Novelist Database

Bibliographic Information: Smith, Duncan & Rohweder, Rodger. NoveList. EBSCO Industries, Inc, 2011.
Genre: Book Database
Age Level: All ages
Curriculum ties: Literature
Note: Library subscription needed to access this database along with patron library card number if  accessed remotely.

Reader’s Annotation: A reader’s advisory for all ages that includes reviews and more.

Contents: NoveList® includes:
An easy to use, intuitive interface with a single search bar that makes finding books and other content quick and simple.
Coverage of thousands of fiction series, making it one of the most comprehensive treatments of series available.
The option to sort by popularity and/or Lexile scores.
Links to your library catalog so readers can easily locate their next books to read.
A newly revamped Readers’ Advisory section including RA training, access to NoveList newsletters, Genre Outlines, an online product tour and more.
Curriculum-driven material designed to help integrate NoveList in the classroom.
Feature articles by notable librarians and subject matter experts.
NoveList® also contains:
Hundreds of hand-crafted Recommended Reads reading lists for adults, teens and kids covering both fiction genres and topics.
500 Book Discussion Guides including questions and answers and suggestions for further reading.
450 searchable Award Lists.
Hundreds of Feature Articles, BookTalks and Curricular Connection articles on a wide variety of genres, topics and reading levels
(Information obtained from EBSCOhost website. Retrieved from: http://www.ebscohost.com/public/novelist)

Critical Evaluation: What I like about this database is that all you need is a favorite title or author to search for similar titles. Readers can enter words that describe the contents of a book they would like to read, and NoveList retrieves titles that contain these words in the book’s subject headings field. This feature is especially useful when working with readers who do not know the author or title of the book that they are looking for but can describe the contents of the novel. It also features reviews, annotations, recommended reads, author read-alikes, book discussion guides, booktalks, and feature articles. Since most teen novels are written in series, there is also a way to search by series title and get a list of all the books in that series in order or see what other series that particular author has. As for age groups, NoveList gives the ability to limit your search to Adult, Teen ( ages 13-18), Tween (ages 9-12), and Children (ages 0-8) which is helpful when searching for age appropriate reads.

Booktalking Ideas: N/A

Challenge Issues: none

Challenge Defense Ideas: There are no apparent challenge issues associated with this book. In the case that a challenge comes up, there are some things that you can do to start. You could read the book and become familiar with the content. Refer to the library collection development policy, and get reviews from reputable sources and teens that have read the book.
Why was this item included?: It is a great literature resource database that is appropriate for all ages. A representation of databases in collection.
Author Information: Duncan Smith & Rodger Rohweder. In the late 80s Duncan Smith, an avid readers’ advisor, struggled with the fact that readers’ advisory services were only as good as the individual librarian’s memory and ability to read a wide range of genres. Although there are many librarians with an impressive knowledge of books, genres and reader needs, Duncan felt that their effectiveness could be increased if there was a database that allowed them to search for additional titles based on level, subject, title or author. In 1990, he formed a small company with two programmers, Roger Rohweder and John Strickler. They began creating NoveList part-time while maintaining their “day jobs.”
In 1994, they sold their first copy of NoveList and shortly after, Duncan and Roger joined CARL Corporation, quitting their other jobs and working full-time on NoveList. NoveList launched as a DOS product with 20,000 adult titles and 1200 reviews!
NoveList continued to grow and in 1999, EBSCO Publishing acquired NoveList from CARL. At that time, NoveList had 5 employees, counting Duncan and Roger.
In 2000, NoveList changed strategic and philosophical direction by becoming a data creator instead of just a data aggregator. Feature Articles, BookTalks, and Book Discussion Guides were added first, with Author Read-alikes, Readers’ Advisory training content and a variety of other reader and staff materials added later.
There are now over 150,000 fiction titles, and over 4000 custom created articles and lists. In March 2008, NoveList Plus launched adding 50,000 readable nonfiction titles as well.
NoveList, the division of EBSCO Publishing, has grown from its three founders to a dedicated group of 35 professionals who love to read, and from a single fiction database to a suite of Readers’ Advisory products and services.
(Author information obtained from NoveList website. Retrieved from: http://www.ebscohost.com/novelist/default.php?id=10)