[LM_NET] HIT: Follett's Destiny

["Patterson, Tracey Carol" <TCP1118@ECU.EDU>]

Several asked for me to post HITS on this topic.  Here they are.
Thanks for all the good info - it will definitely help with my paper!
 
Tracey H. Patterson
MLS Student
East Carolina University
tcp1118@ecu.edu
 
******************************************************************

We switched from InfoCentre to Destiny in August.  I love it.  It is
very user friendly.  Destiny hosts our server so we are not responsible
for the server's upkeep, maintanence, etc. 

Training was thorough and actually enjoyable.  We had onsite training so
we were actually using our own data. 

Cataloging could not be easier. You are able to search by ISBN for the
marc records from the vendor and other Z sources, and then import the
record you want.  It takes all of 30 seconds per book. 

There is a feature called "Back Office" where all reports are generated.
I like that you can schedule reports to be run at the same time every
day.  I run overdue notices every morning at 8am.  I haven't figured out
how to turn it off for weekends and holidays.  I just don't have to
print those when I get back.  Printing barcodes and spine labels is also
done in the Back Office. I haven't had any problems with them yet. 

Folettremote has been a lifesaver for us.  We had a virus invasion on
the servers and had not access to Internet for a week.  This module
allows you to check in/out materials and then upload the file when the
Internet comes back up.

The OPAC feature is also very user friendly.  The homepage shows the
recently added new books and the top 10 most popular checked out books.
It has a feature that allows you to drag and drop titles into a list to
print (by MLA citations or Call number) for research. 

Overall, I love Destiny.  It has been trouble free up to this point. 

 

 

I hate Destiny (I am biased!)---it's not very user friendly, it confuses patron and 
book barcodes unless you include a "P" or "T" (for patron and title) in front of 
the barcode, it's reports are cumbersome and confusing, it's not very flexible, you 
have start a report on one page and go to a second page to see if it's ready . . . 
Most of all, their tech help is HORRIBLE.  I spend tons of time on hold. 

 

 

I'll give you a short version of some of the things I like/dislike
Cause I have a full load today, but I would be glad to answer any
Questions you have later.
Likes:
Processing is a DREAM!
The reports are wonderful! And you can set up a report to process on a
schedule LOVE IT!
Love that we can see if from home and that we can see other campuses
There are TONS of options--so many it is hard to know where to start

Dislikes:
Visually it is uninteresting...we thought an upgrade would mean it would
look nicer for the viewer
We have had a hard time getting GOOD training from Follett
Some things are hard to find and the "help"  is not as easy to use as
they lead you to believe
HATE that they did away with the bookbag. The book lists are verrry
DIFFICULT to use
Seems like they have tried too hard to be too generic both in their
styling and the terminology

 

 

Here's my take on our switch from Follett Circulation Plus/Catalog Plus to Destiny:


Tulsa Public Schools is a fairly large school system with 42,000 students, and 
Destiny in 86 

sites, including a Media (centralized video library) site.
We sent out a request for proprosal (known as an RFP) winter of 2007, and chose a 
system in the 

spring of 2008. We had a committee of 12 library media specialists, a reading 
specialist, all the 

tech gurus, and the director and me. (I'm a LMS on special assignment helping new 
LMS in our 

district)
We chose Destiny over the other vendor who responded to our RFP. The decision was 
agonizing, as 

our committee initially like the other product and thought our students would like 
it better (it 

had RSS feeds, lots of interactive content, stuff like that) (Can't mention the 
name of the other 

respondent for alleged legal reasons.)
We ended up with Destiny because of their new release in July that has Destiny 
Quest, the new 

interactive student interface, and because we would eventually have the capability 
to put our 

Destiny within a product called SharpSchool. (Every teacher in the district will 
have a webpage 

using SharpSchool, and our libraries will use it for the homepage for Destiny 
instead of the 

actual Destiny homepage provided by Follett.)
How has it been received:
Really, really well. 
Here's what the librarians (98%, anyway) like about it: 
-Nightly loads from our student management system. 
-Checkouts and fines follow the students. (first week of school those high school 
students were scrambling 

to find their middle school leftover checkouts!) 
-Easy cataloging (one person added 200 books in a couple of hours becuase now we 
have a 

