Comments on: Rigor in reviews, in writing, and in librarianship generally

By: Librarified » You need a master’s degree for that? In defense of the MLS.

Tue, 04 May 2010 02:02:31 +0000

[...] foundation In my earlier post on the need for more rigor in the profession, I mentioned the exclusive body of knowledge that we lay claim to as part of being professionals. [...]

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 01:20:59 +0000

Jim, I see where you’re coming from, and I think that maybe as an artist or a consumer what you’re saying makes sense. But part of a librarian’s job is to select books for the library’s collection and if you can’t find reviews for a book, you don’t know if it’s because everyone hated it and is playing nice and not saying so or if it’s because no one’s read it or if it’s because no one’s bothered to review it.

I think that personally I’d have a hard time writing a negative review for the very reasons that you mentioned (especially turning someone away from something they might wind up liking) and I recognize that art and music and literature are subjective, but as a professional, I need reviews that tell both sides of the story. There are only so many books we can order and we need a way to sort out what’s going to make it into the collection and what isn’t.

So someone needs to be willing to write constructively critical reviews, and I nominate librarians. :)

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:14:57 +0000

@Erin To clarify, I don’t think that there’s always something good to say. I just think that there’s so much art being produced that let’s ignore the bad stuff, and spend time concentrating on the stuff that’s awesome.

By: Erin

Erin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:33:04 +0000

Excellent stuff, as usual Gretchen. Jim has an interesting point….and maybe i’m just a perpetual optimist, but I think he’s correct — there’s always something good to say.

but, on the other hand, I remember that journal article we had to read for collection development. And it was awful! As were many of the sessions we attended at PLA. So i agree with you as well — lower standards are helping no one.

Anywho. Interesting stuff to ponder.
- Erin

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:22:21 +0000

During my year of writing up-and-coming listings and the occasional feature for the music section of one of Portland’s dailies, I actually came to the conclusion that (like Believer magazine) I was no longer going to do negative reviews, unless it was for a nationally, well-established band.

These were music reviews, but my reasoning was two-fold:

1)There’s SO MUCH MUSIC out there. That meant that in any given week, with any show I was assigned to, I could find something good about one or more of the performers.

2) I did not want to be responsible for steering people away from a local band’s show. I am not so arrogant as to think that people would search my listings and go to shows based on what I said. However, if someone was on the fence, and this was a new band looking desperately for an audience, I didn’t want to be the final thing in the “con” column that kept a potential audience member away.

So I guess this is really just replying to the beginning of your post, but I actually feel like rather than asking critics of a certain gender to be harsher, we should be asking everyone to not bother writing about something that you hate. Like I said, there’s so much out there, and I don’t see the point of promoting negatively when you can definitely find something that you want to RAVE about, to tell EVERYONE YOU KNOW that THIS IS AWESOME.

That guy from Hype Machine has a tagline of “I wake up in the morning to get people excited about music.” I think that any critic should wake up in the morning to get people excited about what they are reviewing.