NoveList
is an electronic readers' advisory resource which assists fiction readers in finding new
authors and titles.
NoveList allows
readers to use a favorite author or title as a template to locate other
authors and titles of interest. In addition, three powerful search
techniques allow readers to look for books by entering descriptive terms
that appear in subject headings, reviews, and other fields in the title
records. NoveList version 4 introduced Advanced Natural Language
searching and Boolean searching, and added full-text searching of reviews
to Describe a Plot. Users can browse theme-oriented book lists at
every reading level through Explore Fiction, and look for outstanding
titles in Best Fiction. Many title records have direct links to Web sites
with information about the author or teacher resource materials.
Besides locating books to read, users can learn more about books and
authors through Feature Articles, Book Discussion Guides, and BookTalks.
These features have been developed specifically with NoveList users
in mind, offering support for librarians, teachers, and individual
readers. The For Staff Only sections provide additional support for
readers' advisory and school curricula. Hypertext links from title records
allow the user to go directly to articles or guides that mention the
title, as well as to the lists in Explore Fiction or Best Fiction where
the titles appear.
NoveList contains materials for all ages including picture
books, children's "chapter" books, young adult titles and books for adult
readers. Updated monthly, the NoveList database integrates
information from a variety of sources. The Hennepin County Library is the
main source of the enhanced subject access contained in the NoveList
database. NoveList contains full-text reviews for adult, young
adult, children's and easy fiction titles from several journals,
including: Booklist, School Library Journal, Library Journal and
Publishers Weekly. In addition to these reviews, there are annotations
and summaries, and all of them are searchable!
NoveList adds about 10,000 new fiction records to the database
per year, along with reviews and descriptions when they are available. The
theme-oriented book lists in Explore Fiction are periodically revised, and
the awards lists in Best Fiction are updated along with the full database
each month. New Feature Articles, Book Discussion Guides, and BookTalks
are also added monthly.