-centralized database, and all she ended up doing was adding copies to the 
centralized database.
-Easy learning curve for library staff, including student assistants in our high 
schools.
-Seeing what everyone else in the district has in the collection without having to 
check each 

library individually
Here's that the students like about it: 
-seeing the covers of the books
-logging in to see what they have checked out
-writing reviews about their favorite books
-seeing the top 10 circulated books
-using the shelf browse feature (really, really, cool!)
Here's what some teachers like about it: 
-booking their videos online for themselves instead of having to rely on someone 
else to do it. 
Here's what the district tech gurus like about it:
-runs on a SQL platform, for which we already had products using a license and had 
someone with 

expertise.
-runs virtually problem free. (occasional glitches here and there, nothing major)
-updates happen one time to a centralized server (not 86 times to a server in each 
of the 

buildings)
-tech staff looks good to their boss and to the director of libraries (very 
important!)
Here's what the district library administration likes about it:
-ability to see what everyone is doing. (how many checkouts allowed, whether they 
charge fines, 

whether they have books that we need to round up for various reasons)
-centralized reporting feature. (don't have to rely on 86 different people to send 
in stats so we 

can pull a monthly report together.
-when someone needs to order barcodes and doesn't remember how, I can run the 
report and we can 

look at it simultaneously.

Not everyone likes everything about the system.
-Some LMS don't like the fact that the Destiny Quest uses only keywords. They feel 
the need to 

stay in the original electronic catalog format (we don't use OPAC term anymore 
because it isn't 

used on the standardized test).
-Some LMS don't like Destiny Quest because kids "take too long on it. They'd be 
there all day if 

we let them."
-All of us had to switch to using the student's ID number, and some schools had 
never done that. 

One assistant said: "I've got all the kids numbers memorized, and you want me to 
learn new ones?" 

(no, we want the students to know their own SID)
-some LMS don't like sharing with other schools. The interlibrary loan capability 
has them stymied, and they can't figure out how to bypass it. (there is an option 
to decline any hold, but they just don't want to be bothered with it.)
-Some LMS don't like for kids to be able to put holds or requests for books that 
are at their own library. The LMS doesn't wnat to go retreive the book for the 
kids, she wants the kids to get books off the shelves for themselves.

As I said, cataloging is really easy. It's my favorite feature. It uses Alliance 
Plus and Z Sources automatically, whereas in the previous version we had to make 
that distinction before looking for a title.

 

 

We have had Destiny for 4 years and I like most of it.  We are in an elementary 
school K - 5.

Likes:     Visual catalog - 2nd graders love it - Subject searches with pictures
              Web based - can interlibrary loan in the District
              Web based - cataloging - can pull records off the Internet - makes 
cataloging a breeze
              Searching the catalog - the students & staff love the pictures of the 
books on the records
              Reports are easy to do
              Inventory is easy also - like the partial inventory feature
             
Dislikes    Cannot search by a range of reading levels - Follett promises the next 
release will change it

 

 

Check the archives of this listserve

 

 

Follett's info is pretty accurate
I think the reports need to be more robust

That's my complaint

but they have been responsive to requests

I am an early adopter and send in feedback

feel free to look at any of our documentation
http://www.dillon2.k12.sc.us/staff/destiny.asp 
<https://piratemail.ecu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.dillon2.k12.sc.us/staff/destiny.asp>
 

 

 

It's a great system from a company that backs its products well.  The
screens are clear and user friendly.  I highly recommend it. :)

 

 

We just attended a Follett workshop, and I'm thrilled to have been able
to install the Library of Congress catalog as a source for cataloging
records. It becomes part of our Follett program, Alliance Plus, to add
records to our catalog. If the record is available in Alliance, that is
faster, but it is great to be able to download records that are not
available in Alliance. I also hope to install the British and Canadian
National Libraries since books published out of the U.S. are often not
Available in Alliance. I have been using Follett for at least 16
years...there are no disadvantages.

 

 

We converted from Winnebago/Spectrum's CIRC/CAT to Destiny just last month and so 
far so good.  I find it to be pretty user-friendly, the students have taken to it 
easily, it has TONS of wonderful features (I've just not had the time to 
familiarize myself with all of them) and I think it's pretty easy to use.  There's 
2 different HELP locations, one is specific to the feature you're in, such as 
circulation, catalog, etc. while the other one is all-inclusive online help.  I've 
had a few minor issues with the online help.  For example, we can find out which 
titles (top 10) have been checked out the most and which patrons have the most 
checkouts.  I had stumbled across this interesting feature and forgot where it was. 
 I know that Follett actually labeled them "TOP" patron/books, etc. but haven't 
found the right place in the online help menu to get back to the list. 

 

 


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