Catalog help!

[Lydia Schultz]

I work at a very VERY small school.  Our collection is currently cataloged with Winnebago Spectrum and was purchased so long ago (before I began working here 12 years ago) that it came on 3 1/4 floppy discs.  A former tech resource person managed to get the program onto some (what were then) newer machines which are now approaching geriatric status.

Here's my problem.  Our current tech support hasn't figured out how to retrieve the data from the machine it lives on.  We can't reinstall it, since the discs don't work on contemporary computers and we can't save it to any format (CD, flash drives, etc.) that we've tried. And sadly, we can't rationalize buying a new cataloging program given the price of most of them. 

What are some options?  I found some freeware programs, but worried about how effective and kid-friendly they would be (It's a K to 5 school).  I also don't know if I could migrate my current data into it.  I thought about shifting to something like Library Thing, but again, not exactly helpful for students.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[Suzie Shaeffer]

Lydia -

I was in a similar situation a few years back (our legacy system was Athena, stuck on one computer and barely limping along). My research turned up Library World (libraryworld.com), an online service that now costs $425 a year.

[Ultimately we went with Follett Destiny's web-hosted service (at $1,500 a year!!!) which does everything I want, but mainly because our then-principal didn't want to go cheap. Yes, it is a struggle to pay for - each year we put all of the profit from our fall book fair into it. I do love having the catalog on the web and their system for entering new titles is a dream.]

If you can download your database from your old system, then you can try out Library World for free. If you've ever uploaded your info to Follett's Titlewave, the process is just the same. Unless you have a very big library (ours is under 10,000 titles) this will be a fairly small file and shouldn't need to go on discs. If your database can no longer be accessed, then recataloging might be necessary (arrgghh!), but a service like Library World (supplemented by World Catalog) would reduce the pain.

A bonus from going to a web-based system - you don't have to be in your library to add new books - I LOVE  being able to do my cataloging from anywhere. I'm working on a project now where I'm entering lexile levels for each book in the collection (we're a PreK-grade 8 school, so this is helpful for both teachers and families, who can access the catalog from any internet-connected computer) and I do that work from home whenever I've got insomnia - I'm almost done with the picture book section!

If the principal hadn't told me to go with Follett Destiny, then I would have opted for Library World. When I was in their trial period I found the people there very easy to work with and eager to help.

I'd be interested in knowing what you ultimately go with. For one thing, I'm not sure how long we'll be able to afford Follett!

- Suzie Shaeffer

[Lydia Schultz]

Thanks for the suggestion.  It probably would be too expensive for us because our books aren't bar-coded yet.  We've never had the interactive checkout part of the system (we use cards on which kids sign their names!), so we don't have scanners, etc.  I just don't know if I can justify doing such a major upgrade with our school size as it is.  Our library is actually relatively large, since we also have an adult Judaica section as part of being a community resource.  But thank you for pointing out Library World.  I hadn't found that, and it is providing me with some useful data points in this process.

[Suzie Shaeffer]

Scanners are fairly inexpensive. I think we got ours for around $75. [During before I started at our school (under 200 students) a scanner had broken and not been replaced, so they went with an honor system - so about 2 years of no accurate circulation statistics and many lost books.]

It is possible to do computerized circulation without barcodes or barcode readers, just easier with them. The scanners come in handy for cataloging because you can scan the ISBN (at least on newer titles).

[Margaret Mary Ryan]

We just switched over the summer from the Winnebago Spectrum Operating System to Library World. The Winnebago system had gotten so old that parts of it were not working anymore, and we just do not have the money for a system such as Destiny. I was able to transfer our book records from Winnebago to Library World by following the directions on the website. I did have to load in the students individually ( we have about 500) but I was able to do it over the summer. The system seems to be in place, and looks as though it will work for us. The students start classes next week, so I should know better then. We do have a scanner and it works with the system. The Library World screen set up and appearance is not as pretty as Spectrum was and it does not seem to be as intuitive for student use, but I think it will be doable. One benefit of using it is that it resides on the web, so I can access it from home to add books or students. There is also a link to the catalogue so that students can use that piece of the system remotely. I am hoping that this works for us. In any case the low yearly fee made it seem worthwhile to give it a try.