If you'd like to review CD-ROM products for MultiMedia Schools, please contact me to discuss an idea. Author guidelines are provided here.

Ferdi Serim
Editor, MultiMedia Schools
ferdi@infotoday.com
Box 326
Kingston, NJ 08528
609-924-4185

General Guidelines

All reviews should be written from the K-12 school teacher/librarian perspectives. If you are writing this review as a public librarian, as a parent with school-age children, or fro m some other perspective, please try somewhere in the review to indicate your viewpoint.

Use full sentences and write largely in the present tense.

Write clearly and concisely for an informed, knowledgeable adult reader. Reviews should run somewhere between 800-1200 words (5- 8K). Reviews that exceed this length are difficult, and do not attract the same readership as shorter reviews. The attached sample reviews illustrate some of the guidelines listed here.

To facilitate reading and quick reference, please use the format and associated labels as illustrated in the sample reviews. With the exception of the overall ranking, the first part of the review should be strictly factual. The name of the product, the company and its address, pricing, the intended audience, the format, the system requirements, and a brief description. Your evaluative comments should go in the Reviewer Comments section that follows. (See sample reviews.)

When The Review is Complete

Once you have completed your review, please send it to me, preferably on a diskette in a formatted word processing file. I can accommodate either IBM-compatible or Macintosh word processing formats. Please also send one paper copy of your review with the diskette. Or, if you prefer, you may submit the review electronically via the Internet at the email address that appears above. If you choose email, please also send one paper copy of your review to me in the mail at the same time. The CD-ROM or laserdiscs that you review are yours to keep.

If you are unable to meet the deadline mutually agreed upon, please inform the Editor as soon as possible. In each issue of the magazine, we strive to strike a balance between grade levels and content areas, so it is critical that we know if you are unable to complete the review in sufficient time for inclusion in the issue of the magazine for which your review is planned. Telepho ne, fax, email numbers and the mailing address are listed on this letterhead. Submission of a review, however, does not guarantee publication in MultiMedia Schools magazine.

Writing Guidelines

Title: List the full name of the product. This should be bolded.

Company: List the company that should be contacted for more information. List in this section the producer unless there is an exclusive distributor. (If a disc is produced by one company but distributed by another, these details should be stated in the Description section that follows.) List sales and technical support numbers, if available. If the company has an 800 number, please list that as well. Include fax number, if available.

Price: Prices will vary depending upon where you buy the title. List manufacturer suggested retail prices, and round up. (e.g. $50; not $49.95) If there is a special price for educators, l ist that as well. Sometimes network or site license pricing is available; please indicate if available. If the disc runs on different platforms, be sure that the price for each platform is clear. You may need to call the company to confirm some of this information. Because of the variance in pricing, the absolute price is of less importance than the range of options.

Audience: State the producer's recommended audience. If the producer does not explicitly recommend an audience level, you should do so if you can. If you differ with the recommendation of the producer, also state that in this section briefly. (These comments can be expanded in the Comments section.) Please calibrate the audience in grade levels as opposed to years if possible.

Format: Although most of the early reviews will be CD-ROM titles, some titles may be videodiscs, or possibly online resources. If a CD- ROM or videodisc title, please indicate the type of resources (text, still photographs, vid eo, sound etc.)

Overall Rating: This is a 5-star rating system. You will be able to make this judgment based on the ratings you establish in the Reviewer Comment section that follows. The overall rating should be based on the legend that follows:

	Outstanding--a "must buy"
	Highly Recommended
	Good
	OK in some cases
	Don't consider

Maximum rating: Five Stars

System Requirements: It is important to be comprehensive in listing hardware, both on the Macintosh and IBM-compatible side. This information should include the basic system required: the machine model, the RAM, the hard disk space, the monitor, the CD-ROM drive and the printer. All available configurations should be listed here, not just the equipment you used for testing this title.

Description: This section should be brief, and factual. It should identify the title, if it is part of a series, and whether or not there is a print equivalent. State as briefly as possible its overall theme or purpose. Please reserve evaluative comments for the next section. Please indicate what retrieval "engine" is used. If this title (or a different version) will run on a local area network, note that as well here. Conclude with stating the version (if there is one) of the disc you are reviewing, and the release date. Just the year is sufficient. You may need to call the company for some of this information.

Reviewer Comments: This section of the review should be subjective --it should indicate what you think. You cannot write this type of a review without having used the product. Please try to include some student testing or observation. Be critical, but honest! See the Product Reviews-in-Brief under the MultiMedia Schools menu of this gopher for samples of reviewer comments.

Installation: Describe the hardware configuration that you used to test this title. Indicate how easy the title was to install, i f the documentation provided was sufficient, if you ran into any special problems, either system bugs or problems that you encountered because of your specific system setup. If the title also runs on a local area network, but you used a standalone version, please indicate that as well. Conclude with your rating. (A,B,C,D, or F) as illustrated in the sample reviews.

Content: This is where it is all at. Resources will only be used if they are needed, and then only if they are of high quality. Write a detailed narrative of the material, and how it could be used. Comment upon the quality of the materials as well as how they are organized -- how it begins or unfolds, the options, choices, etc. This is also the place to expand on how this compares to the print equivalent, if there is one. Please also indicate, if you can, the area/s of the school curriculum in which this title would be most effective. Any observations you have --and we hope you do --about working with students usi ng this title could go here. If you can compare this to other CD-ROM, multimedia, or videodisc products, please do so briefly in this section. Conclude with your rating. (A,B,C,D, or F)

Ease of Use: This section should discuss the interface --the "look" of the disc, the search capabilities, and the output options --printing and downloading. Critique of the interface involves consistent user prompts, display formats, and understandable icons. Critique of the search function involves Boolean, fielded searches, and proximity options. Printing is especially important in a school environment. Please test and make some value judgment as to the print (and download) capabilities. In all cases, try to give specific examples of things you like or dislike. Conclude with your rating. (A,B,C,D, or F)

Product Support: This section should address print documentation, online help, any accompanying teaching aids, and customer support. (Be sure to note if customer support is free.) Some discs do not require extensive documentation. Do not downgrade a title just because it has scant documentation. Only do so if it requires more documentation to be effective in the classroom or in an educational environment. Conclude with your rating. (A,B,C,D, or F)

Recommendations: In this section, state the gist of your overall recommendation as indicated earlier in the review by stars (5-1) . This should be qualified or explained, if one feature is better than another. For example, if the content is excellent and important to the school curriculum, but the implementation is either poor or uninspired, you might want to give that title a qualified 3-star rating and explain the qualification in this section.

Reviewer: Please include your name, your job position, address, phone, and email address (Internet or others), if applicable.