[LM_NET] Follett Destiny - Hit compiled ( long)

[Anne Dunham <Anne.Dunham@K12.SD.US>]

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to send such detailed and helpful 
responses.  Most libraries were very positive about Destiny.  Pending final funding 
approval, our district is looking forward to upgrading to Destiny next fall.

Follett Destiny Library Manager - Compiled Hit

Our district (14,500 students) switched to Destiny about 5 years ago, from an 
altogether different circulation system. I absolutely love it. It far overshadows 
what we had before, which is all I have to compare it with. Everything is easier 
with Destiny, from circulation to reports to cataloging (especially cataloging!). 
Add in the extra benefits of all-online catalog/circ, and that makes it all the 
better:  our students can access the catalog from any internet-capable computer in 
the world, and so can I, which means I can catalog or create book lists or anything 
else from home if I need or want to. I also don't have to worry about the server 
crashing, since it's all online. Worst case: the internet goes down. I can just use 
Destiny Remote until it's back up.
 
I district moved to Destiny about 5 years ago, I have nothing but good things to 
say about the program.  Tech support is great, kids love it -- very user friendly, 
the program is web based so it can be accessed from home.
 
It's great.  Everything is together in one module, which is very  useful.  It's 
much more user friendly than Circ Plus.  There are pros  and cons, of course.  I 
don't like that there's no easily accessible  
alphabetical title search in the OPAC anymore -- it's all presented as a keyword 
search.  But definitely worth the upgrade.
 
We love Destiny.  We've had it for over 7 years and couldn't be more pleased with 
tech support, the quality of the program, and ease of use for staff and students. I 
would highly recommend it.
 
We upgraded last month from Circ Plus to Destiny. I like many of the features such 
as reports, student information, and the ability to import from a district source. 
However, I didn't realize how much I would miss keyboard shortcuts during book 
checkout. Destiny is all mouse clicks. I also miss having a password to override 
blocks on student accounts. It gets setup in a different way by authorizing the 
account that is logged in to override everything. I'm still working out how to 
manage this on a case by case basis as students check out their books.

I advise that you know what your district is paying for. We thought we were getting 
a catalog that shows book covers, but that's an additional feature called Title 
Peek. There is no manual and online help is not really the same thing. 

It's a lot of change, but it's mostly a positive one. I just have to learn to work 
my way around a new system.
 
Follett has stop doing up grades on Cir+/Cat+  They are offering some good prices 
to upgrade.  There are some things I like and some I do not like.  My student aides 
prefer the check out desk in C/C.  I like the feature that allows me to email 
overdue notices to teachers automatically.  I have had mine 10 months and still can 
not do a report I build myself.  They have added some reports I like.  List of 
over-dues in shelf list order.  Search on a student's name are not consistent on 
each major screen.  
 
My attitude is you are going to have to go web based  - so get a good price and go.
 
 
One big change is that it is web-based. This means that you can get access to the 
system from any computer. You can work at home; check books out in a classroom; 
etc. Reports are greatly improved; and it's generally a much 
From the students' point of view, the Destiny Quest interface is an enormous 
improvement in online access: you'll have to try it to get a sense of it. There are 
also interactive possibilities for your students: you'll need to figure out what 
works for you. They can post reviews on the catalog, and there are other 
possibilities too ( we have chosen not to use them, but you may decide 
differently). We don't use ONeQuest, but many schools do. Also public resource 
lists, or online booklists. 
If you'd like to take a look at Destiny Quest, take a look at our catalog. We don't 
have it set up as the initial screen, but you can. To get to Destiny Quest, you 
need to click first on "Online Catalog" on our general page, then on "Catalog" then 
"Destiny Quest."
http://www.ecfs.org/projects/eclibrary/index.html
In general, I think it has made us more productive, and our students really enjoy 
using the catalog.
 
 
We just (Dec/Jan) upgraded from circ/cat to Destiny!  For the most part we like it, 
but had some issues that I thought I'd share with you.

1) If you use 856 tags in your AUTHORITY records (Internet links) they will not 
come thru in the conversion, despite what Follett will tell you.   We made a lot of 
use of this circ/cat option, linking our curriculum specific Internet pathfinders 
to our catalog.  I was assured from the very first encounter with a sales rep thru 
the technical training and by our project manager that they would work/convert and 
they didn't.   Very frustrating.  I'm still negotiating with them.  Because of 
their WebPath product, they have blocked access to the 856 tags in the authority 
records.

