Kate


 * MEMORANDUM**

To: District Administrators, Town of Reading School District From: Kate Millerick, High School Library Media Specialist RE: Switching to Alexandria Would be Detrimental to our Students and Ultimately our District Date: 4/27/14

As you know the district is in favor of replacing our current OPAC, Destiny (Follett) with Alexandria (COMPanion Corp.) starting in the 2014/2015 school year. The reason for the change is due in large part to cost cutting measures since, like many other districts, we are looking to save money wherever we can. Depending on the services requested and the number of students enrolled in a given district, pricing can range from $999 - $4000/ year (often district discounts will be given). The annual subscription fee between similarly structured instillations of Destiny and Alexandria is about $200/yr. more for Destiny. I believe it is well worth the extra cost given the quality of the product. Follett Destiny have proven themselves as the most widely used automation system in the K-12 market, they have been implemented by more than half of the K-12 schools in the US. “Follett is truly the powerhouse of the school library software sector” ([]). Alexandria lags far behind Follett when it comes to installations in school libraries, approximately 12, 000, and given their recent sales numbers I do not believe they will be catching up any time soon. Since its peak in 2003, Alexandria has continued to show a declining trend in their sales. This year the company reported only an additional 139 sales representing 456 individual library facilities as compared to Destiny Library Manager for Schools who reported an additional 992 sales, bringing the total instillations to 4,830 (5,428 sales of Destiny Library Mgr. for Districts bringing total installed to 48,438). ([]) For the 2014/2015 school year a switch to the Alexandria library automation system would include the following services:
 * Integration of all library operation into a single web-based platform.
 * Off-campus catalog access.
 * Company claims you will never pay to upgrade your software.
 * 24/7/365 customer service, online help as well.
 * **Title Assistant –** Locates & obtains complete up to date MARC records using your preferred sources.
 * **Sneak Peek –** Enhances your collection with descriptive information (summaries, awards, reviews) and cover art.
 * Perform summary reports. Reports can be customized and scheduled to run automatically.
 * Automatically email overdue, hold fulfillment and item renewal notices.
 * Available on iOS or Android.
 * Schedule and automate imports of student information system (SIS).


 * Day to Day Features Would Include:**
 * Barcode Scanning
 * Catalog Management
 * Circulation Mgmt.
 * Customer Database
 * Customizable Queries
 * Database Integration
 * Fee Collection
 * OPAC
 * Periodicals Mgmt.
 * Search Functionality
 * Self Check-in/ Check-out
 * Serials Mgmt.
 * Web Service

These are all services that are comparable to what we currently receive from Destiny. For those of you who are not familiar with all the needs that Follett Destiny meets within our district, I will go into greater detail below. To be comparable with what we currently subscribe to with Follett Destiny we would also need to pay for the service of COMPanion Install Alexandria server software, which would back up our data and handle any updates and upgrades. This would accomplish four major tasks:
 * 1) Establish the ability to access our catalog from anywhere over the internet;
 * 2) Eliminate the major expense of purchasing and maintaining a library server;
 * 3) Daily data archives, and
 * 4) Updates and upgrades are installed by Alexandria export technicians.

In addition to all of the standard features above, in February of this year COMPanion Corp. issued a press release announcing the arrival of Alexandria version 6.22.5 which will offer new features including – Bulletin Board, Maps, Item Management, Advanced Bookings and Patron Module Preferences, all of which will lay a groundwork which will support any future company growth. Version 6.22.5 offers improved performance, including design, the ability to run on mobile devices, and a single sign-on feature where the user does not need to present additional credentials when using eBook resources through Alexandria.

I can understand the appeal of all that Alexandria appears to offer, especially where is comes at a lower annual subscription fee than Destiny, but as someone who works with these systems on a daily basis, I firmly believe Destiny is a superior OPAC for our students and district. While it may seem that Alexandria is comparable to Destiny on many levels recent survey results from [] and [] indicate that users are less than happy with the Alexandria product.

//The district left Destiny for Alexandria and many of us were not happy with it. There are one or two things from Alexandria that I like would Destiny to offer, but on the whole, I'm VERY glad we went back to Destiny (Librarytech).// //We loved Alexandria when we first got it in 2004, but it seems that every upgrade removes some functions that we use all the time. For instance, renewing a book used to be a matter of clicking on the little circle that appeared when we brought up a patron record. Now we have to go hunting for the renewal tab. The version we just implemented has a default of "locked" on every record and patron. It's just irritating! We update patron records MANY times a day, and this extra step just makes us not very happy (Librarytech).// //So far, I am having a terrible time even getting a price quote for the Alexandria product! I have emailed one person who didn't get back to me for over a week even though I told them I had a deadline and when I was finally sent to a "sales rep" who is supposed to be able to tell me how much it will cost for my library I cannot get in touch with them! This is not a great start for a company who says they have support 24/7. It has been over 2 weeks now and I still don't have an answer as to how much it costs. Very disappointing (Capterra).//
 * Why Destiny?**

Each year we earmark $1000 under developmental items in the budget for new titles from Follett, (we are part of the 67% of schools who purchase books from the Follett Library) (([]) Should the district opt to go with Alexandria for the coming school year I would assume that this money would be spent elsewhere. More research would need to go into finding a collection development tool that is as thorough as Titlewave* and Titlewise*.

