Series and Sequels is a database which lists adult books written in a series or that are sequels to earlier books. The content of Series and Sequels, created by the Central Library Literature & Fiction Department, is based on the titles available in the Los Angeles Public Library. Due to this, the series and sequel list is not exhaustive. Even among authors that have multiple series, the index is limited to only those, which appear in their collection.
The search mechanism is a straightforward search for author, title, series or character. One or more fields may be combined using Boolean operators. Truncation and phrase searching are also supported. Due to this simplicity, there are no help files beyond a few simple search instructions associated with this page. The product is completely text based and loads quickly. As the results are displayed in the user's browser window, printing and saving results is readily available.
The Los Angeles Public Library is to be commended for their hard work in putting this resource together and making it freely accessible. They seem to be committed to updating the resource, as recently published materials are included. Although focused on their collection, the index does not include catalogue or call number data making it useful to anyone wondering if there is more to the story. However, searching by subject is not supported so Series and Sequels is less useful for finding an entirely new series of books about a subject. The addition of links to author web sites and selected cover art would be useful.
Series and Sequels is a fine addition to a public or school library's reader's advisory resources as a link on their webpage or on a librarian's favourite's list. Libraries without access to a resource such as Novelist (RR 2003/133) will find it particularly useful. A web search for “series and sequels” uncovers similar resources created by other libraries including those devoted to particular genres or to other age groups. However, many of the similar resources lack search mechanisms or do not support Boolean operators.
