Until recently, I was the librarian at North Point who checked in the new books every day. April does it now, and I miss that little job. Nothing beats a quick glance at EVERY new cover that comes into the library for maintaining awareness of trends and specifics. Am I going to read every 50 Shades knockoff that comes down the pike? NO. I am not going to read ANY of them. But knowing what their covers look like gives me a leg up when a customer comes in looking for the next Bared to You book and it isn't out yet.
So absent that daily dose of New and Noteworthy (or New and Ehhh), I have been leaning heavily on Edelweiss and Netgalley lately.
Both of these online services allow professional readers - and most library personnel qualify as professional readers - to request free advance review copies that can be downloaded to a computer or to any ereader. The publishers approve the requests (or don't - what the heck, Penguin? what did I ever do to you? let me read your dang books, what's the worst that could happen?).
Here's my current NetGalley dashboard:
I'm heavily into graphic novels right now, partly because, along with Todd and Melissa, I'm one of the facilitators for the Graphic Novels sessions of Genre Boot Camp, but also because I love graphic novels. And they look fabulous on my iPad.
Edelweiss is even more powerful than NetGalley because you get to see publishers' entire catalogs, not just the books for which review copies are available.
And if you can keep yourself from humming that song from The Sound of Music while you're browsing this site, well, you have more self-control than Doug or I do.