Finding material
To find a specific book (all users)
- By author: click on 'books', then the first letter of the author's name. Where the title is shown in bold, the book is highly recommended
- By title: go to 'find', enter some or all the title to the search field and select the book from the results
- By subject: either search as above or (subscribers only) go to 'articles' and select from the topics.
Note that if a book is not listed in the main database, it may be listed under 'forthcoming books'. This section lists books of interest, together with a brief publisher's description or, in some cases, a preliminary comment on books received but awaiting review.
To compare books within a subject area (subscribers only)
- Starting from a selected book: from the 'short review' (the basic book information page), click on the most appropriate 'related article'
- Starting from an article: select the article and sub-heading nearest to your area of interest. Note that the books listed are identified by:
- Recommendation: an assessment the quality of the book in itself
- Relevance: ranging from 'core management material' to 'supplementary' or 'introductory'.
For some subjects, there are 'extended articles'. These draw out the key threads and issues across a range of authors within a specific field. Examples of subjects covered include strategic planning, leadership and globalization.
To find links to other sites relevant to a subject area (all users)
- Either go to 'links' and choose the most appropriate sub-heading on the menu that appears
- Or go to the relevant sub-heading under each subject article
(these are simply two different ways of accessing the same information).
The Open Headings (box at top right of each page)
| home | the home page
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| find | the search engine built into the database. It searches the whole site for matches with the string entered (apparently with a bias toward the first word entered). It does not use Boolean operators. It returns a list of relevant articles followed by a list of relevant books. (This engine is under assessment in relation to other possibilities for the site) |
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| books | lists all reviewed books alphabetically by author. If a book is highly recommended, the title is listed in bold (Note that the data base lists accented vowels before unaccented ones, so 'Nørrestranders' appears before Naisbitt.). Click on the title to go to the short review |
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| latest books | a listing of those added to the site most recently |
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| forthcoming books | books being considered for review, with either a preliminary review comment or a brief publisher's note |
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| articles | classifies and compares all books on the site within 29 main headings (120 sub-headings), with a brief commentary on each book by quality rating and relevance to managers. Also provides links to extended comparative articles (in pdf format) where available. The list of headings and sub-headings is open. The detailed listings are available to subscribers. |
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| links | opens a page from which links to other sites can be selected by subject area (a finer classification of links is available to subscribers from the articles). |
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The Members area
| classics | an alphabetical listing, with commentary, of the books judged to be classics in their field |
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| extended articles | a listing of the extended analytical articles on specific subjects (strategic planning, leadership, globalization are examples). These are on the site in pdf format. |
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| case studies | a variety of material of interest to practitioners, much of it consisting of 'soft systems' diagrams |
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| newsletters | contains a link to the current newsletter and an index with links to rchived newsletters. The newsletter typically contain commentary on the books reviewed at each date, together with material relating to business journal articles and other mattes of interest. |
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| your account | allows you to check your subscription details, and manage your password and subscription renewal. |
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The basic book listing (short review).
This contains basic details of the book and recommendations. Headings below the author, title, short review include:
| full review | a full review is a more detailed assessment of the book. It may also include a short summary of key points, if this is too short to justify a separate summary. Many reviews (and summaries) contain embedded links to other books to allow comparisons to be made or points to be followed in more depth |
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| summary | where there is a separate summary, it is an extended pr?cis of the main points made by the author and often contains excerpts and diagrams. |
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| related article | a listing of articles in which this book is listed, which therefore gives access to a comparative list of other books covering the same general field |
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| publisher data (several headings) | the main listing is the publisher of the book actually reviewed. In many cases there are different publishers by country and over time, in which case the most current data for other sources is included under 'other pub data'. |
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| keywords | this heading is no longer used with the change to a database site. A few entries still remain |
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| recommendation | gives an overall assessment of the quality of the book, based on its content, readability, originality and relevance to practising managers |
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| date reviewed | the site has been building up since about 1994. Review style and depth of review have tended to change over the years. |
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| comment | not used in all cases |
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| buy this book | this provides one way of buying the book. As important is the fact that the link gives direct and fast access to alternative reviews of each book, including the (often very varied) opinions of readers |
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