Sue Dowdell wrote:
>Our district is changing its Student Information Software to AdministratorsPlus by
>Rediker. Our tech coordinator asked me about their companion library software,
>Concourse, and I am looking for information from those of you who use it or have
>seen it. What do you like about it? What are the pitfalls? I would love to look at
>Destiny or Alexandria, but I don't think that will be an option unless I gather
>some information. Please help. Thank you. Sue Dowdell
>
Since several people have wondered about various library automation
software programs, I thought I'd share what we have done over the past
year. We're currently using Athena, and have decided to switch to
something else BEFORE we are forced to do so. We have only two libraries
for our District, and since we're both on the same campus, it is easy
for the two of us to work together.
I handled getting information and scheduling initial demonstrations;
Kathy scheduled the on-site visits. We heard from six different
companies: Alexandria, Atrium, Destiny, Koha, L4U, and Surpass. Atrium
has a local rep, so he did a live demo. The others did on-line demos.
All six products were big improvements over Athena. If anyone from an
automation company is monitoring this list, I have to say that we were
greatly impressed by how far the industry has come in the past few
years. Features I hadn't even thought of are standard.
Kathy and I developed a list of questions we wanted answered, and I
prepared a chart with the six products and our questions. If someone
presented an issue that we hadn't thought of I added it to the chart,
and any vendors that had already done a demo for us were asked about
that point. Eventually we got to where we could make an intelligent
decision.
Cost is always a factor, but the initial cost isn't the only thing to
consider, so I worked out not only what it would cost us to make the
switch from Athena to each of the six, but also what it would cost us
over a 10-year period (the time we've had Athena). Surprisingly, that
number didn't vary as much as the initial purchase price did.
We then tried to narrow the six down to three, and we hoped to then talk
to people who were using those three products about their experiences.
The four products in the middle of the 10-year cost price bracket were
all pretty close. The most expensive (Destiny) and least expensive (L4U)
were quite a bit off from the other four, so we decided to eliminate
them from further consideration. More on that later.
Alexandria and Koha were the two strongest contenders. Atrium and
Surpass really didn't seem to have anything that stood out for us. At
first, we were going to eliminate both of them, and just focus on
Alexandria and Koha. We decided, though, that since we had originally
said we would cut the field down to three finalists, and select one of
those three, that we ought to stick with that. We kept Atrium in just
because they had a local rep.
Koha is just getting into the school market, although they have been a
strong contender in other library settings, and we thought the
administration might not be willing to pay for the two of us going to
Alaska just to see a library program. We were able to see Alexandria in
operation before everyone went away for the summer. We'll be scheduling
a visit for Atrium shortly. Once that visit has been made, Kathy and I
will decide which one of the three we will recommend to the Board. The
plan is that the actual conversion will be done after school is over in
May. Aside from actually seeing how it works in the real world, we also
wanted to know about customer service.
Why did we drop Destiny and L4U? Destiny is a wonderful system, and has
some add-ons that are just fantastic. Unfortunately, Follett thinks very
highly of it (probably because it cost so much to develop) and it is
simply too expensive for us. L4U, on the other hand, was so much less
expensive, that we wondered if they have actually put the money into the
product that is really needed, and whether they are putting the money
into it to improve it. From what we saw, L4U would certainly work at
least as well as Athena. It might well be a good choice for a school
that needs to buy the absolute cheapest of everything.
I hope our experience is helpful to others. If you would like to know
more, please feel free to email me directly.
--
David Lininger, kb0zke,
MS/HS librarian
Hickory County R-1 Schools
Urbana, MO 65767
417-993-4226
tss003 at tnp dot more dot net
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/sub/
* LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
* LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home