[LM_NET] HIT: Alexandria, Atriuum, Destiny and Surpass circ systems

[Diane Lungaro <dianelu@YAHOO.COM>]

Hi,

   

  We just spent the day with vendors from these 4 circ system

 companies, looking at their products.  I'm looking for the pros and cons of each

 of these systems, if you have experience with them.  We are looking

 into changing over from Winnebago's CIRC/CAT, which we all love.

   

  Thanks,

Diane
   
  Our district switched to Alexandria last year after much research.  We have been 
very happy with the product.  It has an engaging, easy to use interface for our 
students and many great features for librarians.  As with any change there is a 
learning curve, but the manual, email, and telephone tech support made the 
transition as easy as possible.  It is a breeze to create pathfinders using the 
Explore component, which give students access to many resources from home. The 
Sneak Peak feature costs extra, but provides great info for users.  Periodical 
circulation is much easier, as well. 
   

I made a chart with our important points in the first column, and each 

product in the next six columns, with the proper information in each 

cell. After we had all six presentations, Kathy and I got together and 

cut the list down to three. I've emailed those three a couple of times 

for more information, as questions come up.
   
   
  We went from Winnebago to Accent to Destiny within three years!  Whew!!!  Destiny 
has cleaner reports, but some are trickier to find and get; screen is cleaner and 
easier to read, returns are sorted by Dewey and fiction...I think; resource list 
feature is very nice, cataloging is six of one etc.  You can grab records from 
within the district or the Follet data bank but there is advertising on the page 
which I hate, all barcodes from previous program DO NOT read and have to be keyed 
in until redo with 14 digits.  ALso good for helping to weed, as our books with 2, 
3, and 4 digits are the oldest in the collection.  
   

We looked at those four, plus Koha and L4U. Alexandria, Atriuum, and 

Koha made the final three, but Atriuum got there only because we had 

said we would have three. We will decide between Alexandria

 and 

Koha today or tomorrow.

 

I had Alexandria for 6 years before being forced to change to Surpass.

  I

started using Alexandria w/o any training and the only problems I had,

 and

there were very few of them, was my ignorance.  18 months ago I was

 forced to

switch to Surpass and not a day goes by that I don't wish for

 Alexandria.  Alex

is so easy to use and the Tech support is awesome.  When I called they

 were so

patient with me and when I realized, on my own, what a stupid question

 I asked

they were so nice.  After the first few months I never had to call tech

 support

again.  Everything always worked.

 

When I had to convert, I was told that changing records wasn't a

 problem.  Well

it wasn't until I tried to do an analysis and see what I needed to

 purchase.

During the conversion Surpass added over 50,000 items with bar codes

 but NO

TITLE.  When I try to delete all NO TITLE books the program freezes.  I

 don't

have support, another long story and am stuck trying to find time to

 delete the

items one at a time.  Barcodes are all over the place so that doesn't

 help

either.

 

I don't have experience with the others you mentioned, but I know from

experience that Alexandria is a superior product.  If you look back at

 previous

discussions about systems in you will find a lot of positive feedback

 about

Alexandria.

 

My district just went to Destiny about 14 months ago.  We looked at

 many systems.  My favorite was TLC's Millennium (I think that was the

 name; I know it was TLC's union product).  We do like Destiny; it has

 improved with every update.  We chose Destiny over TLC, because our

 librarians were comfortable with our Follett software.

 

I've been using the Alexandria system since 1994 and have never

 regretted 

the decision. The words 'user friendly" and no need to use your shelf

 list, 

were the words that got my attention back in 1994. I was the first 

elementary school in Canada to use this system. Now most of the schools

 in 

Chilliwack, and many parts of British Columbia, are using the

 Alexandria 

system.

 

The system has gone through several changes during the years and is now

 

available for both Mac and Windows.  It continues to be very user

 friendly. 

I love the mac version. The middle schools have now moved to the

 windows 

version of Alexandria without any

problems.

 

When you get the Alexandria system you get a complete program. The

 search 

stations are easy for the students to use, the program does hundreds of

 

reports and the tech support is wonderful. The tech support is

 available 24 

hrs./ day and seven days a week. Your purchase includes all the

 upgrades.

 

We were Winnebago - Sagebrush customers for years --

 

we moved to Destiny last year.

It is a very nice product...

 

Follett has been responsive to requests for changes.

I loved Winnebago's support - then Sagebrush --

I was spoiled...

 

Follett support is ok

No different than most of the companies I deal with --

not bad -- not fantastic....

 

I guess nothing can compare to the folks I used to

deal with when it was Winnebago...

 

I rememerb coming to NJ and speaking at one of your

state conferences about getting ready to automate....

wow time sure goes....

 

Follett tech support is costing more - but we have

alot more add-on products...

 

Follett won our state contract for a textbook

system...

 

This was after we switched to Destiny

 

The entire state will be going onto the system for

textbooks --

and we are using that system and like it too.

 

Destiny is used within our district of more than 45 schools.  I like it

 yet when I used Winnebago back in 1997 on a MAC, Winnebago was more

 powerful, especially with global edits.  I am hoping that Follett

 Software takes the best from Winnebago and integrates with Destiny.  It is a

 good program.

 

Best features:  you can specify reading programs and mark books with

 856 tags; global edit of Dewey numbers/call letters/B/R/etc.;

 customizable reports for overdues that can scheduled, printing of barcodes and

 labels by date and list, great feature to match state standards with books

 and websites (extra cost)-and I buy and use that feature alot!

 

We are juggling a switch to Alexandria or Destiny from

 Athena/InfoCentre.

I've spent many hours with the demos of each one. Destiny is definitely

the slicker of the two programs, if you compare them web-to-web.

 However,

I really like the standard, non-web Alexandria product. It seems to be

faster and there are many reports, etc. that I like. My Alex

 salesperson

swears to me that with Destiny I only have the choice of a central

 union

catalog, but my Follett person says differently. I was very

straightforward with my Follett rep, and they are doing whatever they

 can

to meet my needs. We'll see how that goes. There are lots of little

 things

that Alex does better, in my opinion. One of them is that there's a way

 to

print the Homeroom on the barcodes - Destiny won't let you edit your

barcode report to do that. Truthfully the Alex barcodes involve

 replacing

the school name with the teacher, but at least we can get them the way

 we

want them. Alex reports pop up and then you close them and they go

 away.

Destiny sends reports to a job manager where they build up and you have

 to

go in and delete them, like a print queue or a download queue, except

 they

don't go away when they're done. This is OK if you want to go back and

 run

the same report again without changes, but it's kind of a pain. Destiny

only gave us a week to play with their system. The Alex demo we could

 play

with as long as we wanted to. Alex opens a new window for each task, so

you don't lose what you were doing. You can edit a patron from circ

without having to go back and re-enter information. I like the way Alex

handles Lost and Discarded items, and I like it that they show up in

 the

CATALOG as Lost or Discarded. I'm tired of looking for books that

 aren't

really there. In Destiny, a lost item just doesn't show up at all, and

 I

never figured out what to do with discarded ones. In Alex, the report

setups are more compact. They use drop-down menus for selection. In

Destiny you keep either cursoring down or clicking next for page after

page of box-clicking setup before you can get your report printed.
   


Diane Lungaro, librarian 
dianelu@yahoo.com 
Sussex Middle School 
Sussex-Wantage Regional Schools District 
Sussex, NJ 07461



       
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