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About Choice Magazine

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries is the premier source for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education. More than 35,000 librarians, faculty, and key decision makers rely on Choice magazine and Choice Reviews Online for collection development and scholarly research. Choice reaches almost every undergraduate college and university library in the United States.

Each year Choice publishes more than 7,000 reviews. These reviews are

  • Timely - typically the first comment on scholarly publications
  • Authoritative - written by selected experts in the subject
  • Concise - brief but thorough, providing information and recommendations
  • Easy to use - logical arrangement, including data needed to order the item reviewed

In a survey, Choice reviews were called “the best short critical evaluations of new titles available anywhere.” Choice subscribers rate it #1 among sources used to select materials for academic libraries.

Each issue of Choice contains approximately 600 reviews of recent books and electronic resources, a bibliographic essay, and a list of significant forthcoming titles. Click to see sample reviews in a variety of subject areas from past issues of Choice. A sample bibliographic essay (“Toward Understanding the Death Penalty Debate”) and feature, as well as sample Web reviews, are also available in full text at this site.

Choice covers more than 50 subdisciplines spanning the humanities, science and technology, and the social and behavioral sciences. The Selection Policy gives specific criteria for each subject section of the magazine.

Titles reviewed in Choice are assigned one of the following recommendation levels, which appear at the end of each review:

Essential:  A publication of exceptional quality for academic audiences and a core title for academic libraries supporting programs in relevant disciplines.

Highly recommended:  A publication of high quality and relevance for academic audiences.    

Recommended:  A publication containing good content and coverage and suitable for academic audiences.

Optional:  A publication that, due to limited value or deficiencies, is marginal for academic audiences.

Not recommended:  A poor quality publication or one not suitable for academic audiences.

Choice reviews are also available on cards and electronically. For more information go to Reviews on Cards.

ChoiceReviews.online has been totally redesigned. With a new interface and expanded functionality, it has been relaunched as Choice Reviews Online — Version 2. For more information, click here.

Choice reviews

  • Explain the author's approach to the subject
  • Describe the work's arrangement
  • Assess its contribution to the field
  • Focus on strengths or deficiencies
  • Compare it with similar titles
  • Specify the audience for whom the work is best suited

Choice subscribers include
  • Academic, public, and special libraries around the world
  • Most undergraduate academic institutions in the U.S.
  • Individuals, especially faculty, who wish to keep up with scholarly publishing
  • Most colleges and universities in Canada, and academic institutions and national libraries in Europe, Asia, and Australia
Most academic libraries in the U.S. use CHOICE for selecting and purchasing materials.

Editorial Board

Dalia Corkrum, College Librarian, Penrose Library, Whitman College

Glenda M. Alvin, Assistant Director for Collection Management, Brown-Daniel Library, Tennessee State University

Elizabeth M. (Buffy) Choinski, Head, Science Library, University of Mississippi Libraries

Angela Courtney, Librarian for English Literatures, Theatre, Film Studies, Communication & Culture, History of the Book, and Philosophy, Herman B. Wells Library, Indiana Universtiy Libraries

Frederick J. Hay, Anne Belk Distinguished Professor and Librarian of the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection and Coordinator of Special Collections, Belk Library, Appalachian State University

Cristina Dominguez Ramirez, Collection Librarian for Social & Behavioral Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University

Keith R. Stetson, Collection Development Librarian, DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Fairfield University

Ex Officio

Erika Linke, Associate Dean, Carnegie-Melon University Libraries

Tim Gritten, Assistant Librarian, Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State University

Mary Ellen K. Davis, Executive Director, ACRL

Irving E. Rockwood, Editor & Publisher, Choice






CHOICE is a publication of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL),
a division of American Library Association.
For questions or comments, contact the Website editor.
Copyright © 2006 by American Library Association.
ISSN 0009-4978
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