Follett Destiny

My library is currently operating on Follett Circulation Plus system and we have not updated in a few years. I have been trying to persuade our tech guy that we needed to update our system and move our OPAC to the Internet. So, I was very happy when our tech guy sent me an invitation to a webinar on the Follett Destiny system. One, I am excited that the upgrade I have been pushing for is being seriously considered, and two, I have never been to a webinar. As with a lot of things technology-based, the webinar did not go on without a hitch. The e-mail with the address we needed to go to was captured by the spam-filter. Then, the sound did not work. Luckily, the Follett people were prepared. They had it set-up so we could listen over speakerphone. The webinar itself was rather bland. It was a Powerpoint with someone reading a script. Some features that I would love to have are mainly in the OPAC. One, we have some of the Web 2.0 features. The OPAC would have pictures of the book covers and students could write reviews with star ratings (the reviews are approved by the media specialist before being posted.) I think this would be a great tool for teaching the students about the OPAC while giving me a great tool for collaboration with the teachers. Another thing I really liked was that the OPAC would be on the Internet. I think this would ultimately help out our three elementary schools. They are small schools staffed by paraprofessionals. By making all the collections searchable by all the schools, my hope is that they would use that feature to start doing loans between buildings. The final feature that I was excited about is that they will enhance our MARC records. As I pointed out, out of our five schools three are staffed solely by parapros and another has a media specialist, but her parapro does the cataloging. I took over the cataloging from my own parapro when I came to the high school. While these ladies have done an outstanding job (with no training), the catalog has definitely suffered. I would much rather have Follett clean up the records then have to do it myself. I am one of those weirdos who likes cataloging, but that would be too much of a good thing.