R.R. Bowker

The following are brief descriptions of the Bowker databases available for group subscriptions through MLC. For more complete descriptions, please click on the database name or visit R.R. Bowker on the Web.  Technical information, Quick Guides, logos, stats, and other useful information can be found at www.bowkersupport.com.

MLC's group subscriptions to Bowker's databases run annually October 1 - September 30.

BooksInPrint.com Professional (Bowker's Books in Print with Reviews)
Content in Bowker's BooksInPrint.com Professional includes over 900,000 full-text book reviews from Kirkus, Choice, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and other sources. It also has expanded audio and video listings (e.g., titles from feature films, documentaries, old radio programs, etc.). Stock information is included from 25 major vendors. Emery-Pratt provides DIRECT ordering.

BooksInPrint.com also includes a feature called Hooks to Holdings. Search a title in BooksInPrint.com Professional and link directly to your library OPAC. You can also create and download lists for selection and ordering, as well as create alerts so you can be notified when new titles are published. BooksInPrint.com Professional is updated daily and features versatile search fields such as keyword in title, keyword in subject, and series title.

Other FREE services in BooksInPrint.com Professional include:

• Childrens’ Books in Print focuses solely on reading and educational/textbook materials for the children’s and young-adult market. Search by subject (5000+), age, Lexile level, awards, series, and full-text reviews. And, a special Children’s Room features many useful links to fun educational sites. Quickly link to puzzle sites, reading sites, and much more.
  
  
• Fiction Connection, a complementary reader’s advisory tool featuring the popular AquaBrowser interface. Now, recommending titles is as easy as typing in an author, title, subject, or ISBN. Fiction Connection will then display a recommended reading list of books that have similar characteristics to the topic originally selected. Never a dead end – every topic displayed has a suggested title.
  
  
• Patron Books in Print gives library users a friendly environment on your library’s public-access website to search the industry’s largest unbiased, web-based bibliographic resource. The interface uses easy-to-understand patron oriented language! No more “trade cloth bindings”—just language that your patrons will be able to comprehend and navigate quickly. Patron can create personalized readings or research lists. List details can be viewed, edited, printed or e-mailed to a personal e-mail address. “My Favorites” allows users to create a personalized profile of search criteria and interests. When new books, audio books, or videos are released that fit their criteria, they will receive a personal e-mail alert.
  
  

Bowker’s Book Analysis System
Bowker's Book Analysis System electronically compares your collection to the H.W. Wilson Standard Catalogs or RCLweb (separate subscriptions required) and provides reports that you can use to identify gaps and duplicates within your collection. Comparisons may be run using ISBN, LCCN & Title & Author, or Title & Author. Reports are grouped by Dewey Decimal or LC classifications, as well as RCL taxonomy. Additional product information is available at www.bowkersbookanalysis.com for the Wilson version, and http://www.rclinfo.net for the RCLweb version.

Fiction Connection
Is a readers’ advisory tool for professionals and patrons covering non-fiction titles. Fiction Connection.com is included FREE in your subscription to BooksInPrint.com Professional.  Fiction Connection can direct readers to books they will enjoy by having patrons type in a title of a book they already love, or readers can casually browse titles by selecting a topic, genre, setting, character, location, and time frame.

Non-Fiction Connection
To address the need for non-fiction readers' advisory, Bowker is developing Non-Fiction Connection, a module of Fiction Connection that will allow users to find non-fiction titles based on books that they have already read and enjoyed.

Current Fiction Connection functionality will remain. A subscription to Non-Fiction Connection will give users access to two additional tabs: one that will allow searching on just non-fiction titles, and one that will allow searching on all titles in the database, fiction AND non-fiction.

The non-fiction content that is being created will primarily be "narrative non-fiction", i.e. non-fiction that is character-driven and reads like fiction with good storylines, interesting characters, unfamiliar places, drama, etc.

Non-fiction genres that will be covered include true crime, travel, history, food, animals, humor, and more. We will not be including instructional titles at this time (i.e. cookbooks, travel books, textbooks, etc.).
Some titles you will see include:

• Marley and Me by John Grogan
• The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
• Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick
• The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
• And many more

RCLWeb.com
Is the long awaited successor to Books for College Libraries 3rd Edition, this academic library core title list from ACRL’s Choice covers 58 undergraduate subjects.  Usage options are available for students, faculty, and library staff, making RCLweb the ultimate resource to find research materials, enhance course curriculum, and aid in collection development.

• Cover images
• Fiction and Biography Profiles
• Genre and sub-genre
• Time periods
• Topics within the plot
• Awards
• Main characters
• Author notes
• Character attributes
• Plot summaries
• Settings
• Special notes
• First Chapters and Excerpts
• Book Reviews
• Tables of Contents
• Annotations
• Author Notes