From the number of requests for information about this topic, I can tell that many
media centers are planning to transition from Spectrum to Infocentre. I received
one detailed response from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. Here's the
information that person sent:
"We have InfoCentre and the transition has been relatively smooth. They are working
on improvements and the version 2.0 beta will be out for testing in December.
There are many features that you will have been used to in Spectrum that haven't
yet been added to InfoCentre (many of these are supposed to be dealt with in an
upgrade/patch in December.
The advantages (if your tech support sets it up properly) are that you
- can search all libraries creating a sort of union catalog
- can search from anywhere with internet access (students/parents can search from
home)
Disadvantages (again, which are supposed to be resolved in coming updates) are the
inability to do:
- global edits
- negotiate fines
- eliminate old fines if the book finally turns up
- search a student or book from the main circulation window without going from
keyboard to mouse
- pulling information across from the server can be slow--it never takes less than
6 seconds from the time I scan a patron barcode until the student shows in the Circ
window. At times it can take 30 seconds! My district tech support says this is an
InfoCentre issue, not a server issue--I'm not sure one way or another
- opening multiple instances to do multiple tasks without doubling RAM requirements
(i.e. cataloging and circulation, reports and circulation, etc.) requires
additional RAM per instance, so make sure you have plenty of RAM. I've only got the
minimum and my techies claim there's no reason for more, so I can only do one thing
at a time (killer for a die-hard multi-tasker, but not an InfoCentre problem)"
Joette Crone, Media Specialist
Hollymead Elementary School, Charlottesville, VA
jcrone@k12albemarle.org
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