Library+Catalog+Systems

Type in the content of your new page here.Very useful session

Online catalog systems were discussed. It was perfectly timed since Winnebago/Spectrum is no longer supported.Chapin using Follett Destiny, Marymount Follett Circ 101, Heschel looking at OPALS, DYNEX, Alexandria ( they have need to include Hebrew characters )Portledge is using Mandarin. Loved Destiny's ability to e-mail overdues. The ability to do a Federated search incorporating catalog &amp; databases is so exciting to me. Follett may not be the most responsive, since it appears that they have a large market share. Riverdale also uses Mandarin. Has capacity to search via the web from in and out of school. Has icons to distinguish between different kinds of media. Some federated searching has been incorporated into the catalog- It's either Gale or Ebsco that shows up in searches on different subjects. WEbsites for specific projects are also cataloged in Mandarin OPAC so that kids have more reason to go there as one-stop-shopping for books and websites. Ann from RCS just added this,,,not reaizing that maybe I was supposed to type a new paragraph and not just add thoughts in between Carol's (I didn't see that Carol signed her entry.Sorry!)I'm trying would like to know more about why more people don't use Mandarin. Question was raised about marketing. But I wonder what the specific problems other mandarin users are having.

I am sure Judith will have more and better notes. Carol/Browning I want to visit all of you

More notes:

Barbara Lutz -- cataloging systems

What’s out there? Pro’s and Con’s?

Dynix—NO

Mandarin 3.0 web-based very slow—even crashes with info lit classes

SIRSI Dynix (FA)—robust—good for a lger school library—web portal runs on a separate server—great, but complicated and needs someone who knows SQL—new release was too buggy, and never released—so now they must wait for Symphony (run by Oracle, an expensive OS)

What about Open Source?

OPALS—built on open source tech—My Sequel/SQL—remarkably inexpensive compared to other systems

Alexandria runs on an apple server

Follett’s new system is Destiny

Open source tech support? You can pay for it, and get a consultant

Windows-based Follett to Destiny—totally web-based—can be used from any browser, by password login—web-based is platform independent, not dependent on OS—every patron must have a username and password—email notices sent out on overdues (sometimes to parents, sometimes to teachers or older students)

Winnebago bought by Follett, and Spectrum is now not supported—they are looking for a replacement

Athena became Sagebrush

Follett slow to answer requests for initial sales info. Have they cornered the market on school libraries?

MARC for Media—makes records for media to put into your catalog

Diane Baasch (IMedia Source) has a federated search catalog

Will a new cat sys support federated searching? Including your online databases?

Create a proxy and give each student a password to get into your databases from online

Anybody using Alexandria? 2 schools looking into it When looking at a new system, ask if it supports UNICODE

NYLINK is a consortium to provide databases at good rates—could they federate?

Federated Searching = one-stop shopping

Syndetic Solutions gives pix of each book if they are new or best sellers