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British Librarians Devise
Rating System for Literary Works

Libraries in 33 British city and county districts are participating in a year-long effort to categorize works of fiction based on 13 criteria for content and mood. The result will be—not an index of proscribed books as critics claim—but a Web-based database of 1,000 books where readers can submit additional ratings and find titles to suit their moods, according to Dennis Lovatt, project coordinator for the Birmingham Library.

Funded by £300,000 of lottery money and spearheaded by a reader-development agency called Opening the Book, the plan is only part of “a three-year project to explore new methods of reader development,” Lovatt told American Libraries. “We don't pretend that this is an objective exercise,” he said. "We are intending to broaden choice.”

Books are rated on a 1–10 scale in such categories as funny/serious, gentle/violent, easy/demanding, and optimistic/bleak. Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles scored two points for optimism, happiness, and humor, but seven for violence and 10 for emotion.

Posted March 15, 1999.

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British Librarians Devise
Rating System for Literary Works