HIT: Follett's Catalog/Circ Plus (Windows) vs Nichols' Athena97

[Naomi Lloyd <lloyd@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>]

Unfortunately it seems that it is still too early to ask LM_NETTERS
about Follett's new Windows products. No-one who had installed the
windows products or the Web Collection Plus (for DOS or WinNT)
responded, but a number mentioned their intention to purchase the
system.

Some Athena users responded to the target - Athena's Windows product has
been available for some time; it was the first Windows-based automation
system for school libraries (the first version was released in late
1994).

I will provide a summary of the responses I received, including the
perceptions of some Follett clients using older systems. (There is also
a lot of info in the archives on Follett's earlier systems and on
Athena, that can be located by searching the archives.)

I will conclude with my own perceptions of the two systems based on a
few weeks of testing evaluation software. In Part 2 of the HIT I will
summarize any responses I get to this HIT and include the suggestions I
received to consider other systems.

For LM_NETTERS finding this post in the archives at some future date,
feel free to contact me and ask me which system I went with and how
things have gone. If I do go with Follett's product I will send
occasional notes to this listserv as there seems to be an interest in
it, but a dearth of information.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LM-Netters thinking about Follett's Windows products:

"I've ordered Follett for Windows but have not received it because
release 2 (sometime in May) is supposed to correct certain features the
first release did not have. I specifically asked for release 2 because I
heard of the limitations (mostly about current statistics) which the
first release did not
address.

I have seen demos of the software and it looks terrific."

"Our library staff visited  Hershey High School, Derry Twp, Hershey, Pa
to observe the Follet Circ Plus for Windows. in March. A very impressive
program. They are very please with the program.
Tues, Ap. 14 the Follett rep. demonstrated the program for us and
answered many questions we had. Although the district has not committed
the funds, we are urging them to purchase the Follett program. We have
been with Follett from Book Trac (1983) to Circ Plus . Our librarians
like the ease of this program. In converting data we can retain the
special categories we have made for our books. The numbers are retained
but we must re-enter the category names master list. Having all schools
in the district with a web page allows  the card catalog to be  used
after hours, reserves to be arranged (actually a request via email to
the librarian). No program is perfect but Follett is excellent. Can't
wait to have it."

"We are considering upgrading our Follett Circulation Plus and Catalog
Plus to the windows version.  Another librarian in my school district
said she had heard bad things about Circulation Plus for windows and
recommended against the upgrade.  Is anyone using this version of the
software and how is it working?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Athena
Users:

" Hi Naomi -- I'm in a high school library with about 6000 items.  Last
spring the previous librarian purchased the Athena system after studying
all of the others.  They have updated the software at least 2 times
since then that I know of.

I took over this fall and put it on our LAN that is running NT4 and do
not notice any problems whatsoever in its running.  I have approximately
1400 items in already and the students really like it.

My biggest pet peeve - and its not Athena's fault - it relates to copy
cataloging in general - most of the MARC records that I want are lacking
in summaries, subject headings, and added entries for joint authors,
illustrators, translators, series.  I will hunt through several records
and combine all the good things into one.  Remember, if it isn't in the
record, they can't find it! Athena packages its MARC records as the
Brodart ones."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hi Naomi -- We are using Athena, and we really like it. I don't think I
understand what you are saying in the above few sentences.  We, too,
have Athena on Windows NT. It *is* running quite slowly now. Is the 16
bit reference the problem? Our network guys says it is because whoever
installed our network customized it to the point that it doesn't work as
a "standard" installation; therefore, it has problems. They are hoping
to straighten everything out this summer while we are away from school
and computers.

One thing I really appreciate about Athena is the cataloging template. I
have been able to allow my brand new aide to key in data with a minimal
amount of supervision from me. As long as I assign the classification
numbers, she is able to find everything else because the tags are in
"lay language", not in marc language. To save myself time, I have told
her to go to the index and contents of each book. Any topic that has
quite a few pages listed gets a subject heading. I intended (or my
replacement will) to go in and "clean up" the collection at a later date
if there are non-standard subject entries. In the meantime, our students
are finding MUCH more information than they ever have before."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hi Naomi -- [We] selected Nichols Athena as our catalog two years ago
when I started our automation project.  I'm going to migrate the catalog
…One of the primary reasons for this is that Nichols has terrible
customer service.  I requested information about what was going to be
included in an upgrade so that I could make a case to my management for
purchasing the coming year's service agreement. One month before the
upgrade was scheduled to release, they could not (or would not) tell me
what it would include.  I requested that they notify me of the new
components when the information was available, and I never heard from
them.