2) I don't know how many schools you have but we had some issues with merging 
records of the same book.  I had to do a lot of manual clean up and merging.

3) PowerSchool.   If you use PS as your SMS (student management system) make sure 
that there is someone very knowledgeable writing that report for you.   We had a 
complete disaster with our middle/high school student records.  They just didn't 
import in any usable way.  Not a Destiny issue, but still a problem.

4) one of the things we loved about circ/cat is that you could have multiple 
modules open at the same time  (patron maint., cataloging, circulation, etc).  With 
Destiny set up as tabs you can only do one thing at a time.  I don't know about 
your staff, but we are always multi-tasking.  Running an overdue report, checking 
materials in, adding a new patron.....   That has been a frustration.

5) email issues -  we are a district that uses a Microsoft Outlook Exchange server. 
Many of us just access our email online (Internet)   Because of a microsoft issue, 
when you log out of your email you are immediately bounced out of Destiny.  Took us 
a while to figure it out.

6) Global updates - in circ/cat you can globally update a marc SUB-field  (change 
juvenile fiction to fiction, regardless of the general subject heading).   You 
can't do this in destiny.

7) Itinerant staff patron records.   If you have itinerant staff who have library 
accts in each school, they can't have a faculty due date setting (it defaults to 
student).  There is a work around, but a bit clunky.

8) We are a PC district (not mac).  You have to be using Internet Explorer 7 or 
higher for the program to work properly.  If you have older computers, especially 
as opacs in your libraries - watch out.

9) Reports are a bit clunky and we really don't like them printing to a pdf.   We 
found that we all did a lot of editing to our overdues/bills which you can't do in 
Destiny because it just prints to a pdf.

PLUSES:
We love the fact that we can see across our district what we own.   I do a lot of 
cataloging and it's much easier to add records.  Having z39 capabilities is 
wonderful.  Staff love just being able to add a copy to an existent record.  We 
also love Titlepeek and so do the students.   Our middle/high school purchased One 
Search which is fabulous.   We are hosting it ourselves, which our IT people really 
like.  The IT staff were impressed by the IT Follett staff and liked working with 
them.  Searching from home is great as well.
 
The thing that I like the best is the ease of use and the fact that I can use it 
anywhere I can get on the internet.  The other day, I was in a bookstore and wanted 
to check on a few titles and so grabbed my daughters IPOD and was able to get on 
the internet and check.  I also like the ease in which to add books to the 
collection and the students love the ability to write reviews.
 
We purchased our Destiny (online edition) over the summer.  We
previously had NO circ system so we converted from card catalog.  I
think that Destiny is easy to use (however, I am very technology
literate) whereas the hs lms has had a little more trouble.  I love it!
 
Our district had about three different systems going before going through the 
conversions.  We LOVE Destiny!  For one thing, we can look at everyone's collection 
from our desks without having to contact anyone else!  When we do interlibrary 
loans, if we have ILL turned on, we can check them out to the teacher that 
requested it, not just to the building -- I get more back because I'm going right 
to the person who borrowed it!  I also have people who understand what I'm trying 
to do and share expertise when I run into a problem.  Before, you had to make sure 
they were on the same version of software before asking for solutions.
 
Our one frustration is a district policy:  there's only one person who can transfer 
kids from building to building and she's not a librarian.  She's the one who ends 
up making policy about Destiny when it really needs to be someone who understands 
libraries.  They also said we had to go through her to get questions answered 
rather than to Destiny tech support -- they finally changed that after 4 years!.  
Also, she's at least one update behind and doesn't give us information on what's 
changed until after it's done.
 
Destiny does listen to the librarians and so if there's a problem, they will work 
to find a solution.
 
One drawback -- you do need fast internet access --  the system only works if you 
can access the data rather quickly.  Our system is just getting upgraded to fiber.  
Right now, if you are checking out when teachers are taking attendance in mass 
quantities at other locations, it slows down to a crawl!


Anne Dunham
Librarian
Vermillion Middle School
Jolley and Austin Elementary

              Everything is held together with stories
              That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion    ~  
 Barry Lopez
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