It is quite interesting to be able to review a Web version of a resource that has been well‐known and used for quite some time, and to look at an old favorite through a different format. Many librarians are very familiar with the content of CHOICE reviews, so for those who are not: CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries has for many years been a print publication containing reviews written by faculty, scholars, and librarians to assist academic librarians in material selection. Reviews in the print publication are organized by subject. However, the reviews are also available in other formats and from different vendors, which allows for more flexibility of arrangement. They appear online and on CD‐ROM from SilverPlatter, online through CARL, and under license from Brodart’s TIPS service (print or electronic format) and Reed Reference’s Books in Print Plus Reviews (CD‐ROM).
This review covers ChoiceReviews.online, the new World Wide Web version published directly by the publishers of the printed CHOICE. It is available via password access after purchase of a subscription. A two‐month trial version is available free of charge. ChoiceReviews.online contains the database of CHOICE reviews from 1988. It is best used with a Javascript‐capable browser, i.e., Netscape Navigator 3.0 or above, Internet Explorer 4.0 or above, or the AOL browser 4.0 or above.
The main menu is brief but provides powerful search and customization tools as well as background information about the resource and its publishers. In my experience, most users of CHOICE reviews are either looking for a review of a specific title or counting on the reviews to provide them with a list of current materials for selection. ChoiceReviews.online provides both of these functions quite well, with some work on the user’s part in completing the profile and learning the specifics of the Advanced Search functions. It also provides private, password‐protected Web space to maintain personal lists of reviews and to browse the personalized monthly update (produced via the My Profile function).
The main menu options are Quick Search, Advanced Search, My Monthly Update, My List Manager, and My Profile. All of these functions provide useful methods of organizing the reviews and viewing them in ways that are the most relevant. Quick Search allows five options for searching, while Advanced Search offers a plethora of searches to pinpoint materials. My Monthly Update is a current list of materials based on the profile selections from My Profile. My Profile also produces a list sent through e‐mail for those who like to be notified when new reviews have been published (also called a “Customized Email Bulletin”).
ChoiceReviews.online presents reviews accessible through several indexes and a function to browse the current issue by subject category. The indexes in the Advanced Search function include: Author, Words in Title, Words in Review, LC class, Publisher Name, Copyright Year, Format, CHOICE issue, Outstanding Academic Book Winners, Reviewer Name, Reviewer Affiliation, Readership Level and several subject categories as well as a topical index. The plentiful help files for this section explain the use of Boolean operators. The Monthly Update functions allow the user to browse the entire current issue by subject or to select only the personal profile items.
Accompanying the text of each review are buttons that allow the reader to add the review to a list or to forward it to a colleague, eliminating cut‐and‐paste hassles. The forwarding function allows the sender to choose whether to forward only the bibliographic information or the full text of the review and provides composition space to add comments. If a Web site is reviewed, the hot link provided opens up a window to the site so that users can see it while reading the review.
As with any new WWW source, there are both good and bad things to be said about the innovative design. I was completely flummoxed trying to figure out terminology on My Monthly Update and ended up hunting all around the page to find common buttons such as “search now” in the Advanced Search screen. These were small complaints once I got up and running and My Profile was producing results. The colors are bold and highlight screen elements, but lack a bit of aesthetic quality. I used the feedback function to ask why there was no Monthly Update help, and got an immediate and satisfactory reply. Help pages are plentiful on the whole, and the missing Monthly Update help was a minor fluke, quickly corrected.
This publication is not a faithful reproduction of the print periodical, as it lacks the bibliographic essays and the advertising of that publication. The searching capabilities and the monthly Customized Email Bulletin make it a great tool for selectors in its own right, however. Given the price and the functionality, I’d say that it’s a valuable tool for mid‐size college libraries, because a new issue arrives in everyone’s mailbox simultaneously ‐ no routing is necessary, and librarians get to personalize what they receive. The list management and review forwarding capabilities are also very useful. I recommend it.
