Sarah

===I have some concerns regarding the proposed change to our district's school library online public access catalog (OPAC). At the present time we are using Follett Destiny, and have for several years now. It has come to my attention that the school administration plans to replace our current cataloging system to Atriuum, a library management system offered by Book Systems.===

===I have done my own research on Atriuum, and I will say that there are many positive reviews for it, and that it seems to work well for many school libraries. At the same time, it does appear to me that it shares many of the same features as Follett Destiny. They are both centralized, web hosted services, that allow users the opportunity to access the systems from remote locations, and using mobile device applications as well. Both are compatible with the Mac computers we have in our schools, and with the Google Chrome laptops students use in the classrooms. Ebooks are an option on each. They each allow for easy library management, allowing for school librarians to do all their cataloging and maintain inventory and circulation records in one place. Atriuum has a feature called KidZviZ OPAC, a visual search engine with a cartoon guide for younger children, that looks like it would be very fun or our students to use, and perhaps might be an advantage over Destiny. I've even seen reviews in favor of their quick customer service response, which I have to say Follett is somewhat lacking in. From the research I have done, I can't say that I find anything at fault with Atriuum itself, and it looks like a wonderful OPAC program.===

===My concern lies more in that the change is not a necessity. Destiny is working well for our school, and is actually one of the top OPACs used by school libraries. Follett is a large company that has an excellent reputation for being one of the leaders in educational technology. The OPAC that we use, Destiny, is extremely user friendly, both for staff and students. Our students are able to use DestinyQuest as a search engine, and it is visually appropriate for their age group. I am able to very simply produce reports and retrieve data using Destiny's online cataloging and circulation systems. I am unsure what the purpose of the proposed change is, whether it is thought to save the district money or if it is believed that Atriuum is somehow a better system, but I feel that a change would not benefit our school in any way.===

===We already have Destiny, and are familiar with it. Were we to purchase Atriuum, we would not only incur the cost of the purchase, but it would cost us more money as well as time for the training that would be required to become comfortable with the new OPAC. The library staff would be required to do online training, and would then need to train the teachers and students how to use it as well. This would cut down on the time we would otherwise use for lesson planning, working on collaborative teaching, and for myself, ensuring that our library media program is meeting the needs of our teachers and students in the best way possible. I am afraid that the time it would take to train and become familiar with Atriuum would be detrimental to this effect.===

===Had we another OPAC besides Follett Destiny, perhaps then a change to Atriuum would be worthwhile, after all it's low cost and compatibility with our current operating systems make it a good option. As far as features go though, it is very similar to the system we already have in place, and I do not feel that the school district should incur the cost of a change that is simply unnecessary, and will require time for training, which will take away from time we could otherwise use for teaching. I do hope that you will take my perspective into consideration, and rethink the decision to replace Follett Destiny with Book Systems Atriuum.===