In the late 80s Duncan Smith, an avid readers' advisor, struggled with the fact that readers' advisory services were only as good as the individual librarian's memory and ability to read a wide range of genres. Although there are many librarians with an impressive knowledge of books, genres and reader needs, Duncan felt that their effectiveness could be increased if there was a database that allowed them to search for additional titles based on level, subject, title or author. In 1990, he formed a small company with two programmers, Roger Rohweder and John Strickler. They began creating NoveList part-time while maintaining their "day jobs."

In 1994, they sold their first copy of NoveList and shortly after, Duncan and Roger joined CARL Corporation, quitting their other jobs and working full-time on NoveList. NoveList launched as a DOS product with 20,000 adult titles and 1200 reviews!

NoveList continued to grow and in 1999, EBSCO Publishing acquired NoveList from CARL. At that time, NoveList had 5 employees, counting Duncan and Roger.

In 2000, NoveList changed strategic and philosophical direction by becoming a data creator instead of just a data aggregator. Feature Articles, BookTalks, and Book Discussion Guides were added first, with Author Read-alikes, Readers' Advisory training content and a variety of other reader and staff materials added later.

There are now over 150,000 fiction titles, and over 4000 custom created articles and lists. In March 2008, NoveList Plus launched adding 50,000 readable nonfiction titles as well.

NoveList, the division of EBSCO Publishing, has grown from its three founders to a dedicated group of 35 professionals who love to read, and from a single fiction database to a suite of Readers' Advisory products and services.