Currently One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey see related

I've been thinking...which often leads to dangerous results : )

Seriously, I've been thinking that I often put up posts that deal with theology and other matters which deal with the area in which I teach and research, but I rarely say much about libraries. This fact just struck me as strange. After all, I'm a librarian too. All too often people are unaware of the librarian's role. As I like to clarify, a librarian is a professional researcher, so we have to know all the ins and outs of finding the best, most authoritative information. Several of you that I know are also involved with research or are in school of some sort, so I thought that some odd research tips here and there might be interesting. This will be my first post of this type. If they're not interesting, let me know in the comments.

I say all of that to say...Beware of the Vanity Press!

"Vanity Press" is a somewhat derogatory term for a whole industry of publishers who will publish anything you write...for the right price. These publishers have multiplied with the rise of the Internet, and they usually go by the name of "Print on Demand" publishers now. A book which is published by a vanity press is generally not suitable for any type of scholarly research, because there is no way to check if the information is true or something which the author made up.

So, how can you tell if a book is published by a vanity press?

1. Look for who published the book -- if you don't recognize the publisher, then it might be a vanity publisher. There is a plethora of vanity publishers, but probably the most well-known are Xlibris, Author House, and Book Surge.

2. Try to find the publisher's website (they all have websites these days). The website should have an "about us" feature which tells the history of the company. If you see the words "print on demand" or "self-publishing," then you've found a vanity publisher. Be careful about very recently started publishing companies as well. Also, many times the author of the book just happens to be the founder of the publishing company -- an obvious sign that the book is vanity published!

3. Sometimes, it helps to look at the book and see what it says about the author. For scholarly research, the author will almost always talk about his/her academic credentials and current/past teaching positions. If these items are left out, it is rarely a scholarly work.

4. Ask a librarian. Seriously, we librarians spend all of our working hours dealing with different publishers and the works which they put out. We can tell if something is vanity published, then steer you in a better direction.

--- brought to you by your friendly neighborhood librarian