HIT: Cataloging software

[Cyndi Schoenbrun <schoenbc@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Thanks to all of you who sent me emails about cataloging software; imagine
my surprise when I finally got into the library and booted up the PC and
found they already had Winnebago!  Unformatunately they are running the DOS
version on a Windows 95 machine, but it seems to work well.  What surprised
me is that when I called Winnebago to aska bout an upgrade price, they
already had my name in as the new librarian.  They were very nice, but,
since I am walking into a sitaution where the shelves are crying out to be
filled, we al know where the priorities are; I can budget it for next year,
I guess.  Again thanks to all for your help and suggestions.

Thanks to:  Bernard Grossholz, Nina Jackson, Jamie Boston, Melissa Davis,
Joyce Conklin, Sandy Scroggs, Gaylene Tunison, Suzanne Franklin,
vabourn@calinet.com, Lisa McLoughlin; if I have forgotten anyone, I
apologize but am still extremely greatful for this virtual "hand-holding"!


Here are the comments:

I have Winnebago, and I'm *very* happy.  (I really didn't bother looking
into any others because the district level already had Winnebago and I
wanted to keep it simple.)
_____________________________________________________________

I use Athena.  I have just switched to it after years of using Scribe
(which went
bankrupt). The district librarians reviewed many programs, and extensively
examined Winnebago, Follett and Athena.  Athena won hands down.

_____________________________________________________________

The absolute best cataloging software available is Mitinet/MARC! To
quote from their homepage "With MITINET/marc you can maintain and create
MARC records without learning MARC rules. Use it for cleaning up your
database, for upgrading records from book jobbers and CD-ROMs, for your
record maintenance, and for all of your original cataloging.
MITINET/marc is fully compatible with over 70 library automation
systems"

The really neat part of that is that it's absolutely true. You don't
have to memorize MARC tags and formatting - Mitinet does it for you. It
has built in templates for different types of materials (book, video,
CDs, etc) that you can either use as is or as a basis for your own
customized templates. You can create a true MARC record from scratch if
you can't get one from your jobber or the net - so no more "short"
records!. When you get a disk from a jobber you can use Mitinet to put
your local info in each record before you upload it to your database.
And you'd be surprised how many mistakes Mitinet catches from jobber
records.

In my library, no record gets added to my Winnebago database without
going through Mitinet first.

Contact info: Information Transform, Inc.
               6409 Odana Road
               Madison, WI 53719 - USA
               800-824-6272         Web site: http://www.mitinet.com

Check with them to see if you qualify for a state or consortium
discount. But even if you don't it's worth the price.

_________________________________________________________

We have Dynix Scholar, but maybe it'll be too expensive for your
situation. It does (almost!) everything we want. Reports are a weak
point, but you can force it to do what you need!

_________________________________________________________

Nothing beats Mitinet for cataloging!  You can visit www.mitinet.com and get
a demo disk I think.  If you decide to buy please indicate Where you learned
about the product~

________________________________________________________

Back to your original question regarding automation software, my own
experience is with Winnebago (phone 800-533-5430) and Follett (phone
800-323-3397), two of the top four systems recommended in an ALA article a
couple of years ago.  My recollection is that Alexandria (phone 800-347-6439)
also one of the top four.  I recommend checking the ALA web site, which I
believe is http://www.ala.org.

We had excellent support from the Winnebago 800 number as we set up an
automated circulation system when I worked part time as I was getting my MLS.

The school where I currently work has Winnebago, and the system works well
considering it's a DOS version, scheduled to be upgraded to a Spectrum version
this fall.  The Spectrum version allows internet access for the union catalog,
which means it's easier for students and staff to know what resources are
available, and interlibrary loan may be facilitated.  Also, the Spectrum
version interacts directly with the internet, so that a student may enter a
subject and get a list of resources available both from the library materials
and from the internet.

My only work with Follett was helping to prepare a system for automation a
couple of years ago, but the company representative was very good to deal
with.  I changed schools after the cards were sent in for the retrospective
conversion.  From e-mails from the volunteers, I gather that Follett did a
good job.

______________________________________________________________________

I'd highly recommend MITINET/marc for cataloging.  It's available directly
from the company, or from several automation companies, including Follett.
It can be used to check records received from vendors, as well as for
original cataloging.  Screens with examples are given for each part of the
MARC record.  They used to have a demo available.  Don't think there's a
website yet, but phone is 1-800-824-6272, and e.mail is
mitinet@msn.fullfeed.com.  Hhhhmmmm....seems like Follett has a section on
it on their website, since they're a re-seller:  http://www.fsc.follett.com
Worth a look.  If you have specific questions, I'll try to answer them.

As for administrative, I've used WordPerfect and Lotus 123 extensively for
many years.  Looks like the new school I'll be in is heavily into Office 97,
so I'm learning Excel.  Hope I can stay with WordPerfect, but don't know
yet.  Also use PageMaster for newsletters, PowerPoint for presentations, and
learning PhotoShop and Front Page for website design.

____________________________________________________________________

After a great deal of research, our district unanimously chose Alexandria
for Windows.  (It's also available for Macs.)  Hands down, it beat all the
others.  It's put out by COMPanion of Salt Lake City.

____________________________________________________________________

I use Winnebago, which we just got this last year.  The catalog/circulation
software is very easy to use and you can do easy entry or MARC records.
They have a special package deal that includes the conversion of your shelf
list (10 weeks) and they send someone out for a day of training.   For my
consideration file and budget ledger I use a database (Microsoft Works)
because it can sort, retrieve, alphabetize and print out column totals in
dollars.  I add two extra fields in consideration file for annotations and
review sources.

________________________________________________________________

I would definitly reccomend the Alexandria software package for what you
are looking for.  We have been using it for four years now and are very
pleased with it. It will do all your circulation, inventory of books as well
as equipment.  It will also let you do your purchase orders and budget
control.  We run ours on a Macintosh network, which I would highly recomend
but they do now have it available for windows as well.


Cyndi Schoenbrun
Librarian
Yeshiva of North Jersey
River Edge, NJ  07661
schoenbc@earthlink.net

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