HIT:Automating 2 school collections as one?

[Marcinko <marcinko@ticz.com>]

Here are some responses I received to my questions about Mandarin (no
responses) and Athena and combining the catalogs for two libraries. Most
were very happy with Athena and some thought Athena would allow us to
keep 2 collections on one database.  Most thought we should be cautious
in doing that, however.  Alexandria was suggested as an alternative
choice by at least 2 responders.  Thanks for your answers.

I am an Athena user in a K-8 school.  We have been very happy with it.
Technical support is fairly good.  Sometimes you have to wait for a call
back, but they're usually pretty good about getting back to you
quickly.  They are very helpful.  In the last ALA reports, Athena
received the highest ratings of systems used in school libraries.

We don't have a union catalog in our district, but I think you should
seriously consider it. A true union catalog - not just a combined one as
you described in the early part of your message.
You are correct to wonder about doing an inventory with a combined
catalog, unless there is some way to tell your system to only check ___
collection.
Any union catalog you consider must be capable of differentiating
between collections for inventory. And official interlibrary loan would
be nice.

We have recently purchased Athena.  Athena allows you to develop
different
collections with their visual icons.  You could purchase one program,
develop a
visual icon for each individual school's collection, and an icon for a
union
catalog.  We are purchasing individual programs for each site to allow
them to
develop unique collections such as lists for Accelerated reader, etc.
but we are
purchasing the Web server for community access and will develop it as
listed
above.  Good luck!

We use the Surpass system (Humpress Group out of Florida) and we have a
very
similar setup.  We have 2 libraries in one building which includes
elementary
and
the middle/high school.  We each have our own catalog which
automatically
comes
up but there's a union catalog that only the librarians can access.
This
allows us to
see the other collection when we need to.  We borrow back and forth a
lot.  Wecan
check books in and out for the other school.  When adding a new copy, if
the
other
library has it, we can copy for our records.  It really works well.
Actually
we've had
this system for 4 years now and I can't understand why more schools
don't use
it.

I have no experience with the two systems you are considering, but I'm
writing to suggest that you check out the Alexandria system before you
make
any final decisions.
I'm a Teacher-librarian in a small country school (190 students). We now
have a collection of close to 7,000 items.  Had about 4,000 when we did
the
data entry.  I automated our library four years ago using the Alexandria
system from COMPanion Corporation.  I became the district pilot and
since
then 12 other schools have automated with Alexandria.  The system is
totally integrated and it's very easy to move between the various
components.  I think the strongest thing about this system is how user
friendly it is.  Everyone is so uptight about automating until they see
Alexandria in use.  The company also has fantastic tech support.  Help
is
available 7 days per week and 24 hours /day.  They are wonderful and
don't
make you feel stupid when you're asking the dumbest questions.
The other selling factor was that I could do the data entry on site
using
parent volunteers.  We didn't even bother with the shelf list!  They
have
an entry template for entering patrons and items.  Brodart Precision one
lets you load the Marc records.
This system also does wonderful reports.  I know that I only use a
fraction
of the ones available.  You can determine what policies you want for
your
patrons and your material.  I have different policies for each grade
level
as to the number of books they can have out, number of overdues and
whether
they can place something on hold.  The great thing is you can change
anything anytime and you can override and let the student take the book
today, even though he's over his limit.  It's all up to you.
Anyway, I highly recommend that you look at this system!  COMPanion has
a
web site at
                www.companioncorp.com
I would keep your two collections separate.  If your collections are in
two
different areas you need separate cirulation stations and search
stations.
Kid's Catalog is a wonderful search for the students in the younger
grades!

