Cathi+Myer+-+Proposal+for+OPAC

Cathi Myer Teacher Librarian Memorial Elementary School 125 Winn Street Burlington, MA 01803

December 5, 2016

Technology Integration Director for Burlington Public Schools 123 Cambridge St, Burlington, MA 01803

Dear Sir,

As you know, our district is currently assessing whether a change in our online public access catalog (OPAC) would be a beneficial and cost-effective switch. We currently use Follett Destiny Quest as our OPAC. Follett also provides our library management system, student information, grading and parent access platforms. We started this process by evaluating an open source OPAC in the hopes of finding a free product. We subsequently decided that there would be too many changes necessary within the school system to follow this avenue. Insignia was recommended to us by a nearby school district that has a similar number of schools and students and is currently less expensive than Follett’s products.

Follett’s Destiny Quest has been used at the elementary level for the past 8 years and the students continue to gain benefit from the product’s capabilities. In addition, Follett offers a more advanced OPAC through Destiny Discover which is used at the high school and students can easily transition from one product to the other.

Insignia was created and is maintained by Insignia Software which was established in 1999 and specializes in products for the public school libraries Grades K-12 at a lower price than other commercial products. It is cloud hosted and has web based products.  Insignia also offers several products that might make it comparable to our entire Follett package. Below is our assessment for both Destiny Quest and Insignia’s OPAC for the elementary school libraries. We identified the following capabilities as being essential for whichever OPAC we move forward with for our K-5 students:

> > > >
 * 1)  Appropriate interface:
 * Younger students can use the visual search with ease and with the help of the classroom teacher or teacher librarian find the books they are looking.
 * Grades 1-2 are taught the beginning research skills through the basic search and are able to complete their own searches with support from the librarian.
 * Grades 3-5 are taught how to use the advanced search using keywords, titles, authors, and subjects.

>
 * Both proposed OPACs have these capabilities.

> >> >>
 * 1)  Interlibrary Loan Capabilities:
 * All the schools in our district are linked and students can choose to search their own library or the entire system to find the books that they need.
 * The librarians are working on teaching the students how to request and receive interlibrary resources. I feel this is also beneficial for the students to gain independence.

>
 * Both proposed OPACs have these capabilities.

> >> >> >> >>
 * 1)  Other features available to the students:
 * Ability to save titles to a Wish list;
 * Ability to see what resources are being reviewed by other students at the school in an attempt to identify potential interesting resources; and
 * Ability to place resources on hold by themselves.
 * Access to pathfinders for their school projects (Immigration research) or interests (Scary Books).

>
 * Insignia also has these feature available through their OPAC

>
 * 1)  Destiny is seamlessly connected to other Follett’s library management system. This allows the librarians to purchase books from Follett and receive the MARC records to populate the catalog with the proper information. A result of this capability is that our librarians spend more time with the students and not cataloging.

>
 * Insignia also has this ability through a partnership with Baker and Taylor.

>
 * 1)  There is currently an iPad app for Destiny Quest which the students have access to on their individual iPads. Although this is not the most effective or the most reliable; however, Follett is working on improving the app.

>
 * Insignia also has a free App available for download.

>
 * 1)  A variety of customer and technical support avenues. Both companies have high reviews for their technical support and response time.

>
 * 1)  Both OPACs have the ability to link to third party resources.

There are differences between the two systems as noted below:

> > > > >
 * 1)  Insignia’s interface at all levels has the ability to include relative social media. Destiny Quest does not have this ability but the newest update - Destiny Discover has this capability. This is not a significant issue as the elementary school would be hesitant to include outside social media.
 * 1)  Insignia offers an automated system that processed fines/lost book fees. Destiny Quest does not offer this type of system but again, it is not a significant problem as we do not consistently fine our students for late books. It would be helpful for notification to the parents directly for overdue or lost books.
 * 1)  In our experience, Follett’s Destiny Quest’s cataloging records do not always have a book cover image. Insignia has a relationship with ProQuest which has a great reputation for a large database of images. Again, this is not a significant issue but it would be more helpful for our younger students who search visually.
 * 1)  Insignia does not currently work on Chromebooks. While we districts have the 1:1 iPad program, Chromebooks are used also and this may become a problem in the future.
 * 1)  Insignia offers a classroom check out capabilities. Our librarians could easily check out the digital sources to an entire class without asking each student to log in. Destiny Quest does not have this capability.

Currently the following two issues are not significantly addressed by either Destiny Quest or Insignia so are not being considered in the decision making process. > >
 * 1)  Search language is very restricted for our students who are used to searching on the Web. They find it frustrating and give up easily. However, I have found that as the students use Destiny Quest more and more, they become more adept at creating their search terms as well as becoming more careful about how they input their search terms. In addition, they are learning more about our library subject headings and are able to improve their searching ability.
 * 1)  There is no link to a “Ask the Librarian” function at this level. While I do not believe this is a great necessity, it might be useful for some students.

Sir, based on our research and comparison between Follett’s Destiny Quest and Insignia Software’s Insignia, we do not believe it is in our best interest to make a change at this time. Both OPACs seem to be highly effective and we are currently very happy with Follett’s Destiny Quest that in our estimate does not seem to make sense to go through a transition to a new product.

Thank you for your time. If you should have any questions related to our research, please feel free to contact us.

Cathi Myer