They would not take my complaints over the telephone, they had to be in
writing.  (Sounds like a company that doesn't what to hear complaints to
me.)  When I did write a letter with my concerns, I got a nasty letter
back from the company.

Their catalog is elegant, and contains lots of functionality for a small
price, but they have no clue when it comes to serving customers."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Naomi, I have been using Athena for a number of years and have found it
to be a great system. It is particularly easy to use for the librarian,
and to teach clients to use - I have it on the network here, so it is
important that it be easy to use. I have had very few technical
problems."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comparison between Athena's Windows product and Follett's DOS products:

"Naomi--I have worked for 8 years with the Follett system.  We have been
well pleased with the product.  We started with the Apple version, moved
to DOS circ, then went to a networked circ/cat.  Yes, there were about
2-3 times when we were ready to throw the program back at them but I
found out that emailing the tech support was the easiest way to get an
answer.  I have found that many of the problems people have with the
system come from not reading the installation manual and from not
understanding why a certain step is taken at a certain point.  Here is
where Follett needs to understand that librarians are doing the
installation, in general.  Again, yes, Follett does have its quirks and
does not do everything we can think of for it to do but it certainly
beats what we had before automation.

I would sit on a upgrade for at least half a year and wait to hear what
problems existed, upgrade hints, etc.  Their listserv was/is very useful
for this. I am now working as a librarian on-call for special jobs.  My
latest job is to take a library through their first inventory.  They are
running Athena.  I have also entered and cataloged their original
cataloging. It is a very user-friendly program.  I find the librarian
parts of it somewhat less powerful than Follett's.  The cataloging was
clumsy to use, especially the MARC cataloging.  The library, in fact,
bought MITINET to enhance their cataloging comfort.  After starting the
inventory, Athena certainly is very weak.  It does not print out as many
different reports as Follett.  It also relies on the customer to make
sure certain conditions are present while doing inventory.  With Athena,
circulation of the section being scanned must be stopped, with Follett,
you don't have to worry.  The quality of the cataloging you have in your
database is more evident in Athena.  Several steps in Follett are
missing in Athena which make it a weaker program.

I consider the inventory process very important as the following year is
based on your confidence of your records.  This is also a difficult area
to evaluate until you actually do the inventory.

My final evaluation is that Follett provides a better product and the
support is there, just have realistic expectations…I really do love
using Follett.  I have also done the same type of jobs on Dynix, but as
you have probably discovered, that is an entirely different kettle of
fish."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Athena by Nichols is in use in our district - the decider for us was
the customer service and general integrity of the company. Follett is
huge - when you have a problem you get sent through this voicemail maze
and then treated like a number (which is all you are). With Athena you
have
your own rep and ours is delightful - our local rep will drop everything
and come running. I cannot count the number of times this has saved our
necks. Not that the system is hard to use - on the contrary - another
reason to choose Athena - it is a true relational database - circulation
and catalog are in one module - much better for a small library. We used
Follett for our retrospective conversion - sent our shelflists to them.
Their data is excellent but the turnaround time is slow because they are
so big. They also were not polite to our less experienced librarians on
the phone - which I consider inexcusable. Athena will do your retro as
well. Good luck!!! We did months of research before we chose Athena -
using the resources of Simmons College to help make our decision - we
have not regretted it."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follett's Circ/Cat (DOS):

"Naomi--I've used Follett's Circ/Cat for a long time and am very pleased
with the company and it's products.  I have upgraded to their newer
Follett Circ/Cat UNISON version that offers more detail readily for the
librarian...by the way their upgrades are a direct result of consumer
suggestions and requests...I think that deserves kudos from them from
us...they listen to what is needed.  As far as delivery and service I
had a software problem once and so I called the Tech support number,
they had just issued that new version and the feedback was their clue
that a problem existed, their team fixed it and sent me a "fixed"
package to take care of my problem.  There was immediate response, very
short turn around time to receive (within 5 days) the "fixed" software
and never a problem in getting help from them at the tech services.  So
I believe talk of poor customer service is biased as I have never
experienced a problem with them.  Their software is easy to input new,
original MARC records.  They also have a cd database, Alliance Plus,
available to upload full MARC records simply by entering the title of
the record and searching the cd (you can search by any of the following:
title, author, series, subject, ISBN, LCN).  There is even available a
cd for old titles , Vintage Alliance, and for audiovisual materials, AV
Alliance.  THey're worth the original price.  I've used the same cd for
years, and am just now considering a new update.  I order my new
purchases for the library with barcode applied, and the full MARC record
on disk from the vendor so that pretty much takes care of newer
materials in the library.  The only time I have a "problem" is when new
materials are purchased through the office and given to the library, or
material is sent down from the central office, or gifts of new
material....then I just simply put to work my cataloging skills and use
"samples" from the cd if necessary to guide me along.  THe hardest part
of the cataloging is for me to decide on at least three contact or
access points by applying subject headings...I do tend to bog down at
that point, but it's still no big deal...SEARS subject headings is
waiting to be used.  I obviously like my Follett.  Sorry, but I'm not
familiar with the other company's product."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My own opinions of the systems - subject to correction (which will
willingly be note in Part 2 of the HIT)

