HOLD THE PHONE!
Apparently Follett has a function that will do what Bookguide promises, but for
free. I have touted Follett's helpfulness before on LM_NET, when a three year old
collection analysis helped us recreate our catalog that was frozen in an old Mac
hard drive. I have a WONDERFUL sales rep who comes twice a year and shows me all
sorts of magic that Follett and Titlewave can do, so I'm not surprised that Follett
can evaluate uploaded MARC records and produce a list of potential AR books.
I have copied/pasted the replies I've received. I will not be purchasing Book
Guide.
Thanks for your help, always. What a treasure LM_NET is! You saved me $200 bucks!
Karen DeFrank
*****
Several of my librarians (we don't have AR at the high school) have used it
and it is a real time saver. I think that you also get discounts on some of
the tests that you order after using it.
*****
I use bookguide all the time. The web version is great and easy to use. I
have been told that follett has a matching system in the titlewave segment,
but I have not tried it. My rep says it is easy and free. You might want to
check that our if you use titlewave and title...I am at home and can't remember all
the parts of follett's programs.
*****
Before you spend that $199, take a look at Follett's TitleWave. You can upload
your collection records and you get a really useful Collection Analysis. Then
upload your AR Quiz information and they will tell you FOR FREE!!! what books you
already have that you can purchase quizzes for; and what quizzes you have that you
need to get the book for. Naturally they hope you will make those purchases through
them.
I suspect that Mackin and other vendors that do Collection Analysis might do
the same kind of thing. Follett just puts it up front for you.
One nice result is that you can turn that "report" over into an order pretty
easily without having to retype.
*****
Buy it! It's worth the price. It's worth paying your own money for it!
*****
I used Book Guide when we started using AR several years. It really was a
big help in identifying your materials that are AR books. For the price -
it is a very worthy investment! We also put AR labels inside each book and
a color dot (the large size ones) on the spine that tell what reading
level the book is and posted a large poster on the door showing what color
each level was. Happy AR'ing!
*****
I used it when it was in disc form, and it was very worthwhile. You can also use it
to print a list of books in a student's reading range as well.
*****
Reading Renassance (spelling) does the same thing for you for free. Get to the AR
homepage and you are given instructions for downloading your Marc records. They
will give you a list of books you don't have tests for and a list of tests you
don't have books for. I've used it and it seems pretty accurate to me, and much
cheaper!
*****
I have used Bookguide, and I was very happy with it. We are currently
using Quizlist Interactive, a web-based service to which we have posted
our AR quiz list. Parents are able to log on and check to see if we
have quizzes, make a list, etc. from home.
Quizlist currently has a beta version of the equivalent of Bookguide
"but only better," according to the blurb on the link. I haven't tried
it yet, but since Quizlist is about $100.00 per year, it may be worth
looking at.
The main website is:
http://www.quizlistinteractive.com/
<https://exchange.glassboroschools.us/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.quizlistinteractive.com/>
If you want to play at my school's site and see how it works:
http://www.quizlist.net/(yby10d45ykul0am5ygvvyazn)/search.aspx?id=175
<https://exchange.glassboroschools.us/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.quizlist.net/(yby10d45ykul0am5ygvvyazn)/search.aspx?id=175>
*******
I used it--it was great.
After marking your entire collection, I wouldn't keep using Book Guide.
Just buy tests for your new books.
*****
We use it and really like it. The best thing about it is that you can gather a
group of titles by subject that are guaranteed to have AR tests. I think it's a
good investment.
*****
Our district has used it and it works wonderfully. Well worth the money.
*****
From my experience, it's worthless. Only 1 isbn is used in bookguide so
the potential of you having a book with another isbn is pretty great.
You also need to subscribe every year, and the searches are always very
inaccurate. I was constantly having to go through my inventory a check
against bookguide because the lists created were always wrong. I would
never suggest anyone to spend the money, and I've heard from other
librarians that they also came across the same problems.
*****
I haven't use AR BookGuide but if you've ever used Titlewise to do a
collection analysis, there is a new function in which it will tell you
which books in your collection have AR quizzes available. And it's
free!
*****
I have BookGuide. I haven't used it for the administration stand point that
you are talking about but the kids and I love it. It is perfect for that
kid who says he only likes horse books and of course you need it in his
level.
You can also use Titlewave which is a free service provided by Follett. You
can export your collection into their records (in minutes) and it will give
you reports on what tests you don't have. It is very nice. My Follett
representative has come and set that up for me. Now you would still have to
label all the books but to figure out which ones, I would use this. I do
love BookGuide but I don't know that it would help you in this situation.
*****
I started working in this library 4 years ago. At the time the
librarian before me set up AR, she had never used it prior so I'm not
sure how she went about it. If I had to start up now, I'd check into
the web based AR I understand with the subscriptions you have access to
all the available AR tests. I've found that almost all the books in my
inventory have a test associated with it and yes, you have to go one by
one through your inventory to place an order. Start with the most
popular and newer titles, I've purchased tests for our older books, some
of which have now been discarded and I can't replace the books as they
are no longer available! :(
*****
We used AR book guide in the past - it works well. Also, if you use Follett they
have a section on their titlewise page that will do the same thing for free.
Karen DeFrank, LMS
Bullock School
Glassboro NJ
kdefrank@glassboroschools.us
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