LBS 850 

Week 13

Online Public Access Catalog interview 

Interviewer: Joanne Collins
Interviewee: Joanne Collins

What OPAC system do you currently use in your Middle School?
I use Follett Destiny which is a Cloud-based system.

What other OPAC systems have you used?

I am only familiar with Destiny. I worked for 5 years as a library assistant in Hingham MA and now in my 3rd year as the sole LMS in the library in Quincy MA.

Have you considered changing OPAC’s or are you happy with Destiny?
Because Destiny is all that I am familiar with, I can’t begin to know if I am using the most user-friendly and reliable, system. I only know other librarians who use Destiny, until this class, so I am excited to see what else is out there. Of course, it would be a huge undertaking to change as our entire District (11 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, and 2 high schools) use the system and have for many years.  About 7 years ago (before any of the current librarians were there) they used a system called Athena, however, there is nobody still on board who remembers it or why it was switched to Destiny. 

What features of Destiny do you like?
1. You can print barcodes and spine labels easily
2. It is accessible from anywhere so students can search while at home and I can work on lesson plans outside of school hours. This 24-hour convenience helps to strengthen the connection between the library, the classroom, and home.
3. Customer service is great with a live person to help you.
4. It is easy to upload MARC records
5. Because I purchase my books from Follett, they will alert me if I am attempting to purchase a book that I already own.
6. Provides options while searching for non-English speaking students
7. With the Report Builder function, I can continuously keep track of our collection. I like to compare checkouts from year to year. I also used the figures in a recent presentation to the school committee to confirm their decision in hiring full-time librarians at the middle school level. I routinely print overdue reports and student notices
8. I love the ability to see if other middle schools in the district has a book that I don’t that a student needs and then having the capability to request the book from them so easily.

What features of Destiny do you dislike?

1. The search function is a little weak. Try and type Abe Lincoln in Destiny and get “no results” now type Abraham Lincoln and see the all the books in your collection appear about our 16th president of the US. Another example is that the popular series, Dog Man cannot be found by searching for Dogman.

2. The online Destiny help instructions are not very helpful

3. Some of the steps (such as putting a book on hold) are lengthy

4. I dislike the automatic logout of the program if I am inactive for a short time.

5. My tech department is having a hard time understanding how to tweak Destiny in the ways it works for our library. We are currently asking for permission to take over so we can meet our needs as librarians. I noticed we are using a slightly older version of Destiny which is something IT should have taken care of in January when the latest version was released.

6. I wish I could switch screens without losing prior work. If I am in cataloging and a student wants to check out a book, I have to either wait until I am finished processing the book or have to start over if I switch to circulation before I am finished.

7. The user interface looks a little old school and I don’t like the small font
8. I much prefer Destiny Discover feature of "in" or "out" instead of 0 of 1 available wording



What other OPAC’s would you consider looking into if you were asked to make a change?

When I performed a quick Google search the two “top rated” choices that appeared were LIBERO by Insight Informatics and Sierra by Innovative Interfaces. I would look more seriously into it and probably interview the companies along with my fellow librarians as well as gathering feedback from other seasoned librarians.