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Research Books and Related Resources

Links to all manner of information about books.

ALIC Resources

  • ALIC's Online Public Access Catalog
    Use ALIC's catalog to search for print resources in the Archives Library Information Center.
     
  • America: History and Life Available in the Archives Library Information Center. 
    The resource offers ebooks on all aspects of history, as well as reviews of works on American history.
     
  • ProQuest Research Library  is Available in the Archives Library Information Center. 
    Reviews are included in the full text of journal articles.

Book Awards

  • Prize-Winning Books On-Line  (University of Pennsylvania)
    Offers the complete text of many books that have won major awards.
     
  • Pulitzer Prizes
    Includes a list of past winners and finalists by category, as well as current winners and finalists

Book Conservation

Book Preservation

Book Reviews

  • Book Review Sources (University of Pennsylvania Library)
    This site provides a selective bibliography of sources for reviews of works in the social sciences and humanities.
     
  • Book Reviews (London Guardian and Observer)
    Reviews of recently published books, as well as features, listings by genre, and a blog.
     
  • Book World (Washington Post)
    Reviews from the current issue only.
     
  • Booklist Online (American Library Association)
    Online reviews in all fields.
     
  • Booknotes
    An archive of 800 interviews with authors discussing their books on the C-SPAN television program Booknotes. The site is searchable, and interviews are presented in both video format and written transcripts.
     
  • BookPage
    Features reviews of recent books.
     
  • Bookreporter.com
    Book reviews and excerpts.
     
  • BookSpot
    Book reviews and book awards.
     
  • Boston Globe Review
    Reviews by writers, scholars, and intellectuals.
     
  • Bookwire
    Powered by Bowker, the world's leading bibliographic provider.
     
  • Chicago Tribune  Books
    Reviews of current books representing many genres.
     
  • Chronicle Book Review (San Francisco Chronicle)
    Reviews recommended reading and book news.
     
  • CNN.com Book Reviews
    Reviews of current releases.
     
  • Education Review: Journal of Book Reviews  (Supported by Arizona State University)
    Journal of book reviews on educational topics.
     
  • Financial Times Books
    Offers reviews of current books of all genres and several RSS feeds. Interesting features include articles about book covers and a book-related advice column.
     
  • Fore Word Online
    Independent and university press reviews are ordered by category.
     
  • H-Net Reviews (H-Net Humanities Online)
    Online scholarly review journal featuring reviews in the humanities and social sciences.
     
  • Kirkus
    "The World's Toughest Book Critics."
     
  • New York Review of Books
    Selected articles are searchable from 1963 to 1994; all articles are searchable from 1995 to the present.

Book Selling and Collecting

  • Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America
    Website of the premier association of rare booksellers in the United States.
     
  • Book Collecting
    Advice for book collectors from D.J. McAdam. Includes pages dealing with book condition, book value, caring for books, and much more.
     
  • The Private Library
    A blog designed to help readers create a private library economically. It contains information about collecting books of all kinds and links to a variety of book-related websites.

History of the Book

  • American Bookbinders Museum
    The only bookbinding museum in America, this site offers information about the history of the book as well as online exhibits from the museum's collections.
     
  • Centre for the History of the Book
    The University of Edinburgh established the Centre for the History of the Book in 1995. The website offers descriptions of research projects dealing with topics such as Walter Scott, the Drummond Press, and the impact of information technologies on literature.
     
  • Development of the Printed Page
    The University of South Carolina University Libraries maintains this database of 150 examples of hand press printing dating from about 1200 to 1937.
     
  • Fore-Edge Paintings in the Lilly Library
    A fore-edge painting is painted on the edges of the pages of a book in such a way that the painting is only visible when the leaves of the book are open and fanned. This online exhibition presents a variety of styles including vertical, double paintings, and picturesque.
     
  • Guild of Book Workers
    Members "are committed to sustaining the crafts involved with the production of books while striving to broaden public awareness of handbound books and related arts, stimulate commissions of bindings and book-adjacent work, and advocate for sound principles of book conservation and/or restoration."
     
  • Hand Bookbindings: Plain and Simple to Grand and Glorious
    ​     "An online display of over two hundred bindings. They are divided thematically into twenty-six categories." Categories include Embroidered Bindings, Aldines, and Gold Tooling. Examples come from the Special Collections in the Princeton University Library.
     
  • Historical Book Arts Collection Database
    This database presents a selection of materials held in the Special Collections Division of the University of Washington Libraries. Emphasizes the history of the book and medieval manuscripts.
     
  • Program in the History of the Book in American Culture
    Established by the American Antiquarian Society in 1983. This organization promotes the interdisciplinary study of the book through the resources of the AAS, including its collection of early American printed materials. Its newsletter, The Book, is available on this website.
     
  • Rare Book School
    Description of RBS, which promotes the study of the history of books and printing and related subjects at its facility at the University of Virginia.
     
  • Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing
    The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing (SHARP) was established to provide a global community for book scholars. This website contains links to resources on Publishers’ Records, Book History Projects, Online Exhibits, and much more.

Literacy

  • Center for the Book
    "The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress promotes books, reading, libraries, and literacy by celebrating the legacy of books and the printed word."
     
  • Literacy.org
    A website that provides resources for individuals and groups concerned with youth and adult literacy. Sponsored by the International Literacy Institute (ILI) and the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
     
  • Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS)
    "A national dissemination, resource gathering, and professional development system providing information on a wide variety of literacy-relevant topics, issues, and resources. "
     
  • Reading: Harvard Views of Readers, Readership, and Reading History
    This website "is an online exploration of the intellectual, cultural, and political history of reading as reflected in the historical holdings of the Harvard Libraries."

Publishing

  • Internet Publishing *
    Here is advice from Piers Anthony on publishing on the web.
     
  • Literary Marketplace
    This database allows visitors to find publishers by subject or type of publication, by location, or by number of publications.
     
  • Publishers on the Internet (InfoPilot) This is a list of links to sites maintained by publishers in the U.S. and internationally, as well as information agencies, books and booksellers, newspapers and periodicals, and online texts.

 

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