HIT: Dynix to other circulation systems1(Long)

[Marge Cox <mcox@ECICNET.ORG>]

Dear Colleagues,

Here are part of the responses I received after I asked for
experiences about switching from Dynix to other systems.  I
appreciate each person being willing to share ideas.
Thanks!
Marge

Good luck!  We are a district of 12000 students in 18 schools. We
have spent six months exploring seven automated library systems.
We're down to SIRSI and Dynix.  We currently have Dynix and may well
end up continuing with it. We have discovered SURPRISE there is no
perfect system. I have talked with other districts with Dynix and
half a dozen districts with SIRSI. Several districts in our area have
gone to DRA so we spent quite a bit of time looking at that system.
Sure didn't look like an elementary library to us.
Keep polishing your crystal ball . . .
Cathy Connellan
Troy School District

You may have heard from one of the other people in this district, but
I'll send this anyway.  We are currently using Dynix, not Scholar, and
are combined with the catalogs of 2 public libraries, one university
and one technical college library.  We are experiencing major problems
just working with these people and the system is giving us headaches
everyday also.  Why are you getting out of Scholar?  Is is the service
or the system itself? Is it not doing what you need done in your
schools?  What other systems are you thinking of going to?

Would you please forward to me any responses you get on your question?
 I'm very curious too as to what other system does better than
Scholar.  What I've heard about Scholar is good.  The largest schools
district in North Dakota has been on it for four years and likes it a
lot.  Thanks for any help you can give me!
Konnie Konnie Wightman
 Bismarck Public Schools
 Library Coordinator
 1107 Airport Road Office:
701-221-3597
 Bismarck, ND  58504 Fax:  701-221-3454


We are going through the same process as you.  We have been Dynix
users and have been frustrated with the product -- the lack of service
support, the lack of user-friendliness in the PAC and the reports,
truly the lack of a school library focus.  We are going to have
presentations by 6 companies in the next month and look at their
products, but we are also considering developing our own system.  We
have and continue to use in the elementary schools a system we
developed in-house 15 years ago.  It has served us well, better than
Scholar, so we may try to do the same thing using the Oracle database.

Denver Public Schools is also looking and a new system so we are
sharing evaluations with them.  Keep me posted on your decisions.
Judy
Judy MacDonald
judym@psd.k12.co.us
Poudre School District, Ft. Collins, CO

We used Dynix for several years before they were Ameritech, and just
before they came out with Scholar.  I loved it, but they got too
expensive for our District to afford.  The two major city libraries in
the area and a neighboring District still use it.
 We now use Alexandria, but so far it has not been anything but on
 site.  And I don't like it much.  It's powerful, but it's cumbersome
 and illogical, and we have tech problems.  While Alex's support is
 usually easy to reach, they exasperate me with non-answers.
Have you researched in the Library publications to see their ratings
of computerized systems?  They usually test  several programs using
the same criteria, so their evaluations may be more like line-by-line
comparisons.  Instead of hearing from people who've only used one or
two systems and don't know the pros and cons in comparison to others,
this may be a better way to get an unbiased evaluation.

Kay Honaker, Media Coordinator
Timpanogos High School
Orem, Utah  84057          e-mail HonaKA@mail.ADM.ALPINE.K12.UT.US

__________________________
Marge Cox
Noblesville Schools
Media Services Coordinator
Phone 317-773-3171
FAX 317-773-7845

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