Posted by Pat Ropchan on November 22, 2007 at 8:26am
Hello everyone,
We are investigating alternatives to Athena (Sagebrush/Follet). Which system are you using and are you happy with its capabilities
Thanks in advance for any input.
Pat Ropchan
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I have the OPALS system. It's Open Source and I really like it. I use their web hosting service because our Tech department has enough on their plate and it is worth every penny. There are start-up costs and an annual membership fee, but these charges are minimal. OPALS is innovative, creative and responsive to their users' needs.
I am leading a similar investigation. I have Spectrum Winnebago and am generally not happy. A few people I have talked to seem happy with Follett's Destiny on a number of fronts, particularly the add-ons. You can add Webpath to suggest relevant vetted websites & you can add the ability to search by lexile. I know of one school that was recently unhappy with Opals because of glitches in the changeover (barcodes of certain years don't work), but is happy with the interface for the items that were correctly transferred. I used Polaris in a county system and it is great (particularly to catalog in), but I found it was too pricey to consider for our little school. One of my big wishlist items is the capability to add in student reviews (that whole NCTE citizen composer and read/write/web thing). I think you can do this somehow in Destiny. Polaris works with Chilifresh as an add-on. I tihnk Chilifresh works with some other systems, too.
In the Denver Public Schools we use Encore from iii (intelligent Interfaces Inc). It is the upgrade from Millenium. We are happy with the product and its capablities for our students. You can look at the PAC interfact at www.lion.dpsk12.org
the III product is used by most of the Universities in our area, so we felt it was a great product to train our students as future library users.
Our district switched from Follett to TLC library solutions for schools. Our tech department had a great deal of input and they really like the oracle server. I've been very happy with the support of TLC and the program. I like the training videos that are also available.
Switching to TLC has reduced the amount of "server down" incidents
There has been some "concern" that it is public library based, but I think it has some great features and prefer it to Follett. Our staff, the majority not trained in any type of library work, find it very easy to use. Kids reaction has also been positive.
Biggest problem at our end was merging some very poor marc records into one database, but that would have been an issue no matter what program we used.
I can't say enough positive comments about their support
Erica Lodish > Rosette' AcordSeptember 9, 2009 at 4:24am
I am opening a new library media center in January. I am trying to decide between Destiny and TLC. TLC has more bells and whistles" but it is very expensive. Was Destiny the Follett program you used or another?
Also any advice on Jobbers: Baker & Taylor vs Follett?
I came from a district with CircPlus and I loved it. The reports functions were outstanding and I used Titlewise religiously.
Nancy Buchholz > Erica LodishSeptember 18, 2009 at 10:31am
I upgraded to Destiny last Feb from Follett's circplus system. I have been quite happy with the upgrade. I am a single school and the price was not awful. I am also paying for Follett's hosting option so that my school and I do not have to worry about the technology (server and software) on our end (which the tech people just love!). I was actually expecting it to be much higher. The kids love the Destiny Quest interface and I love the fact that report generation is quite easy. They have a lot of canned reports and a report builder.
As for jobbers...I use follett. I like titlewave for book selection and ordering. Follett makes it all pretty easy.
Most of the School Districts in the Fraser Valley in BC have (or are in the process of) switched to Follett Destiny . In the Vancouver School District, they use Horizon Webcat. Having used both, I would recommend them. The advantage of a webcat is that teachers, students, and parents can see the materials that are available in your library anywhere in the school as well as from home.
I'm very happy with Concourse from BookSystems, Inc. (http://www.booksys.com) They also have a Web OPAC option. It's a low key company but an excellent program
Replies
Hey Pat,
I have the OPALS system. It's Open Source and I really like it. I use their web hosting service because our Tech department has enough on their plate and it is worth every penny. There are start-up costs and an annual membership fee, but these charges are minimal. OPALS is innovative, creative and responsive to their users' needs.
Let me know if you need any information.
Good luck in your search.
the III product is used by most of the Universities in our area, so we felt it was a great product to train our students as future library users.
Switching to TLC has reduced the amount of "server down" incidents
There has been some "concern" that it is public library based, but I think it has some great features and prefer it to Follett. Our staff, the majority not trained in any type of library work, find it very easy to use. Kids reaction has also been positive.
Biggest problem at our end was merging some very poor marc records into one database, but that would have been an issue no matter what program we used.
I can't say enough positive comments about their support
Also any advice on Jobbers: Baker & Taylor vs Follett?
As for jobbers...I use follett. I like titlewave for book selection and ordering. Follett makes it all pretty easy.
Nancy
Most of the School Districts in the Fraser Valley in BC have (or are in the process of) switched to Follett Destiny . In the Vancouver School District, they use Horizon Webcat. Having used both, I would recommend them. The advantage of a webcat is that teachers, students, and parents can see the materials that are available in your library anywhere in the school as well as from home.
Richard Beaudry
Teacher Librarian
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