[LM_NET] HIT - Library processing software similar to Follett

[JJ Stratton <stratton.jj@GMAIL.COM>]

I finally did figure out that we have Follett Circ/Cat, but not Destiny.
Our cost also includes Alliance and TitleWave.  So essentially our present
situation is that we pay approximately $45,000 a year to Follett, and that
is the total cost for 45 schools serving approximately 40,000 students.
Each school has a server dedicated to Follett.  One of the cost reductions
our technology director is therefore considering is using one central server
at the district - thereby saving costs in maintenance and utilities.  He
seems to feel we have the bandwidth to do that.  I'm going to investigate
some of the ideas I gleaned from this HIT - Alexandria, Evergreen,
LibrarySoft, Koha etc.  However, I have major concerns about successfully
transferring all our current data to another software program.  It sounds as
though $1,000 per school is about an average price, and the price for the
other programs is similar.  So, the chance of corrupting or losing data for
the collections of 45 schools (my school alone owns 33,000 titles), just to
save a few pennies, is frightening.  Then there would be the start up cost
for a new program, along with training.  Several comments make it sound as
though Follett is buying up the market anyway.  I'm frankly hoping to
convince our technology director that Follett is a bargain at this stage of
the game, and he therefore would subsequently convince the administrators
leaning on him to cut costs that eliminating Follett is not a cost saving
move.

So...here's the hit in no particular order:

--I did a search for this a few years back for a private school.  I've
attached the info I gave to them.  It's a bit old but has the web sites I
went to.  I recommended LibrarySoft to this school because I thought it
would be easy for them to use and they didn't have a lot of tech support.



For your purposes Evergreen or Koha might be a good fit.



As for Destiny, I thought it would cost us more money to move to Destiny
from Follett so I have not taken the plunge.  I believe the biggest
difference for us would be the availability of blogging and for more money I
can find another source for that.  By the cost you say your school pays for
Follett, you must have a union catalog for that.



--Look into Alexandria. (www.goalexandria.com). After we paid to purchase
the program I now pay about $799 per building but have an individual program
in each building which includes all future updates. If you were using the
district distribution it would be (perhaps) more cost effective but also
move involved for the district head librarian.



Follett owns Destiny so I believe people use Follett and Destiny and mean
the same thing.



I don't think you will find anything like the quality you will get from
Alexandria or Destiny if you go open source.

IMHO



--Here is a page that shows the various companies with a presence in the US
and Canada:

http://www.librarytechnology.org/companies.pl?SID=20090330505950927&code=vend



and here is a link to a recent article in _Library Technology Reports_ on
Open Source Integrated Library Systems

http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=13723

You can't see the entire article there (not even when you follow the link on
the page) but it will give you enough information to let you determine if
you want to locate the actual article in online databases (or a local
library, or even pay for the article).



--Follett is the company that has produced the software package called
Destiny. Follett's previous product was called Follett Circ/Cat (I think).
Like many product lines, Destiny has replaced circ/cat in Follett's sales
effort.



--Evergreen has open source software for libraries.  When I talked to them
in the fall, they did not have any schools using the software, but did have
several public libraries that were using it successfully.  However, either
they have to host it, or you have to have a linux server to be able to host
it yourself.  It looked good, and I liked the fact that it was designed by
librarians.



--Destiny is the web based version made by the Ļollett Company.  We have it
in all our schools, but we have only 18,000 students and I believe 23
schools. I am not sure what it costs exactly..each site has to pay support.
We went to Destiny since the company will not support OS 10..we did have the
old Circ/CAt Follett...I love Destiny because it is on the web and parents
and students can, of course, access it from anywhere.

 There are cheaper ones, of course. Alexandria,etc. I have never used
anything but follett.



--Destiny is Follett's premier library automation system. Follett also has
several other systems, since they have been on a buying spree lately, but I
suspect that most of the others will soon be gone.  We have Athena, which is
one of the products that Follett bought from Sagebrush a couple of years
ago. We looked at several products, Destiny among them, and discovered that
Destiny was FAR more expensive than any of the others.  If that cost is just
for tech support and upgrades, that is about right. The big issue for you is
that you have already shelled out the big bucks to get the program in the
first place. You might check with LibLime to see what switching to Koha
would run you. The big advantage is that for that $1000/school they will
host it, do the daily backups, load the upgrades, etc. If your IT department
is as overworked as our one part-time guy is, that might be a consideration.



--Destiny is a Follett product.  It is web-based.  Before Destiny,

Follett's products were Circulation Plus and Catalog Plus.



--If I can help with Alexandria. please let me know. You will find Alex is
less expensive than Destiny and I can tell you a big upgrade is in the works
right now. I doubt you will have much trouble converting your data from Circ
Plus to Alex. The Alex people have that down to a science now. There is a
bit of work, but not too bad. I am sure there are many Alex users in your
area that can provide you with lots of help as well.



I am fortunate as we are a small district and I am the only elementary
librarian. I make the final choices once we get the funding.



--Destiny is owned/operated by Follette and is good for
circulation/cataloging, etc.  Another application, Title Wave, is good for
collection analysis/acquisitions.  As for Open Source, I'm unfamiliar, but
you're sure right about many districts experiencing fiscal constraints.

-- 
JJ Stratton, Librarian/Media Specialist
North Canyon High School
Phoenix, Arizona
stratton.jj@gmail.com

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