HELP!! I NEED suggestions for newer school library database software.

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HELP!! I NEED suggestions for newer school library database software.

1RGSlibrarian
Modifié : Mar 24, 2022, 12:52 pm

Hello fellow librarians.

I'm a newer librarian for a small rural middle school. Very new to the business... before working here, I was the Children's Lead at our local Barnes and Noble. This is my first librarian job. I love my job and I love the kids... but I wasn't trained in this and often find myself full of questions.

Our school library is set up with an older version of L4U and we've been having SO MANY problems with it recently.

Kids return books and I enter in the school ascension number... only to find out the next week that L4U never actually tracked that the book was returned. The same type of thing is happening when kids check out books. Likewise, I will specifically check out a book under a student's name, only to find out the next week when the student brings it back that the book was never tracked in the system as being checked out at all. If the student had lost that book and never returned it, I would have never known because the system simply didn't track the check out.

We've also had instances where I will type in a student name and enter a book's ascension number... only to find out later that the system put the number under the WRONG STUDENT. (And I have double checked MANY times while checking out books to make sure its not just user-error... because this is a small school, we have less than 300 students. I know most if not all of them by name and there are plenty of unique names attributed to only one student in this school. I've had instances where I will literally type in the correct name and enter the book under that student... go to return the book and it is under a completely DIFFERENT student in a completely different grade with a completely different name... like, what???)

This has resulted in SO MANY instances of the system insisting certain books are overdue that are not. Books have been lost that I have no idea if I'll ever be able to find again due to these system errors. I find it completely unreliable and its driving me crazy. I have a BUNCH more books that need to be entered into the system, but I am currently avoiding it because it seems like a waste of time if the system isn't going to catalogue it properly.

As mentioned before, this is an older version of L4U. I do not know exactly how old, but its old enough that there is literally no help offered on or off line to pin-point this problem. I've found help articles for NEWER versions of L4U (that also look nothing like the program I'm using), but there seems to be absolutely nothing left out there for this version. If you click the help link in the program, it just takes you to a broken link page. Also, there seems to be absolutely no way to actually TRACK all of these problems unless I screen shot every single action I do in the program and screenshot every single student transaction.

I have mentioned all of this to the school, but have been told that if I want/need a new program for the library, I must research it and present information before the board. Because I'm new to the whole gig, I have absolutely no idea which programs are best suited for a middle school library. What privacy measures do I need to be aware of? Should I go for something offline or cloud-based? Can you use Librarything for this type of cataloguing? I know you're supposed to be able to loan books out in Librarything... (yes, I've been looking into that too.)

I'd also like to have a program which allows me to both search by student name to find out which books they have out, and ALSO search a specific book to find out which student has checked it out. It would be great (but not necessary) if I could search which books are checked out by students based on their class or teacher too. These are all things that the version of L4U I'm currently working with does not really have.

Teachers have already suggested LIBIB to me, but I doubt the school will want to hook themselves into a yearly subscription. One teacher suggested Librarything, which is why I'm here. (They're all getting as frustrated with the problems as I am.) There is, of course, the option of buying and installing a newer version of L4U, but I'm warry of it now that I've had so many issues with THIS version. I've been doing research into other programs, but am finding it difficult to hone in on the certain aspects of the programs I'm searching for, and then there's that privacy policy... I need to make sure that whichever program I choose, no student information will ever get spread anywhere. Sure, there's the law that prohibits the spreading of student information for ages under 13, but what if I have a 14 year old somewhere in the school? That information needs to be protected too.

So this is my question: What programs do you prefer to use? Would you choose to switch to a different program if you could, and if so, which program and why? Can you give me any more information on any programs you mention?

Any help here would be most appreciated!!!

2Keeline
Mar 24, 2022, 1:33 pm

How many books are part of your circulating collection?

How many patrons have borrowing privileges?

Are you looking for a free, low-cost, or budgeted system?

How important are extra features like email/text reminders of overdue books, calculation of fines, reporting, etc.?

What is right for you will depend on your needs.

James

3RGSlibrarian
Modifié : Mar 24, 2022, 2:13 pm

>2 Keeline:

We currently have at least several thousand books as part of the circulating collection. Not all of them have been entered into the L4U program I am currently using.

All School staff and students have borrowing privileges. We have roughly 275 students + staff... so around 300 people.

Free, low-cost, or a budgeted system are plusses. Preferably nothing with a yearly subscription. I also doubt the school would spring for something that's upward of $1k. They probably wouldn't be too happy about something more than $500 either. However, if I provide a strong enough case for a certain program that fits all of the needs of our small library (even if its a bit more expensive), there's a chance I can still get them to back me. We are a Title 1 Eligible school... and apparently have no current library budget for new books or otherwise. (I've asked). I have used Scholastic Dollars from previous bookfairs for purchasing new books, and have recently signed up for a low-cost book program in the hopes that the school will see the reduced prices on these books and allow me to purchase a few for our very outdated library.

Email and text features aren't needed but would be helpful... we don't have those features now, and so overdue notices are handled by me and the office through paper reminders and sometimes parent phone calls. I would like a program that would allow me to see all overdue books in the school (preferably by class or group) and to print a report of such if possible, simply because otherwise its easy to lose track of who has what due back and when it was due. something that allows fine calculation would be nice as well.

I hope this helps answer your questions!

4kristilabrie
Mar 24, 2022, 2:31 pm

>1 RGSlibrarian: >3 RGSlibrarian: If you're already considering Libib, LibraryThing's own TinyCat (https://www.librarycat.org) is its better match in my humble opinion. (Yes, I'm paid to work here, but not paid to say this explicitly. I have actually compared the programs for market research and honestly prefer TinyCat's features, interface, and pricing: and we have great email support, although I'm tooting my own horn here.)

