Choice is a publishing unit of the

Association of College and Research Libraries The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association, is a professional association of academic librarians and other interested individuals. It is dedicated to enhancing the ability of academi ...

(ACRL). It includes the magazine ''Choice'' as well as other products including the ''Choice Reviews'' database. The magazine was established in 1964. It is considered the premier source for reviews of academic books,

electronic media Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical means for the audience to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which today are most often created digitally, but do not require el ...

, and

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

resources of interest to those in higher education. The magazine is headquartered in

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...

Reviews

Reviews are done by scholars. For a print book, they are to be no longer than 190 words, and slightly longer for internet resources.

Scope of influence

Most academic libraries in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

use ''Choice'' and/or ''Choice Reviews'' for selecting and purchasing materials. Reviews are published monthly in ''Choice'' magazine and are added in real time to the ''Choice Reviews'' subscription database. ''Choice'' publishes approximately 500-600 reviews each month in subdisciplines spanning the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

, and the

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

and

behavioral sciences Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through naturalistic o ...

Outstanding Academic Titles

According to the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

, the Outstanding Academic Titles list "reflects the best in scholarly titles... and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community." The list is administered by the ALA's

Association of College & Research Libraries The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association, is a professional association of academic librarians and other interested individuals. It is dedicated to enhancing the ability of academi ...

(ACRL). Every year, in its January issue, ''Choice'' chooses a selection of the books reviewed in the last year as "Outstanding Academic Titles" ("Outstanding Academic Books" until 2000). The selection covers around 10% of the roughly 7000 books reviewed annually. A list of Outstanding Academic Titles may be viewed at th
ALA Outstanding Academic Title portal
ALA Outstanding Academic Title portal
ALA. Most academic libraries in the

use ''Choice'' for selecting and purchasing materials. According to the ACRL, ''Choice'' reaches 22,000

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

s and an estimated 13,000 higher education faculty in almost every undergraduate college and university library in the United States, along with many larger public libraries, and special and governmental libraries. Reviews are published monthly in ''Choice'' magazine and Choice Reviews online. ''Choice'' publishes approximately 7,000 reviews per year in 50 subdisciplines spanning the

and

, and the

and

. Selections for Outstanding Academic Titles are determined by scholars who act as experts in their respective fields of study and who do not receive payment for their reviews.

References

External links

Magazine website
1964 establishments in Connecticut Magazines established in 1964 Magazines published in Connecticut Book review magazines Monthly magazines published in the United States Literary magazines published in the United States English-language literary awards {{US-lit-mag-stub