Reviews of Independent Press Books in <i>Counterpoise</i> and Other Publications

Abstract

Although Counterpoise claims that it reviews books that are reviewed by other publications either infrequently or not at all, almost three-quarters of the books (74.7%) reviewed by Counterpoise are reviewed by a wide variety of other publications, including popular magazines and newspapers. Four core library review tools (Booklist, Choice, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly) review 48.2 percent of all book titles reviewed by Counterpoise, and their reviews are favorable 74.4 percent of the time. Of the books not reviewed anywhere else except Counterpoise, more than half fall into six Library of Congress classification categories, including E (History: America), HQ (The family. Marriage. Women), HV (Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology), and HD (Industries. Land use. Labor). In addition, there is a subset of titles that are frequently and positively reviewed by popular and academic publications, but not by reviewing journals commonly used by librarians.