Friday, March 16, 2012
Library Automation System
Ok, so I obviously got way ahead of myself and did next week's assignment and skipped this week's assignment altogether! Aggghhh! We opened our show, "Godspell", this week, and keeping track of my life has obviously been a fruitless effort. Anyway, on to library automation systems.
Our district uses Sirsi in all of its libraries, but we are currently in the process of re-evaluating the system and considering switching over to Montana Shared Catalog. Because I'm not officially a librarian yet, I haven't been able to attend all the meetings regarding the switch, but I am aware of some of the weaknesses in our current system. It's a great system for checking in and out books, placing holds on materials, etc., but it does not have a very effective search component. I often have to try three or four different queries to pull up materials pertaining to a specific subject. It doesn't keep a history of checkouts, so students can't tell if they've checked out a particular book before or not. I was told this is for privacy reasons. Is that true in your libraries? We can use Sirsi to inventory and print circulation reports, but our collection analyzation is processed through Follett.
One benefit to Sirsi is the ability to look up collections at other schools and request interlibrary loans. We do not yet have the capability to place holds online, but I believe we just received a facebook app for our catalog last week. It was suggested that we put the app on our website and students will be able to access the catalog and place holds on books. The only problem with this is that students will need to do it at home because the filters at school are too restrictive and students can't visit facebook, even if it's a teacher page.
The program also generates overdue notices, monthly item and circulation stats, and several other reports that we rarely use.
I am hoping that whatever we switch too is a bit more intuitive for the user, has a better search component, and is more easily accessible to our patrons.
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Samantha,
ReplyDeleteWhen you say that your library uses Sirsi, is this a similar product to Sirsi Dynix's Symphony that the Shared Catalog uses? I have been really pleased with belonging to the Shared Catalog, especially for the technical support and training it offers.
I've heard about the Facebook app that is now available, but I'm curious how school libraries use a Facebook page. Does your library have one, or were you able to just put the Facebook app on your webpage? I imagine we'll discuss more of this when we cover social networking.
-Kate
Sirsi has some different products. If your district decides to stay with Sirsi, they'll probably update to a newer version of what you use now. One good reason to evaluate every few years is not just to think about jumping ship, but to think about updating what you have.
ReplyDeleteMost libraries don't keep records of past check-outs because of privacy (even when the system gives them that option -- they usually don't keep that functionality.
Most librarians are strong believers in protecting patron privacy and they have been from way back. After the Sept 11 attacks, the gov't passed the Patriot Act which made librarians obligated to hand over patron records to the Feds. Libraries responded by not keeping patron records. The patriot act keeps getting resigned into law, so as it stands now, if an officer has a warrant and shows a librarian the warrant, the librarian is obligated to give out a patron record, but for the most part, those records will indicate what the patron has checked out at the moment and probably any book for which there are outstanding fines. It won't show a history of what the patron has checked out.
We too are looking at going to the Montana Shared Catalog. I put in my application and should know by the end of the school year. The idea of changing scares me, but our server will no longer support Winnebago, our current automation system.
ReplyDeleteI have heard both good and bad about Montana Shared, but it seemed like the logical way to go.
My system does not keep a record as to what books patrons have checked out in the past. I took a look at Anne's comment and that make sense to me, however frustraing to the students and their uses.