Book reviews are written when a book or film first comes out. They are usually short pieces in newspapers, journals or online review organs. When searching in databases, put the title of the book in quotes, and select "review" as the document type. Look to the databases' help screens for more detail. Remember that contemporary reviews of older books may be found in print indexes. The following guide has a chronological list of sources for book reviews.
- Academic OneFile* (1980-present) 11,000 journals with full-text articles from more than 4,000 peer-reviewed journals and reference sources worldwide. Covers the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects. Includes coverage from 1980 to the present for most journals. It also contains hundreds of podcasts and transcripts from NPR, CNN, and the CBC.
- Book Review Digest Plus* (1983-present) Cites and excerpts book reviews of current English-language fiction and nonfiction. Reviews must have appeared within 18 months after the book was published. At least one review must be from a periodical published in the U.S. or Canada. Covers approximately 100 leading periodicals published in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.
- Book Review Digest Retrospective* (1905-1982) Provides excerpts from, and citations to, reviews of English language adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction titles. Includes books on science for the general reader, but excludes technical books in the sciences and law, textbooks, and government publications. Reviews are selected from journals in the humanities, sciences, social sciences and library review media published in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.
- Book Review Index* (1965-present) Indexes book reviews within Duke Libraries published in newspapers, journals, and general interest publications. Excellent source for scholarly reviews of books. Print version is located in Perkins Reference.
- LexisNexis Academic* (1970s and 1990s) Provides full text access to a wide range of U.S. and international newspapers, radio and television transcripts. Covers general, business, and legal information sources. Go to NEWS > SOURCES > BY COUNTRY > FRANCE > NEWS > choose a category and “add” titles of newspapers to be searched.
- Literature Resource Center* (>100,000 authors) Designed for the research needs of undergraduates, the LRC provides the full text of biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses for authors of every age, nation, and literary discipline.
- New York Review of Books (1963-present) Displays current issue of the New York Review of Books. Archives from 1963 to the present can be searched or browsed by following the "Archives" link near the top left.
- New York Times* (1851-2007) To get the New York Times online, check the dates you need and choose the appropriate link. New York Times Magazine (1896-), New York Times Book Review (1923-), and other special sections are included in this file.
- New York Times Book Reviews (1980-present) Contains articles on books from 1980 to present. Limit publication field to "New York Times" . For earlier book reviews, see above: New York Times (1851-2007), which includes the NYT Book Review section with the complete newspaper file.
- Periodicals Archive Online* (from beginning of the respective journal until 2005) Periodicals Archive Online is an archive of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It has been indexed in its sister database, Periodicals Index Online.
- Periodicals Index Online* (1770-1995) Indexes thousands of selected periodicals in the humanities and social sciences from their first issues to 1995. Also includes the complete table of contents for each issue of each journal.
- TLS (Times Literary Supplement Archive)* (1994-present) The Times Literary Supplement is a seminal literature journal with in-depth book reviews and articles covering the latest and most important publications in every subject, fiction and non-fiction. It also covers current theater, opera and film. Each issue features several essays, about two dozen detailed book reviews and lists of recently published books of note, several new poems, and occasional short stories.
- TLS (Times Literary Supplement) Historical Archive (1902-2005)*
- Wall Street Journal* (1889-1991) The Wall Street Journal offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
- Wall Street Journal* (1984-present)
- Web of Science* (1900-present) The ISI Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded® (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index® (1956-present), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index™ (1975-present). It enables users to search current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from some of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. ISI Web of Science also provides cited reference searching. With it, users can navigate forward, backward, and through the literature, searching all disciplines and time spans to uncover information relevant to their research.
