HIT: LIBRARY AUTOMATION

[Jeanne Chesterton <ChessL@AOL.COM>]

Thanks to all for your responses to inquiry about library automation. Guess I
know what I'll be doing in September. Hello ISBN's. Hello LC's. It was really
a toss up as to which was more important for retro conversion. Rest assured,
I do plan to WEED extensively.  Anyway, let me try to categorize responses
for those of you who may be interested. As I move forward with this venture,
I may be calling on your assistance again, now that I've got an ear,
especially. Thanks again.

Winnebago and Alexandria both received equal time and support.
     Winnebago
        - good tech support and ease of use; effective Boolean searching
techniques, which            are introduced to 3rd graders.
        - 2nd graders can check out their own books.
        - full Boolean search capability; ease of use; "provides a lot of
information on the              books without digging through screen after
screen...easily sort results in several             ways and print
bibliographies. You can print your own barcodes and spine
                     labels...recommend either the MAC or the Windows
version".
        - workshops available.
        - user friendly

      Alexandria
        - screen seemed busy on demo disk.
        - good tech support; many report formats available; can customize
important                     things: notices, letters, circulation length
etc.; ease of installing updates.
        - "I really like the patron catalog window set-up, except for the
default answer 'yes'            to the question, 'Do you want to do a
sounds-like search?' that comes up                       automatically when a
search finds no information...The other thing I wish were
               different is that I can't always generate the kinds of
circulation reports I'd like,                 such as which books are
circulated the most heavily...the tech support is
                     exceptional."

     Follett
          - "...user friendly; easy to use. The only problem is technical
support. They give              their customers a '800' number and it is
difficult at times to get help. On the other           hand, once we are 'up
and running,' little help is needed."

     LibraryPro
         - relatively inexpensive compared to the others; works fine and will
take up to            50,000 records.

ISBN and LC numbers for retro conversion: All agree that one or other (or
both) are necessary. Half preferred ISBN's and half insisted on LC numbers.
     ISBN - used Winnebago easy entry method; tells you the version of the
book (hardback or paper); "they are more likely to be able to come up with a
record for the exact book. In the case of my Winnebago conversion, we had a
lot of very old books (no ISBNs) and in those cases we got a record that was
basically the title, author, and barcode. That leaves me filling in a lot of
subject headings and notes myself. Time consuming...LC numbers did not help"

      LC - more accurate; stays the same  "after a book goes out of print, I
am told that the number can be reused"; seems to be where most people are
going; "Your MARC record vendors will be searching for each record first by
its LC # (gets the most hits), then maybe by ISBN (often wrong) because these
take the fewest keystrokes for the most results."

Other comments worth passing on:
     - "Barcodes are best placed vertically near the top of the book on the
back, parallel to the spine. Makes it easiest for inventory."
     - Make sure that the version (MAC or DOS) of the system you're ordering
has the options you want. What is available on DOS may not be available on
MAC.
     - Conversion. Half those responding sent cards out; half did it
themselves
     - Volunteers. Some relied on them for help in locating LC/ISBN numbers
and for retro conversion. Some observed errors in volunteer work.
     - Most did not allow grace period beyond the due date for circulation
and overdues.
    -