Book Reviews: A Finding Guide: Print Resources

Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Covers 1970 to 2019 in print volumes.
Reviews of reference titles only.

Leipzig, Germany: F. Dietrich
Covers 1900 to 1943.
Like its successor, IBR, there is extensive coverage of book reviews in the European journal literature.
Numerous title changes as follows: Bibliographie der Deutschen Rezensionen [1900-1911], Bibliographie der Rezensionen [1911-1914], Bibliographie der Rezensionen und Referate [1915-1921], and Bibliographie der Rezensionen [1921-1942/1943].
For coverage from 1971 to 2011, see the entry for IBR (Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlicher Literatur) below.

New York: H. W. Wilson.
Covers 1905 to 1983.
A digest of book reviews appearing in approximately 80 periodicals, reviewing some 4,000 books annually. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author and include price, publisher and other bibliographic information. This is followed by a descriptive note or synopsis of the book, then citations to the reviews with excerpts from as many reviews as are necessary to reflect the evaluations of the articles. Each citation includes the name of the periodical, page and date of review as well as the number of words in the review. Published monthly and cumulated annually into a bound volume containing a subject and title index at the back. Every fifth year a cumulated subject and title index was published.

BRD is no longer available online. For online searching, use Academic Search Premier's Advanced Search and choose Book Reviews under Document Type.

Detroit: Gale.
Covers 1965 to 2009.
Five-year cumulated indexes ease searching. Indexes reviews of books and periodicals appearing in over 500 scholarly, popular, and professional periodicals. Titles reviewed include children's, young adult, and reference books. Each record includes: author and title of the work being reviewed, journal title abbreviation, date of review, page number, and an indication of the length of the review. Abbreviations and full journal titles are listed in the front of each volume.

Ann Arbor: Pierian Press. 4 volumes.
Covers 1964-1974.
4 volumes. Volume 1 covers 1964 to 1970; volume 2, 1971; volume 3, 1972; volume 4, 1973 to March 1974. Supplements Book Review Digest and Book Review Index, complements Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities, and forms the predecessor to review coverage in Social Sciences Index and Current Book Review Citations.

Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. 6 annual volumes.
Covers 1972 to 1977.
A short-lived effort by John W. Brewster and Joseph A. McLeod at North Texas State University. Because it indexes reviews of books about non-North American history (and therefore supplements what is available in America: History & Life), I include it here. An example of the obscure book review sources that lurk in the Uris stacks. For a guide to the obscure, see the Postscript.

Le Caire: Institut français d'archéologie orientale.
Print version covers numbers 3-6, 8, 13-15 (1986-1989, 1992, 1997-1999)
Available online for 1984 to 2019 at https://www.persee.fr/collection/bcai.
Available online for 2020 to date at https://journals.openedition.org/bcai/.

In French.
Print version published by
Le Caire: Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1986-1999.
Library has no 3-6, 8, 13-15 (1986-1989, 1992, 1997-1999).
Notes: Previously published 1984-1985 as a section in Annales islamologiques, with title: Bulletin critique.
Available online for 1984 to 2019 at https://www.persee.fr/collection/bcai.
Available online for 2020 to date at https://journals.openedition.org/bcai/.
Nos. 16-19, 21-24 (2000-2003, 2005-2008) were also published on CD-ROM (Library Annex Disk BP 1 .A631).

Arlington, VA: Carrollton Press, 1979. 15 volumes. Covers 1886 to 1974.
Indexes "one million book reviews which appeared in the complete backfiles of 459 scholarly journals in History, Political Science, and Sociology." [Introduction]

Covers 1976 to 1982.
Compiles citations to the reviews that appeared in all the Wilson indexes (Reader's Guide, General Science Index, Humanities Index, Social Sciences Index). Over one thousand journals are covered.

Westwood, MA: F. W. Faxon. Annual cumulations.
Covers 1973 to 1995.
Mainly in French, this is a general periodical index intended for college students in advanced French language classes. Began indexing 7 titles in 1973; 63 titles indexed in 1995. Book reviews are under the subject heading "Livre."

2 volumes.
Scarecrow Press.

Adelaide: Library Board of South Australia.
Covers 1965 to 1970.

