[CALIBK12] Is Follett Destiny the only game in town?

[Waddle, Victoria]

All:

 I was recently on a WASC Visiting Committee to a small private K-12 school. It has three libraries--elementary, junior high and high school. All three were neglected and the committee report recommended that the school update the high school library. Now a small but dedicated group of parents are heading up a committee to weed, purchase materials, try databases, automate, etc. A library technician is employed by the school, but is out on leave due to a grave illness in her family.

Since the WASC visit, I have remained in e-mail contact with the parent group. I've recommended this listserv, CSLA and its conferences, and other helpful sources. One of the primary concerns is automation. They have never been automated. The books have Cutter numbers and most are so old that they will need to be weeded. I remember a discussion earlier this year on library automation. Some individuals contended that Follett is really the only choice because it is buying up other companies. If this is true, then maybe that's what we should recommend. However, my own experience with Follett Destiny is a truly lousy one--our district switched from Sagebrush InfoCentre after only a year to Follett Destiny when Follett purchased Sagebrush. Our conversion was a mess, we have never had a single question properly answered by the support techs (although they always try to get us to buy something else!), the support itself costs almost four times what we paid to Sagebrush (a company that actually could answer questions), and the format of the system is not as user-friendly as Sagebrush was from running reports to simple things like generating barcodes.

So--if you have experience or knowledge in the area, please weigh in. Since the private school has not been automated and won't need to have a conversion done, they wouldn't have some of the headaches we've suffered with Destiny. Still--would you recommend Destiny? Is there any other good school library software system that is holding its ground and expected to remain in business?

Thanks once again for all your help! I've told this parent group what an impressive, indispensable bunch you are!

Victoria Waddle
Teacher Librarian
Colony High School
Ontario