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

[ladewig]

A lot of our church librarians use a product called ResourceMate. It is also
advertised in one of the library supply catalogs. Most of them find it easy
to work with, and the cost is very minimal. Now the program can even be used
from the school or church website if they have the right computers. Look
into it. There is another system called Cross, which is cheaper, but it was
limited in what you could do with it.
http://www.resourcemate.com/

Victoria, I would be happy to locate someone in the southern Cal area to
contact you and perhaps have your library representative(s) meet with the
church librarian to see it in action, if you are interested.


Joanne Ladewig  (A.K.A. "Library Lady")
Library Media Tech
Lawrence Elementary, GGUSD
Garden Grove, California
shatz at verizon.net
 
Comments are my own and may not represent the views of GGUSD
 

-----Original Message-----
From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
[mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Waddle, Victoria
Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2008 4:17 PM
To: Calibk12
Subject: [CALIBK12] Is Follett Destiny the only game in town?

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 t!
 hat 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

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