In my library I am using InfoCenter (Sagebush). I have worked with it for 2 years now, but I believe the district purchased it 8 years ago. The librarian at the one other school in our district recently informed me that tech support for our system will no longer be offered...which is a red flag that our system is getting old. We are currently looking into switching over to Follett Destiny for our new automated system.
Personally, I like Sagebrush. It works well for checking books in and out, and making new student patron bar codes and accounts was easy for me to do and then put onto a student library card. I was also able to teach the students how to check out books themselves in 3 easy steps (1. Scan your name 2. scan your book 3. scan the "check out" bar code). I was also easily able to make new spine labels and print out a patrons history on what books they had checked out.
Other reports that were useful to create on Sagebrush were circulation and book age reports (really handy to have when weeding the collection), student fines owed/paid, lost books, and collection by copyright year. I haven't mastered how to catalog books in Sagebrush. There is a way to copy catalog by having the system search other libraries for a book's MARC record, then you select the one you want and copy it into your catalog. I never did much cataloging though since I teach 27 K-5 library classes a week. The cataloging for our district was done by the librarian at the junior high school because he has a much more open schedule and can do more "library duties."
There is an Administration tab that I never touched without "adult supervision" (which was working with the other librarian from the middle school) and that tab was where we could create book carts for different purposes and batch process copy IDs (like when weeding out books) or transferring them between the 2 libraries. I never felt comfortable using this feature without help because I was afraid of making a mistake and deleting a book's record. As a new librarian, Sagebrush defiantly has its strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths include easy of use when it comes to daily circulation needs (such as checking books in/out), creating library reports, new student bar codes, and the general layout/design is user-friendly. Weaknesses include sometimes not clear steps on how to do cataloging (told you in 2 years I still don't get it so well) and sometimes the system is slow in generating a report. There are tons of other tabs that I haven't explored, and I am afraid that it is easy in the system to delete a book's record. Overall I still like Sagebrush, and have mixed feelings about going to Destiny. We will have a whole new system for me to learn, which is okay since I haven't mastered this one yet.
4 comments:
Hi Caitilin, your experiences with Sagebrush sound similar to mine with Destiny. It sounds like Sagebrush works well for daily routine library activities (which is really important). And I empathize with you about switching to a new system; always difficult and anxiety-producing. Having used Destiny, I think you will find the basics very similar to Sagebrush. Good post, thank you!
Caitlin, I agree with Tim. I wouldn't be too anxious about switching to Destiny. I have been introduced to some of its features through subbing and working with our local librarians doing research for some of our classes.
One feature that many of our librarians like is that Follett keeps track of inventory so when you order from them you can check to see if you have copies of something you want to order and you can see the balance of your collection based upon your ordering choices. When ordering (maybe this is with all companies) you can choose to have books come barcoded and spine labeled so all you have to do is import the Marc records into your system from the email attachment they send you. This may be old news to those of you already working in the library but I thought it sounded fantastic.
Caitlin: I don't even guess at tasks like updating an old system like Sagebrush to one like Destiny with which others have found foibles--I hope I can find you guys on Twitter or that you keep your blogs going if I ever become a librainian like you all!
I like the feature of being able to check out your own books. In my school library, a beeper of shame goes off if you have an unscanned barcode and everyone shouts or rushes at you. All eyes go back to reading when you produce your book, that has been checked out, but is overdue, for the stoic librarian's scrutiny. We do it in the grocery store, though--scan and pay and go. Maybe the honor system is best, producing a sense of "ours."
I'd like to be able to create a book cart for teachers like your ILS does. My school librarians do this for my literature classes at Hellgate, on request, and I wondered how they had time to. I'm going to ask them about our ILS and see what they think are the pros and cons of it.
Destiny bought Sagebrush in 2006, so really you are using a destiny product. Destiny continued supporting Sagebrush and didn't change it's name and now they're ready to bring those users on to the same platform. Destiny actually has bought up many of the other smaller companies and, while that isn't a good thing for competition and pricing, they are doing a good job and haven't price- gouged yet as far as I know.
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