Reader Ratings and Book Reviews from Goodreads Being Added to NoveList Products

Ipswich, MA (PRWEB) June 22, 2011

NoveList, a division of EBSCO Publishing, will begin incorporating reader ratings and book reviews from Goodreads into NoveList products thanks to a new agreement between the companies. The agreement leverages the content of Goodreads, the largest social network for readers, adding additional content to the most popular readers advisory service available.

The agreement brings together two companies that are dedicated to fostering a love of reading while sharing a belief that libraries have a key role to play in a community of readers. Goodreads has more than five million members and polls indicate Goodreads members have strong ties to libraries. In one poll, thirty percent of the nearly 17,000 respondents indicated that they went to the library for more of their books, eclipsing brick and mortar chain bookstores (twenty-two percent) and online stores (eighteen percent).

Independent market research indicated that NoveList is the most highly-rated readers advisory resource in public libraries. NoveList Select allows libraries to add NoveList content into library catalogs allowing users to leverage the library catalog to discover new books and similar titles in the librarys collection. The agreement now allows Goodreads content to be incorporated into that same user experience.

Vice President of Business Development at Goodreads, Kyusik Chung, says this agreement is the companys first product specifically for libraries. At Goodreads, we are passionate about helping people discover the next book they should read. The NoveList and NoveList Select products are the premier tools that libraries use to help patrons choose their next book. EBSCO Publishing is the ideal integration partner as we offer our 11 million book reviews and 110 million ratings to librarians and their patrons.

NoveList founder Duncan Smith says the agreement brings together resources that are well matched to provide an even greater service to librarians and readers alike. Goodreads and NoveList not only share an interest in reading and reading recommendations but recognize and value the role that libraries play in supporting and sustaining reading in their communities. Im looking forward to not only having Goodreads ratings and excellent reviews in all of our products but continuing to work with them and our customers on how this relationship can best help libraries meet the needs of their readers.

The partnership between NoveList and Goodreads not only provides additional information for readers searching the library catalog, the added information will help librarians answer one of their most frequently asked questionswhat do I read next? Smith says librarians are always being asked for their recommendations. With Goodreads we can point the user to thousands of readers who have read and commented on the books readers are considering.

Dr. Mary K. Chelton is a professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College in New York. Chelton, a noted researcher and advocate for readers advisory service whose students are studying the use of social technologies in readers advisory says,

Goodreads and NoveList are two sides of the same coin with the reader's voice at the center. Combining their different but mutually reinforcing strengths for readers and the librarians serving them can only be a cause for celebration.

Barry Trott, the head of adult services at Williamsburg Regional Library in Virginia says the combined resources serve both readers advisory professionals and readers. The combination of NoveList and Goodreads is a great match. It combines the potency of expertise from librarians and literature professionals with the benefits of collaborative reader crowdsourcing. This will offer new opportunities for readers' advisors and readers to build on each other's strengths. I am excited about the possibilities that this coming together presents. Williamsburg is an innovative library that is already using social technologies to reach readers. Williamsburgs Blogging for a Good Book blog won ALAs Louis Shore Award in 2009 and has also been referred to as the future of book reviewing. Williamsburg staff members have also authored several standard readers advisory print resources for Libraries Unlimited.

More information is available at http://www.ebscohost.com/novelist.

About EBSCO Publishing

EBSCO Publishing is the producer of EBSCOhost

Election 2010: State-by-State Data; How Many People with Mental Illness are Being Served?

Arlington, VA (PRWEB) September 30, 2010

State mental health agencies (SMHAs) provide direct services to between 15 to 60 percent of people living with serious mental illnesses in their states, according to state-by-state figures reported today by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

State mental health services are being cut dramatically, however, even as need has increased due to the nations economic crisis. Medicaid is the other major funding source of mental health care for people with serious mental illness, but also has been subject to cuts (see table below).

State mental health agencies cannot do it alone, said NAMI Executive Director Michael J. Fitzpatrick. They serve only a fraction of those who need helpand they struggle to do so with shrinking budgets.

Even without budget cuts, low percentages of people with serious mental illness served by SMHAs may point to weakness in the reach of a states overall system of care. Congress has some responsibility to help strengthen state mental health care systems. Federal mental health block grants have been reduced or frozen over the past 10 years. The impact of cuts in Medicaid-funded state programs also has been softened only through use of federal stimulus funds.

The state figures are offered as part of NAMIs fourth alert in an Election 2010 series reminding editors, reporters and others to ask all candidates what they intend to do about the nation's mental health crisis. Protecting and strengthening state mental health care must be part of the Election 2010 dialogue. In editorial board meetings and community forums, please ask candidates what they will do to help, Fitzpatrick said.

Every issue in the election involves mental health carefrom unemployment to troops returning from war. For example, unemployed workers are four times more likely to report symptoms of mental illness and veterans are twice as likely as civilians to die from suicide.

The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) Research Institute reported in Feb. 2010:

Total SMHA budget reductions from FY2009 to FY2011 were about $ 2 billion.
Approximately 90 percent of SMHAs were experiencing budget cuts in FY2010. Almost 75 percent had experienced cuts in FY2009 and the same level proportion expected cuts in FY2011.
Over 50 percent have responded by cutting community mental health services and reducing the number of people served. At the same time, SMHAs experienced increased demand for community services, including crisis services, emergency rooms and hospital acute care.

Weak state mental health care systems end up costing communities morethrough lost jobs and careers, broken families, more homelessness, higher insurance costs, more welfare and much more expensive costs for hospital emergency rooms, nursing homes, schools, police and courts, jails and prisons, Fitzpatrick said.

Below is a list of states that have adults with serious mental illness (SMI), rounded to 1,000, and the percent served by State Mental Health Agency (SMHA).

Source:Grading the States 2009: A Report on America's Health Care System for Adults with Serious Mental Illness