Athena:

The strength of Athena97 system is that it is exceptionally
user-friendly. Conceptually  it is well-organised, with menu's that
anticipated most of my needs - for this reason (amongst others), it did
very well on the Library Technology Reports evaluations in 1996.
Athena97 offers more fields to search than Follett's Windows software
and offers a visual search screen that launches applications as well as
pre-determined bibliographies by clicking an icon. It seems that
self-checkout may be possible - I never tested this. There is no extra
fee for networking.

Athena97 offered a reporting function that seemed more user-friendly
than Follett's. It generates more statistical reports than Circ/Cat
(Windows) particularly in terms of item and patron activity and is able
to reflect monthly statistics over a year-long period. (The Follett
software replaces each month's statistics.)

Possible drawbacks of Athena97 are that it is a 16 bit application (Win
3.1) that will eventually have to be upgraded to 32 bit (WinNT). The
drawback is not necessarily performance related (though check with your
"techie" about this), but has to do with the time it may take, at some
point in the future, to update the code and loss of time on other
development fronts. This is probably not as much an issue for schools as
it is for libraries that have state of the art hardware with NT LANs.

Another drawback for me with Athena97 is the clunky cataloguing - using
a moveable box. Too much use of the mouse in conjunction with keyboard.
There have been reports, in our school district, that information was
lost from the MARC record when records were sent from Athena to a
Bibliofile union catalogue. This concern was addressed earlier today
(Mon, 27 Apr 1998) by a librarian working with Athena - see that post.
Importing an Athena record  into another MARC-based system may be a good
way of verifying this.

Circ/Cat (Windows):

The strengths of the Follett package are: the elegant web opac (which
allows Boolean searching and ILL through email) and the cataloguing
templates which allow the librarian to work with MARC tags (together
with an online MARC guide). Follett is promising to have the Z39.50
protocol built into its system by the Summer.

In circulation there is more patron information that appears initially
on the checkout screen and the circulation functions are centralized on
one screen. Follett also had some useful cataloguing reports: which
copies have no call # and which titles have no copies attached.

There are two drawbacks for me in the Follett Circ/Cat (Windows). The
first is that it does not print spine labels. I may be able to do this
using CardMaster, at very little extra expense or I could buy
Mitinet/MARC at a lot of extra expense. There may be other inexpensive
ways of doing barcode labels. (Let me know if you are using one!)

The other drawback is that I will be using LC classification which works
with the system, but not with the statistics reports. It is not possible
to specify LC call number ranges in the same way it is with DD call
numbers.

Historically, on the listserv, there have been some reports of poor
customer service. These have been countered by reports of good support.
A library I called that had installed the DOS Web Collection Plus was
thrilled with the support. There have also been some reports of bar code
scanner difficulties (reads only part of barcode, adds numbers, reads
checked out books as being in, scans very slowly) and the briefness of
the circulation record. Some have felt that there were too many bugs in
Follett's new releases.

Drawbacks of both systems are the lack of serials or acquisitions
module. Unfortunately, right at this point in time, it seems that there
is no system that offers a web pac with Boolean searching, great MARC
templates (with online assistance) and serials and acquisitions. Library
World does come close (working with the MARC tags could be easier).

Please let me know if your experience differs from mine - I will include
your post in Part 2.

Naomi Lloyd
--
Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources, Librarian
310 Johnston Terminal, 25 Forks Market Road
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 4S8, CANADA
lloyd@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu or cierlib@mb.sympatico.ca

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=
To quit LM_NET (or set NOMAIL or DIGEST), Send an email message to
    listserv@listserv.syr.edu    In the message write EITHER:
 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST
  * NOTE: Please allow time for confirmation from Listserv.
For LM_NET Help & Archives see:  http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=