Biblio File

Finding a Book When You've Forgotten Its Championship

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Library books lined up on a shelf Check out selected results from NYPL Title Quest 2019, held Baronial 2, 2019, also equally Title Quest 2018.

This is an update of a previous mail by Sharon Rickson.

It can be tough to retrieve the title and writer of a volume yous read a long time ago—even if it was a book that was really of import to you lot. Fiction is cataloged by writer and championship, not by subject or plot line, which makes identifying books by only their storyline difficult.

Readers often ask librarians for help finding these kinds of books. And we can't effigy out the mystery every unmarried fourth dimension, simply we do have a few tricks to help find the respond.

First, pin down everything you tin remember about the volume, plot, grapheme names, time period in which the book may have been published, genre, etc. All these details are clues in identifying the title and author of the book.

Online resources tin can help with your search for a half-remembered book, even if all you have is a bones plot line. Searching yourself is a good place to start; then, you can post to a listserv or discussion forum, where someone might recognize it. Or, last but not to the lowest degree, leave a annotate on this post!

Earlier Y'all Start

Try Google! Type in everything you lot can recall about the book — as in, "picture book rabbi animals communication yiddish" — and scroll through the results. (That's a real-life example of a book a patron was asking for: Information technology Could Always Be Worse past Margot Zemach.)

You lot can besides endeavor googling one central detail you remember from a book. One of our librarians solved a book mystery past searching "USS You-Know-Who" — the proper noun of a boat in the story that the patron happened to remember. (Some other real-life example: She Flew No Flags by Joan Manley.)

Crowdsourcing

  • What's the Name of That Volume?
    A Goodreads group with searchable discussion posts and thousands of questions and answers.

  • Name That Book
    A LibraryThing group of ~3K members — many of whom are librarians or library-side by side — who help solve book mysteries via threaded discussions.

  • The Fiction_L listserv
    Stumpers! Search athenaeum of past questions, answered by an intense volume-ish community, or subscribe and post a new one.

  • Reddit's whatsthatbook thread
    A nearly countless thread of users trying to assist other users recollect book titles, including several oftentimes requested books. Peculiarly good for scientific discipline fiction and fantasy.

  • "Stump the Bookseller" blog
    A absurd indie bookstore in Ohio that maintains extensive, searchable archives — and offers a $4 service for personalized help. Lots of children's books here.

  • Big Book Search
    If you lot can simply remember what the encompass looks like, try this comprehend-search tool.

Library Databases (log in with your library card)

  • Books & Authors

  • Books in Print

  • The New York Times databases

  • NoveList and NoveList K-8 (in-library use merely)

More than Suggestions

  • If y'all tin recollect only one word, utilise the search function on Goodreads or Library Thing to observe long lists of titles with a particular discussion.

  • Goodreads' scan-able lists of titles that readers have shelved in unique categories, such every bit authors' professions or decades of publication, is besides exist helpful.

  • For recently published books, the reviews in Booklist Online are cleaved down by detailed genre.

How to Motility On

Sometimes, information technology'southward just not going to happen, and you can't find that elusive book y'all've been searching for. It's okay! Great news: The world is total of great books! Hither are a few ways to find more than...

  • Check out recommendations from our volume experts here at NYPL. Nosotros offer suggestions via blog posts, the Staff Picks book finder, The Librarian Is In podcast, and more.
  • If you'd like a personalized recommendation, find us on Twitter or make full out our What Should I Read Side by side? electronic mail form.
  • Want a brand-new read? Check out our favorite New and Noteworthy titles.

Feel free to exit a comment and tell us nigh a book you're trying to remember! Our library staff members will popular in and check it periodically, and readers of this post are welcome to brand guesses and suggestions.