Selection+Tools

Key Selection Tools //Booklist Online//. American Library Association, n.d. Web. 23 April, 2011.  This is a great journal that contains highly respected book reviews, blogs, and webinars. This tool is useful when choosing resources for a library. I have often relied on Booklist reviews to help me decide between two comparable resources. I'm not sure where I "found" this tool. It seems like I've always known about it, but I didn't start reading it until I started my current job. The strengths of this journal are that it's highly respected and the reviews are trustworthy. The weaknesses is that it seems like the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, which either means they aren't reviewing lower quality books or that their reviewers are very gentle with their criticism, but either way, I would like to see more balanced opinions.

//Horn Book Magazine//. The Horn Book, Inc., 2011. Web. 23 April 2011.  This is a highly respected journal that provides reviews of and articles about children's and young adult literature. This is a very helpful journal to use as a selection tool and I've used it often over the course of this year. I've known about //Horn Book Magazine// since I was a kid. I remember my teachers would have copies in their classrooms and occasionally I would read it. I think this is a high quality resource, but there are many places to get literature reviews, and you probably can't afford to have them all. Because this journal focuses mostly on reviews, it might not be as economical as a magazine that offered both reviews and other articles.

//Young Adult Library Services Association//. American Library Association, n.d. Web. 23 April, 2011. YALSA provides many great recommended book lists and book awards, and is always a place I look before choosing materials for the library. I learned about this tool during my first semester in graduate school. This is a very authoritative source, and the only downside of it is that award-winning or critically acclaimed does not mean a title will be popular.