At Denver Public Library, we've been posting customer reviews on our web site since late 2005. So far we've accrued over 400 reviews; and we've found that they are not only enjoyed by other library customers, and build circulation; but they also assist in our collection development and readers' advisory efforts, helping staff understand what readers in our community enjoy and why.
Here's how it works. On our web page, we invite customers to review any books, compact discs and movies the Library has in its collection. We welcome reviews from any customer—from young children through seniors. We encourage the reviews to be concise, which is usually not a problem, and have never had to edit reviews for length. From each review readers, can easily link back to our catalog to check availability, or place a hold on the title reviewed.
We also encourage customers to add their opinion to an existing review, which cultivates a dialog of opinion that can become quite spirited.. When available, we even provide a link to movie trailers so customers may watch a selection from the film being reviewed.
Reviews from kids are posted in the BookBuzz section of DPL's Secret WonderWeb (http://kids.denverlibrary.org/bookbuzz/index.cfm) (http://kids.denverlibrary.org/index.html).
Teens can submit to the review page of eVolver (http://teens.denverlibrary.org/reviews/write.cfm ) (http://teens.denverlibrary.org/), our award-winning web site for teens.
Adults write their reviews using a form (http://denverlibrary.org/booksmedia/write.cfm?media=Books) which resides on our main site's Books, Movies and Music pages (http://denverlibrary.org/booksmedia/index.html).
We use Coldfusion with MySQL to manage the review process from submission through final approval by someone in our Web Services Department. We have had no problems with obscene reviews, but do have to delete some SPAM messages. Even reviews where the customer says something as simple as "this book was good" are posted as we do not wish to alienate anyone participating in this process.
Some things to keep in mind while managing customer reviews:
- If you decide to approve the reviews rather than have them posted in real time to your site, make sure you stay up to date in the approval process so the content stays fresh. We try to check the reviews to post daily, but sometimes a few days may pass before we have a chance to post due to other job duties.
- Be prepared to promote the service via newsletters, RSS or in other venues you use to market your online services to customers.
- Embrace the power user: there will undoubtedly be a user (or users) of the service that submit a lot of reviews. This is a good thing.
- Resist the temptation to edit the writer's voice out of their reviews. Even grammatical and spelling errors can make a review real and add flavor.
- Be prepared for the hold list on your own library card to grow! There's a lot of great stuff out there and allowing your customers to make suggestions can open you up to new ideas and materials you may not have uncovered elsewhere.
All in all, getting library patrons to comment on their reading and listening material has been a fun, interesting, and rewarding enterprise. If you're not already doing this at your library, I encourage you to try it—I think you'll like it!
James Smith is a Web Content Developer at the Denver Public Library. He enjoys hiking with his family, listening to music, and of course, reading.