Choice Outstanding Academic Titles, formerly Outstanding Academic Books, is a booklist curated by editors working with

Choice Reviews Choice is a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). It includes the magazine ''Choice'' as well as other products including the ''Choice Reviews'' database. The magazine was established in 1964. It is consid ...

, a publishing unit of the

Association of College and Research Libraries The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes library, libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th ...

(ACRL). 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. History 19th century ...

, 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 published every December and covers around 10 percent of the roughly 5,000 books reviewed annually. According to the ACRL, ''Choice'' reaches 22,000

librarians A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

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. In 2014, ''Choice'' partnered with

EBSCOhost EBSCO Information Services, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a private company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. EBSCO provides products and services to libraries of many types around the worl ...

to highlight the academic books selected as Outstanding Academic Titles available on EBSCO, allowing "librarians to easily identify and acquire the titles that have been designated as excellent in presentation and scholarship, bringing exceptional support to the research of their students and faculty and increasing the value of their overall library collection. Although the list is commonly used, some researchers warn librarians against using curated lists such as this to populate their libraries.

History

Until 2000, the list was referred to as Outstanding Academic Books; however, editors at ''Choice'' opted for a name change due to the increasing use of electronic products.

Criteria

Reviews are published monthly in ''Choice'' magazine and Choice Reviews online. ''Choice'' publishes approximately 7,000 reviews per year in 50 subdisciplines spanning the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

, 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 fro ...

and

behavioral sciences Behavioural science is the branch of science concerned with human behaviour.Hallsworth, M. (2023). A manifesto for applying behavioural science. ''Nature Human Behaviour'', ''7''(3), 310-322. While the term can technically be applied to the st ...

. 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. ''Choice'' editors base their selections on the reviewer’s evaluation of the work, the editor’s knowledge of the field, and the reviewer’s record. Books selected for the list must have been published within the 12 months prior to the list's release. When selecting books for the list, editors consider the following: * "overall excellence in presentation and scholarship" * "importance relative to other literature in the field" * "distinction as a first treatment of a given subject in book or electronic form" * "originality or uniqueness of treatment" * "value to undergraduate students" * "importance in building undergraduate library collections"

References

{{Reflist Year of establishment missing American Library Association Annual publications