
It does happen, although books rarely go for the wide appeal that films do. The most common case is literary fiction that is well received in the literary world but falls flat with the public. In that case, whether to buy the book or not will depend on some local variables: Do you have a patron group that's into 'serious' literature? Do you need to signal to others that the library is a place of serious learning in addition to being 'fun'? (This can happen in, for example, academic libraries where the academic librarians have an odd status and need buy in/respect from faculty members). The books that are good but for a small audience are the ones that it's hardest to decide on. In the geek world, think of books like Godel, Escher, Bach. It's usually measured informally: You get an idea of what audience a tool is chasing or speaking to and then compare that to the audience you're providing materials for. Also librarians should be decently well-read in their subject area, which means that they're also familiar with both internal and external criticisms, how the genre/category has been evaluated historically, etc. This means we can tell the difference between a sci-fi novel that's poorly written and one that is good/decent but appealing to a small audience. And between clickbait/politically motivated criticisms and criticisms of the work's structure or content. Basically, part of the job is having an awareness of the meta-conversation and history of a category and reading the critics critically. This is also idealized and it gets much messier on the floor as we have less time for the 'non-productive' knowledge gathering than we used to.

Mezzie 4y ago

It does happen, although books rarely go for the wide appeal that films do. The most common case is literary fiction that is well received in the literary world but falls flat with the public. In that case, whether to buy the book or not will depend on some local variables: Do you have a patron group that's into 'serious' literature? Do you need to signal to others that the library is a place of serious learning in addition to being 'fun'? (This can happen in, for example, academic libraries where the academic librarians have an odd status and need buy in/respect from faculty members). The books that are good but for a small audience are the ones that it's hardest to decide on. In the geek world, think of books like Godel, Escher, Bach. It's usually measured informally: You get an idea of what audience a tool is chasing or speaking to and then compare that to the audience you're providing materials for. Also librarians should be decently well-read in their subject area, which means that they're also familiar with both internal and external criticisms, how the genre/category has been evaluated historically, etc. This means we can tell the difference between a sci-fi novel that's poorly written and one that is good/decent but appealing to a small audience. And between clickbait/politically motivated criticisms and criticisms of the work's structure or content. Basically, part of the job is having an awareness of the meta-conversation and history of a category and reading the critics critically. This is also idealized and it gets much messier on the floor as we have less time for the 'non-productive' knowledge gathering than we used to.