Journal of Information and Knowledge (Formerly SRELS Journal of Information Management)

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Current Bengali Book Reviews:A Study of Comprehensiveness, Currency and Publishers' Participation


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1 Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741235, West Bengal, India
     

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Book Review is an excellent tool both for publicity and collection development. In a country like India, where the regional language publishing is much significant, the local book review media plays an imperative role in this respect. This article reports the results of a quantitative study of the contents of reviews of Bengali titles appeared during the initial five and half years in the new millennium. Four Bengali newspapers with weekly book review pages, one reputed literary magazine in Bengali and a group of twenty little magazines of literary importance have been chosen for study. Reflections of titles and participation of publishers in local book review media in terms of the comprehensiveness and currency of review, identification of marginalized and prolific titles and publishers in terms of single and multiple appearances including the patterns of reflections of subjects and price of the reviewed titles are covered in this study. The study reveals that the local book review media is lacking in the comprehensiveness and currency factors. Prolific appearances of titles and publishers in more than one source of review simultaneously are not usual phenomena in local book review media.

Keywords

Book Reviews, Bengali Titles, Local Review Media, Currency of Review, Publishers' Participation in Review System.
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About The Authors

Dibyendu Paul
Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741235, West Bengal
India

Sabuj Dasgupta
Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741235, West Bengal
India


Notifications

  • Edson (John R). The art of book reviewing. Catholic Library World. Vol. 76(3); 2006; p209-211.

  • Haugland (A). Books are culture / books are commerce. Journalism Quarterly. Vol. 71(4); 1994; p787-799.

  • Sethi (A R). Book reviewing is librarian?s prerogative. IASLIC Bulletin. Vol. 29(3); 1984; p119-124.

  • Parker (Jean McGruer). Scholarly book reviews in literature journals as collection development sources for librarians. Collection Management. Vol. 11(1/2); 1989; p41-57.

  • Shaw (Debora). An analysis of the relationship between book reviews and fiction holdings in OCLC. Library & Information Science Research. Vol. 13(2); 1991; p147-154.

  • Serebnick (Judith). Selection and holdings of small publishers? books in OCLC libraries: a study of the influence of reviews, publishers and venders. Library Quarterly. Vol. 62(3); 1992; p259-294.

  • Mohanta (R N); Biswas (S C). Book reviews and collection development. Proceedings of the 19th All India Conference of IASLIC, Kolkata, India. 26-29 Dec. 1993; p109-14.

  • Satarkar (S P); Kulkarni (Jagadish N); Waghmode (Shahaji S). Book reviews published in „The Hindu?: a study. ILA Bulletin. Vol. 39(2); 2000; p34-39.

  • Dutta (Ramaprasad). Samalochanar alo andhare (paradoxical and ambiguous criticism). Akshar. January-December, 2002; p149-160.

  • Chakraborty (Dipendu). Pustak samalochker mastak bikraya (bonded book reviewers). Anustup. Summer, 1970; p30-46.

  • Acharya (Saroj). Samalochanar sutra (postulates of reviews). Natun Sahitya. Vol. 9(2); 1960; p09-17.

  • Paul (Dibyendu). Bibliographic control of Bengali publications: a study of current bibliographic sources. Ph. D. Thesis. University of Kalyani, Kalyani (West Bengal, India). 2007; p387 (Unpublished).

  • Malhotra (D N). Ed. 50 Years of book publishing in India since independence. Federation of Indian Publishers, New Delhi. 1998, p12.

  • Paul, Dibyendu Op. Cit. 12, p277.

  • Paul, Dibyendu Op. Cit. 12, p367-69.


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  • Current Bengali Book Reviews:A Study of Comprehensiveness, Currency and Publishers' Participation

Abstract Views: 546  |  PDF Views: 17

Authors

Dibyendu Paul
Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741235, West Bengal, India
Sabuj Dasgupta
Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kalyani, Kalyani-741235, West Bengal, India

Abstract


Book Review is an excellent tool both for publicity and collection development. In a country like India, where the regional language publishing is much significant, the local book review media plays an imperative role in this respect. This article reports the results of a quantitative study of the contents of reviews of Bengali titles appeared during the initial five and half years in the new millennium. Four Bengali newspapers with weekly book review pages, one reputed literary magazine in Bengali and a group of twenty little magazines of literary importance have been chosen for study. Reflections of titles and participation of publishers in local book review media in terms of the comprehensiveness and currency of review, identification of marginalized and prolific titles and publishers in terms of single and multiple appearances including the patterns of reflections of subjects and price of the reviewed titles are covered in this study. The study reveals that the local book review media is lacking in the comprehensiveness and currency factors. Prolific appearances of titles and publishers in more than one source of review simultaneously are not usual phenomena in local book review media.

Keywords


Book Reviews, Bengali Titles, Local Review Media, Currency of Review, Publishers' Participation in Review System.

References