I use Athena, the multi-user program on Windows NT and Win95 interface.
We have
just switched over form Novell and win 3.1. there are some glitches but
they are
technical form our end not the program from what I can figure. I have
used
Nichols products for 6 years. First MOLLI and now Athena their windows
version. I
am very happy with the prgoam, the service and the potential for add-ons
such as
Webserver and Weblink. This connects your collection to the internet and
allows
you to add http addresses to the collection so searches can include
internet
resources. I would not buy two licenses. With Athena you can have more
than one
collection. I have many. AV equipment, Parent Collection, Science
Equipment,
Classroom Resources (Novel sets). The list could go on. You could have a
collection with both sets of records and indicate the location of the
resource in
the location field.
If you have any other specific questions I would be happy to answer them
if I
can. I do not know much about a union collection as we do not use this
feature.
It is possible form my sources. If you haven't done it yet ask for a
demo copy of
the program.  http://www.nicholsinc.com/

I have a similar situation; I have a Judaic and Secular collection under
one
roof.  What I am thinking to do is put a prefix of "J" in front of the
call #
for the Judaic.  One thing I do know re. Athena is that they do not have
room
for more than 3 lines of Cat data in the computer readout, even though
the
labels can accomodate more.  So, in a situation like mine where I have
many
uniform titles (Bibles, psalms, prayer books, etc.) I'd need to compress
several fields on to one line.  Ouch!

We are a private school with two libraries on the same campus--pre-k
thru 4 and 5-12.  We have a union catalog and had always planned on
having one when we were doing our automation planning.  We use
Circulation +.  We have problems generating reports which are for the
separate libraries and, although we have coordinated extremely
closely, we have a few MARC categories which differ--but that's okay
because that is what we use to generate our reports.  On the student
side, it has been terrific.  The students, particularly 3-6, can have
materials if one library doesn't have it and the other does.  This has
meant expanded resource capabilities and there has been an additional
impact on coordinated Collection Development.  We feel that it has
been more than worth it.  When we did it 4 years ago Follett told us
that no one else was doing it so we had to struggle through problems
which probably don't exist now.  Bottom line:  it works for us!

Athena offers you the option of having more than one collection with one
piece of software. You give different names to the collection, you can
search each collection from the same workstation.
Athena is easy to use, networkable, inexpensive! My tech person says
it's the easiest software we have to use......

I use Athena at PCS, mainly because it has a great interface.  The kids
love the graphics and the move from card to automated catalog was really
easy.  It's also easy to create additional "catalogs" - I have one for
the
Library and one for Classroom Collections all on the same system.
Students
learn to check the location of an item, which is good preparation for
using
a union catalog in a public or academic library.

I've discovered two problems with Athena: 1. multi-volume sets are
cataloged as additional copies (e.g., we appear to have 26 copies of
Collier's Encyclopedia, not 26 volumes); 2. reports are not
customizable.
Other than that, we're very happy with the system.

We use MOLLI, Athena's DOS-based sibling, for our K-12 district of
750-or-so students.  We have a K-6 building and a 7-12 building.  While
we are networked between buildings, we have two completely separate
collections, which as it turns out are even on separate servers.  Two
advantages:
--when I am posting records for new books or withdrawing books, only
one campus loses access to the card catalog
--when one system crashes (which does happen occasionally, in spite
of my best efforts), it only affects one campus.
We did make sure that no bar code numbers were duplicated between
the two collections.  That way books can be checked out as we do
periodicals.

My choice is Alexandria.  It is available for both Windows and
Macintosh.
 It has many unique features that I have not found in any other system.
Patrons can check their status on any patron machines.  Thus we do not
use
date due slips.  They can also place a reservation or a hold on any book
from their own computer.  The circulation program keeps a listing for
the
entire day of the transactions that have been done.  For example, if you
have a student aide checking in and out books you can review what they
have
done easily and it also makes finding mistakes very easy.

We use Athena and love it.  Currently, all our collections are in one
room
but we plan to build new facilities.  We use 4 different collections:
Primary, Elementary, HS, and AV.  Since it is in one location, we have
only
1 license.  If desired, we could also transfer all records into a Union
catalog, but haven't taken the time to do that yet.

Sarabeth Marcinko
Turkey Run Elementary
Marshall, Indiana
marcinko@ticz.com

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