With the **Follett Destiny Library Manager** the OPAC allows a user to search a filtered selection websites and a preselected collection of online databases as part of a basic search. Keyword searching is the default, but title, author, subject, and series search options are also available. Further narrowing may be accomplished depending on the specific selections made by the school, district, reading level and/or interest level. Search results yield records with book cover images, title details, basic identifying and locating data, including how many copies are in the collection and how many are currently available. Additionally, the results window will give users access to results of the simultaneous webpage search online database search and online database search. Each website is pre-filtered by Follett to include pages that they deem educationally appropriate and include grade appropriate material. Users may also add items to their list that they are interested in for later printing or MLA citing.

For greater control over searching capabilities, Destiny does offer a power search option where multiple fields can be searched at once and be filtered by publication year, in addition with the power search option the user has the ability to preselect which online databases to be searched.

Checking in and out items. A student gives his or her barcode, the librarian (para, intern, parent volunteer) enters it in (or simply scans a student id card) the search field which is set to default for a barcode. Once a student record is retrieved, a barcode scanner is used to scan a label and the book is checked out (or back in); easy as that. Renewals can be done by the students themselves online.
 * Circulation:**

Includes the addition, deletion and editing of patron and item records. Student records are uploaded once a year and include basic student information and a photo – this information can easily be integrated into the student information system.
 * Record Management:**

Titles can be manually added to the collection manually creating the MARC record or importing them from preferred sources.
 * Item Record Management:**

Reports are key diagnostic tools for collection development and general evaluation of library use. They are used for circulation purposes to send overdue notices or for processing to create spine labels. Good, easy to use reports are essential in helping a library to run at its most efficient and effective levels. Destiny’s “Report” tab allows administrators to create any number of commonly used reports or create their own custom reports. User created reports may be saved as favorites, set up to run automatically on later dates. Additionally, through the “Back Office” tab administrators have the ability to access all previously run reports for comparison purposes.
 * Reporting:**

Follett Destiny is a powerful product that allows the efficient finding of information in both physical and digital locations. It has many features that make it the obvious choice for a school library environment; in addition the company is moving toward a greater integration of digital media and extended product lines that will put the OPAC at the center of the every school’s learning environment. I do not believe the same can be said for Alexandria. With only 12,920 instillations, while they are in second place, it is a very distant second, and with only 139 additional sales in 2012, down from 160 reported in 2011, they are continuing a downward trend that has been in effect since the sales peak in 2003. (http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/04/ils/automation-marketplace-2013-the-rush-to-innovate/)
 * Overall:**


 * To Summarize, the services we would continue receiving were we to continue with Destiny would be:**
 * Destiny Quest allows users to create profiles, see book covers, share reviews and locate web reviews.
 * Teachers, parents and students can access the catalog from home, allowing them to track checkouts and search for resources any time of day.
 * Easy to use K-12 focused circulation, cataloging, inventory, and reporting functions.
 * Free mobile apps for students and staff that support BYOD initiatives.
 * ***Titlewave –** An online collection development tool with over 1 million K-Adult books, eBooks and high quality curriculum focused AV materials for preK-12 schools.
 * ***Titlewise –** Service available at no charge to Follett school solutions customers – receive reports detailing the make-up of your collection, comparing our collection to other grade-appropriate recommended school library collections, and detailing incomplete records.
 * 1) Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of our collection.
 * 2) View and print reports on areas where improvement may be needed
 * 3) Use Titlewave to find titles that address the needs of our school.
 * Browser based for access anywhere, anytime.
 * Student information System integration
 * Day to Day Features:**
 * Web-based library automation and management solutions
 * Combines circulation, cataloging, searching, reporting and management into one centrally installed software system.
 * Students, faculty, and parents access the system through any workstation at school at home through your districts network.
 * Nightly off-site backups

I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read over the information I have presented regarding the similarities and differences between Destiny and Alexandria. I will conclude by giving a very brief overview of comments I have received from librarians in our district regarding Destiny and its use in our library so that you are getting a fair and accurate portrayal of opinions both positive and negative.
 * Wrap Up:**
 * “Destiny is expensive (but) we do get a discount since the whole town uses it. It comes from a district budget, not an individual school budget.”
 * “Personally I like Destiny. I think it is set up to be pretty user friendly with basic search methods which students can access and then more advanced if you choose. It is also convenient allowing us to search all school’s collections from our library. We can access it from home as well which is nice. Follett is associated with Destiny, so it makes purchasing and access to eBooks easier too.”
 * “(Destiny) was already in place when I started working. When I taught in Brookline that also had Destiny. Charleston High was part of Boston Public Library circulation and I’ve been at schools that use Alexandria (which I think that school actually just switched to Destiny).”
 * **Does the system have any particular strengths?**
 * 1) “user friendly”
 * 2) “easy to add new titles”
 * 3) “Batch addition/ update of patrons”
 * 4) “Searches by 5 main choices”
 * **Or weaknesses you wish you could change?**
 * 1) “I wish it was more “Google like” as far as the spelling piece goes. If you spell something incorrectly then your search fails. Especially since younger students are using it, they often can’t spell the words correctly. It becomes a little frustrating when they get a dead end repeatedly.”
 * “Overall I’m happy with Destiny. They do have a support contact number. I’ve found it helpful for some issues, but there are other times that I taught myself better than the support team did.”

As the LMS it is my job to build and maintain a collection that offers students the materials and information necessary to facilitate the learning that is expected of them now and through the rest of their education. The purpose of an OPAC in a school setting is to allow students access to the resources that they need efficiently, in my opinion it is Destiny and not Alexandria that is the best resource to help our students attain this goal.