M.J. Rose this week notes the reduction in space for printed book reviews. She does see some hope, though–in the form of the reviews at Amazon.com and other places on the Web.

Of course, this is yet another case of the newspaper industry failing the public. Perhaps librarians could start filling the void, either reviewing books themselves or oversee the writing of the reviews. Amazon.com is wonderful (I appreciate the reviews there and take the Bezos side in the used book controversy), but keep in mind the purpose of the place–to sell books. That could influence the selection of reviews from professional sources. What’s more, keep in mind that the reader reviews often are hardly paragons of objectivity. Some and perhaps more than some may come from authors’ friends, while others may actually be from the writers’ enemies.

A TeleRead angle here? We won’t disappoint you. TeleRead could help distribute both library books (with fees going to the writers and publishers from a National Digital Library Fund) and the usual commercial variety (with the readers using TeleRead to pay writers and publishers). And librarians could easily link to their own reviews from TeleRead’s master catalogue. You could choose from the reviews of the librarians you trusted the most. Best of all, the TeleReviews could include a librarian’s original justifications for buying a title in the first place. Accountability time.

Needless to say, TeleRead could also allow individual librarians and other content experts to have a review area, to which interested readers could go to. Private companies, too, could supply such a service. And in all cases, readers would never have a problem findings the books–thanks to TeleRead’s stable links.

Would the above require changes in the training of librarians, so that they were better as content experts and writers and editors? Of course. These changes wouldn’t take place at once, but they would over the years. Better training is a “must” if librarians are to take full advantage of the possibilities of e-books.

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