Brand New Look for NoveList

As I make clear in my profile, I am under contract with EBSCO to write readalike materials for their popular and extremely useful database, NoveList.

Not willing to stand still, NoveList will be rolling out a new look this summer. I have been busy working with the other readalike contributors to provide new, more precisely targeted, and ultimately, more useful information for patrons and librarians.

Click here to view the screen shots of how things are going to look and change. The BPL provides full access to NoveList to all of its library card holders in the library and from home.

Since I have access to much of the material which will be in the new interface, I can say it will be more responsive and dynamic. For example, now authors descriptions will be only 100 words each (instead of an entire essay), with an intense focus on what the author does best and why readers like him or her, but instead of only 5 suggested readalike authors as before, they can now be an unlimited number similar authors, title matches, and even series matches, suggested by any and all of NoveList's talented contributors. Also, in the old system, an author had to be alive and have at least 5 published books before a contributor would be assigned to write a  readalike article. Now, as long as the author is popular, even if they only have one book, an entry will be created.

On the horror front, my editor agrees with me that the database is lacking in its offering for this genre, and she is letting me dictate which horror authors I can create entries for. I am also happy to report that I will be working with the article editors to create specific essays and articles on working with horror readers in the near future.

So all in all, it will be an exciting summer for NoveList users. I will have more information and links to demos in the coming weeks. But for now, this link has the most up to date information.