Compiled by Antonia Forster. Vol. 1, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990; vol. 2, London: British Library, 1996.
Covers 1749 to 1800. Volume 1 covers 1749 to 1774; volume 2 covers 1775 to 1800.
"[R]eviewing, in anything approaching the modern sense of the term, began in the eighteenth century, with the Monthly Review [available in the Early English Newspapers microform set: Film 5053, reels 1215-1247] in 1749, and there is much to be learned about its place in and impact on eighteenth-century literature" (Preface to volume 1). Books reviewed are likely to be found in ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online).

Scarecrow Press.
Covers 1972-1977.

Covers 1949/1959-1969/1974 and 1986-1995.
For online access, search ATLA Religion Database.

Williamston, MI: P. Thomson.
Covers 1960 to 1990.
Annual index. Originally indexed "several hundred periodicals" in English. Foreign-language titles added in 1970. (Guide to Reference Books, 11th ed., AA372).

College Station, TX, [Science Fiction Research Association], 1973. For coverage, see the title.

2 volumes.
Boston: G.K. Hall.
Volume 1 covers 1960 to 1974.
Volume 2 covers 1975 to 1979.

Osnabrück, Germany: F. Dietrich.
Covers 1971 to 2011. Extensive coverage of book reviews in the European journal literature. Appears annually in two half-year parts. Each part contains five sections--A: Autoren/Authors index, B: Rezensenten/Reviewers index, C: Titel/Titles index, D: Sachgebiets/Subjects index, E: Zeitschriften/Periodicals index.

Covers volumes 1 to 11 (1985-1992).
Annual.

Compiled by Daniel A. Wells. 3 volumes by various publishers, 1980, 1996, 2004.
Covers 1800 to 1900 in three volumes. See note below.
An index to writing about literary and historical Americans from the period. Book reviews are labeled with the abbreviation "rev."
(Note: The original volume covering 1815-1865 appears to have indexed only two titles not included in the last two volumes--Harbinger, a weekly from Brook Farm, and New Mirror, a brief successor to New York Mirror; otherwise this volume is superseded by the latter two.

1 volume.
Scarecrow Press, 1975.

[Hampden-Sydney, VA: Political Science Reviewer] -2010; Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
Covers 1971 to 2020.
Library Annex has vols.1-17, 19-30 (1971-1986, 1990-2001).
Olin Library Stacks has 31-32 (2002-2003)
v.XXXIII-XXXIX (2004-2010)
v.XL-XLIV (2016-2020)
Print subscription cancelled after 2020.
See online entry to access newer issues.

Book reviews for literary history and criticism.
We have Jahrg.14 (1982)
Jahrg.15:Heft 1-2, 4 (1983)
Jahrg.17:Heft 1-3 (1985)
Jahrg.18-31 (1986-1999).
Began with Jahrg. 3 in 1971; ceased with Jahrg. 31 (1999).

Chicago: American Library Association.
Covers 1956/1960-1977/1978, 1980/1981-1982/1983.
Continued by Reference Books Bulletin.

Chicago: American Library Association.
Covers 1983/1984,1985/1986-1989/1990,1991/1992-2000/2001.
Continues Reference and Subscription Books Reviews.
Subscription cancelled after 2001.

See section Z-66, Aids for Locating Contemporary Reviews, page 551.
Of particular value as a guide for locating eighteenth-century through early nineteenth-century sources of literary reviews.

Covers 1995 to 2013/2014.
Ceased with 2013/2014 both in print format and online.

Santiago de Chile: Biblioteca Nacional, 1968-1994[?].
We own 1968-1985, 1987-1988. A book review index in Spanish published by the National Library of Chile.

1975 to 2002.
E-only after 2002.
1997 to date available in Wiley Online Library, linked from here.

Westport, CT: Redgrave Information Resources Corp.
Covers vols.1-13 (1974-1986)
vol.14:no.1-3 (1987:Winter-Summer)
vol.15:no.1-4 (1990)
vols.16-26 (1991-1997)
Continued by the online version. See the entry for this title under the Online Resources tab in this LibGuide.

Detroit: Gale, 1975, 1981.
Covers 1923-1973 and 1974-1979 in two volumes.

1 volume.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977.