TinyCat is a layer you can add to your LibraryThing account for professional (or personal!) use, and it will transform your library into a real online catalog that can be shared with visitors and patrons. Your visitors and patrons will have an easy-to-use interface for searching your collections, and you'll have sophisticated features for tracking your circulation and patron data, if you lend out your library.

Looking at the features you mentioned:
- You can add custom patron fields such as Class or Teacher and sort your patrons page by that field, for ease of use as needed. You can also export your patron data, transactions history*, and catalog data anytime you'd like. (Should you decide to leave LibraryThing/TinyCat, we try not to make it a major headache to do so.)
- We offer automated patron email reminders for before and after due dates.
- *You can view and/or export transactions by specific lending statuses such as "Overdue" so you can see what items are overdue currently in your library. (These are sorted by most recent date within TinyCat, but custom patron fields such as Class are included in the export and you can sort by those columns easily.)
- We don't have a fine calculation feature so you would need to find a way to manage this (either through patron Notes, another custom field, or some external solution).

If you're interested, you can always sign up for a free trial at librarycat.org (just click the "Sign up" button in the top-right menu). Should you decide to adopt TinyCat, we offer affordable monthly and yearly subscriptions—although you can make one-time payments, and I can set up multi-year subscriptions for you, it is a recurring service—from just $3/month for a volunteer library. You can find our full pricing structure here: https://www.librarycat.org/#pricing.

Hope this gives you at least another good lead!

5lesmel
Modifié : Mar 24, 2022, 3:33 pm

In all honesty, if your board isn't going to spring for subscribing/annual support fee, you are going to be severely restricted in what kind of library cataloging/circulation product you can use. Proof is your current situation.

Even with something like "free," open-source software there are person-hours and hardware to consider.

LibraryThing's TinyCat would be low cost; but it does have a monthly/annual free. https://www.librarycat.org/ ETA: Ha! See >4 kristilabrie: for an excellent, no-pressure spiel!

6librorumamans
Mar 25, 2022, 7:56 pm

You also need to take into account the nature and age of your technology, including the operating system, to ensure that any new software or service will run on what you have across whatever kind of network you're connected to. From what you've described, it seems quite possible that your school's setup may be as out of date as your library software.

By the way, an item's unique identifier is called its accession number, traditionally a sequential number assigned to each item when it is accessioned into the collection.

7RGSlibrarian
Mar 27, 2022, 9:01 pm

Thank you everyone for all of your helpful replies! I have done some more research and have gotten in contact with a few reps from several different companies to discuss their programs. I contacted the superintendent to start discussions on the issue as well (before, I was speaking with the principal... so we'll see if anything changes. They all seem pretty vague with me when I start asking about library budgets and such... I'm not sure if that's normal with schools or not, but I'll do my best to work with it.)

One of the programs I'm particularly looking at, as it seems to be quite popular with other school librarians in the area, is Destiny. That being said, the program /is/ expensive and also requires a yearly subscription. I have emailed the superintendent about the program, but as everyone just went on Spring Break, I haven't gotten a reply yet.

I'm still looking into other options though, if anyone else has any other suggestions of programs I should consider or look into. Any experience with said programs that you are willing to divulge would also be most helpful. In the other forum I'm part of, most of the librarians were particularly enthusiastic about Destiny and so I didn't get many other options suggested to me... I would love some information on a more diverse range of programs to consider. :)

Thank you again!!!

8Hope_H
Mar 27, 2022, 10:43 pm

Follett Destiny is kind of the gold standard for school libraries' catalogs. Yes - it is expensive, but it is easy to use and their customer support is really good.

Those who use Alexandria seem to really like it. I think it is a little cheaper than Destiny, but I don't know pricing.

I'll check my state's teacher librarian listserv - I know this question comes up once in a while, and I'll see what responses have been given.

9Hope_H
Mar 27, 2022, 11:00 pm

A former student uses Atrium in her school library.

LibraryWorld is another that some schools in my state are using.

Most who have used Libib were quite disappointed with it.

I did find a post about Alexandria costing about half of Destiny's yearly price.

10librorumamans
Mar 27, 2022, 11:11 pm

Checking out Destiny (which is unfamiliar to me), I stumbled across Library Technology Guides. You've probably already found it, but I post it here for others who find this thread later on.

11WeeTurtle
Avr 15, 2022, 1:29 am

I got my library tech diploma a couple years ago. We learned some of the Evergreen ILS. Not sure if it's still going, but it's open source and free. It might be something to look into. People seemed to either love it or hate it.

12rjgillies
Juil 2, 2023, 3:29 am

I wandered across this tonight and I'm not sure where you are at but I would highly recommend OPALS by Bibliofiche/Mediaflex. Flexible affordable and superb support

13bnielsen
Juil 2, 2023, 7:04 am

I'm just wondering. Anyone using Koha? (I considered setting up a Koha server just for trying it out on my LT library, but never got around to actually doing it.)

14librorumamans
Juil 2, 2023, 11:41 am

>13 bnielsen:

I've used koha to catalogue my personal LPs and CDs. It's excellent, provided you are willing to put the effort into sourcing or creating correct MARC records. That probably will involve becoming comfortable with MarcEdit (Wikipedia).

I should add that I run a Linux system; I have no experience trying to implement koha on another operating system.

15bnielsen
Juil 2, 2023, 12:47 pm

>14 librorumamans: I'm also running Linux, so that doesn't scare me. I've also created Marc records for importing into Aleph in a former job, so that is probably not a show stopper. Maybe I should look a bit more into Koha.