unapologeticallyb00kish

Hey, fellow educators & librarians. I don’t know about you, but I am a huge fan of receiving something before its release date. Take LEGO, for example. When I find a set at the store a few weeks before the official release date, I feel like I won the LEGO lottery. Having access to books before their official release date gives me the same sense of absolute joy! This is where NetGalley comes in. Founded in 2008, it has undergone several iterations and provides services to publishers and reviewers.

As a member and reviewer, NetGalley is free. The only cost for access to your Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) is a written review. The folks at NetGalley are especially generous with librarians, and I’ve been auto-approved to review books for several traditional and audiobook publishers. 

Searching for titles is easy. You can browse the format (audiobooks and books) or by category. When searching by format, members can search for the most recent and most requested books and audiobooks.  Additionally, members can browse by publisher. 

Once you’ve finished your title, it is easy to submit feedback. Your feedback form is tailored to the type of membership that you apply for. In my case, I simply added my ALA member number to confirm my role as a librarian, and my form inquires about my likelihood of purchasing the title and my intentions regarding promoting the book. The image below is a screenshot from my feedback page and shows the questions that it asks librarian reviewers.

Although my preferences are set to YA and Middle Grade titles, I’ve been approved to read several genres. I recently completed an adult fantasy novel that is not appropriate for my library. The book was fantastic, but I am not purchasing it for my students. I don’t want that to negatively impact the author, and I’ve gotten around that by writing a note in the section provided for ‘notes for the publisher’ to clarify. I am still writing reviews for those titles, posting them on social media, and referring them to my colleagues.

That is another requirement for membership. You need to post your reviews on a platform other than NetGalley. I’m currently posting on Goodreads and Barnes & Noble, and will be transitioning this blog to a full book review site once I’ve completed my ed tech review requirements for my LIS 568 library course. 

Each week, NetGalley sends me an email with a weekly checklist that reminds me of the number of books I have to download as well as the number I need to submit feedback for.

I’m hoping to get some of my library club students involved with reviewing ARCs this year. I have read several blogs that discuss student reviewing, but I hope to explore this option through NetGalley. At this moment, I am unsure if it is feasible, but I can update this article after investigating.