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Series and Read-A-Likes in the Library Catalog

Lis a Lacivitia Bowman Reference Assistant

Lisa LaCivita

Bowman Reference Assistant

This blog is about another nifty feature in the library catalog that you may not have found yet. I will use two books as an example. The first book “The Sherlockian” is a historical mystery with parallel narratives. When I type the name in the search bar for the library and then click on the title, I see the page below. Notice the link on the left titled “Series & read-a-likes”.

Sherlockian catalog search

When I click on “Series & read-a-likes” I get another page with lots of useful information. The top tab has similar books labeled “read-a-likes”. Beside that are authors whose writings are similar enough to the target book, that they are proposed as authors you may also enjoy reading. You can click on the books or authors listed, to get more information. When you click on the “find it” button you are taken to the book in our catalog or books by the author. There is also a link that takes you directly to The Sherlockian in Novelist where you can read more about this title. This is especially helpful if there is not much of a summary provided for the book (as in this case.)  Below these features are listed the story elements. Clicking on the story elements provides a description of that term and lists books that share that description! You can choose multiple story elements.

Sherlockian Read Alike searchMore read alike results

If you scroll down you will find a few more features: Ratings & reviews and Related content. Related content includes a link to a newsletter that may feature similar titles to the target book. There is also a link to sign up for any of our newsletters.

Related newsletters in search

If the book I searched for was part of a series, such as “Miss Kopp just won’t quit”, then when I click on “Series & read-a-likes” I get all the information such as what was provided for the previous title, plus information on the series. The books in this series are listed in order, with an arrow to scroll right, if the series is more than 4 books (as in this case.) If the title is shown in blue it will be linked directly to the item in our catalog. Titles in black will not link directly, but we may still have the title in our collection or available on line as an ebook or audiobook. We hope these features will help you to find even more books for your reading enjoyment.

Books in series