Although it hardly seems possible to us here at Riverview Center, this month marks the first anniversary of the launch of the “new” Choice Reviews Online.  It’s been an action-packed year.  But most of all, it’s been a year of learning about the strengths, weaknesses, and potential of Choice Reviews Online Version 2.0, aka CRO2.

Of course, when it comes to evaluating a product like CRO2, the feedback that matters most comes from users.  Accordingly, we recently conducted a user survey, to which, I’m happy to report, over 500 of you responded.  And while we are still tabulating the final results, we have already learned a great deal from your responses.  One of the most important things we learned was that 94.6 percent of you would recommend CRO2 to your colleagues, a gratifying result indeed.

In addition, we have learned a great deal from your open-ended responses and comments.  These typically fall into one of two general categories: comments we love to hear, and comments we need to hear.  In the first category are the following responses to item 12, “What do you like best about Choice Reviews Online?”

• “It’s a fabulous and convenient tool for selecting appropriate books for a small liberal arts college library.”
• “It is easier to use than the old version.”
• “Fast and easy.”
• “Convenient and paper-free way to do collection development.”
• “I just like it all! I can read reviews, and email them to faculty if I need a second opinion.”
• “It is nice and clear now. Visually it has improved 200%.”

• “Logging in 8 times during one session.”
• “…being automatically logged out without any warning….”
• “…list creation and management….”
• “…I hate the clunky way the list function works, compared to the old Choice.”
• “Like the old website better. Easier to use, not as cluttered.”
• “Every possible solitary thing about this horrible redo.”

From the first set of comments, we take heart.  It’s good to know all that hard work has paid off for many of you.  The second set of comments, on the other hand, has helped us prepare our CRO2 to-do list.  Our top priority, happily now addressed, was resolving the involuntary log-out problem that became evident shortly after launch.  This proved a challenge for our developers, who wrestled with it for far longer than they, we, or you would have hoped.  But fixed it finally is.

Today, we are moving on to other areas, e.g., list management.  We will continue to do so, one problem area at a time, until Choice runs out of money, out of time, or our user satisfaction score goes from 94.6 to 100.0 percent, whichever comes first.  I am, I confess, not sure how we are going to please that user who dislikes “every solitary thing,” but we’re going to try, dear reader, we’re going to try.—IER