By Rob Finfrock

Just six months have passed since the CJP Membership received their first detailed introduction to the Russ Meyer Citation Library (RMCL) at the 2014 CJP Annual Convention. With software and formatting largely finalized for the online resource, the focus is now on building content and improving the user experience ahead of a complete rollout anticipated for the 2015 CJP Annual Convention, Sept. 9-13 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO.

CJP Members Steve Vollum and Tracy Forrest have been working diligently to make the RMCL a reality. “It’s really starting to come together,” Vollum said of the team’s progress to-date. “When we first rolled out the Russ Meyer Citation Library last year, Tracy likened it to a new, beautiful library building… A building that doesn’t serve much of a purpose until there are books in it. Well, we’ve added a lot of great books since then.”

Among the items unique to the RMCL is a complete set of Cessna’s “Specification & Description” documents for each Citation model. Contents also include a growing selection of training and maintenance materials, plus accident analysis, pilot reports and many diverse articles that have been selected specifically to interest CJP members as pilots and owners.

In fact, more than 500 articles have been loaded so far into a resource that, over time, may ultimately include thousands of pages of useful information for Citation operators. A team of students at the Prescott, AZ campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, led by ERAU faculty member Randy Rehbach, continues to research content from across a wide range of sources for inclusion in the library.

“Working with Embry-Riddle has been a terrific partnership,” Vollum added. “From the start we’ve said the intent wasn’t necessarily to recreate items available from other sources, but to find content and revise it to address the specific needs of the Citation community. In that regard, the team acts like our library’s curators, so that whole will ultimately be greater than the sum of its parts.”

A limited number of CJP Members have experienced a beta release of the Russ Meyer Citation Library for their review and feedback, a process which Vollum noted has already resulted in some very useful findings.

“Comments indicated that we needed to improve how the library software operates on tablet devices,” he explained. “The software works well on desktops and smartphones, but on a tablet there was too little screen space available to read the articles. So, we’re doing a rev (revision) to address the readability on those devices.”

For the most part, however, users have really liked what they’ve seen. “I love hearing Members say they started by clicking on just a few articles, only to lose track of time and finally ‘come up for air’ an hour later!” Vollum laughed. “That’s when you can see the real synergies at work here.”