Deani's+Research+Information

Deani Goyette Background Information for Library Automation Project.

What are its features? Strengths and weaknesses? Pros and cons of purchasing and implementing it? What do other school librarians have to say about it? If you have worked with the system, what are your own personal observations about it? What are the hardware specifications? Are they compatible with your school’s IT network? Is the system web-based? You need to have at least 3 references. (Post on your wiki by 3/23 )
 * Research** your automation system:

As reported in a February 2009 press release Follett’s Destiny version 9.5 has improved reporting across all Destiny modules to help K-12 school districts better demonstrate collection and inventory usage and value. Destiny 9.5’s reporting capabilities have been greatly expanded. The enhanced reporting includes a new "Reports" tab, a reorganized list, favorites tags and more, implemented across all Destiny products (Destiny Library Manager, Destiny Textbook Manager, Destiny Asset Manager and Destiny Media Manager) to make it easier to find, identify, organize and run reports. Destiny Library Manager features the debut of MyQuest book club, which expands collaboration and communication beyond the classroom while encouraging discussion about books. Similar to social networking sites, MyQuest book club requires logins and passwords, and allows students to invite or remove friends at their school or from their district. Students can utilize shelves to show which books they’ve read, are currently reading, or want to read and share that information with their peers. This is a great way to get kids engaged in the library and excited about reading. Destiny Quest combines broad-based search, social networking features for “digital natives.” These are our students who have never experienced a disconnected life. They have always had computers and cell phones to keep in touch and up-to-date. If we are going to keep up with them, we must integrate these technologies into our educational endeavors.
 * What are its features? Strengths and weaknesses? Pros and cons of purchasing and implementing it?**

Destiny Quest connects the teacher and student with resources to support curriculum. The interface fosters greater collaboration among students, teachers, media specialists and parents. Destiny Quest strengthens the library-classroom connection and helps improve information literacy by providing technology tools to effectively search, manage, organize and interpret vast amount of information from the district’s collection and across the Internet. Best of all, Destiny Quest is now included in Destiny Library Manager so there's nothing additional to buy. In addition, Destiny Library Manager and Destiny Quest, Destiny Media Manager and Enriched Content Enhancements include: The above information was retrieved from these websites. []
 * Improved eBook management
 * Enhanced and expanded searching in Destiny Quest, including Advanced and Visual Search
 * Cataloging enhancements supporting additional district functionality and support of new MARC21 standards
 * Circulation improvements, including expanded fine maintenance and accountability
 * Searching enhancements to increase productivity of searches by improving root word searching and stop word maintenance
 * Improvements in centralized patron management
 * Better statistics reporting: new for Standards, improved for WebPath Express

[].
Follet’s Destiny offers many features designed to help districts save money and improve performance by managing information and resources better. Among these tools are powerful, flexible circulation, cataloging, searching, reporting and library management.

Strengths of the program include easy Web access to the school's library media center's collection across the entire school district. Screens provide a look at the most important information about the materials in a school library's collection. Destiny's reporting system allows users to produce data such as checkouts, usage and overdue items.

At a time when many schools are facing staff reductions, a tool that reduces the amount of time that must be spent on administration and that adds significant worthwhile features user-friendly features is invaluable. The Destiny Library Management System offers easy Web access to any school's library media center's collection across an entire school district. Since Destiny is a web-based product, teachers and students can access the program from any Internet-connected computer anywhere in classrooms or throughout a school. The Category segment of Destiny enables teachers to create relevant content bibliographies for students to search on specific topics. The user-friendly features and accessibility of the Destiny Library Management System makes it quite a valuable research tool for both beginning and advanced users. The preceding paragraph contains information retrieved from this website. [] As with any new program or item there are initial start up costs, both monetary and time based. The software must be paid for and the existing records transferred to the new system. Both costs will be repaid quickly allowing Destiny to quickly pay for itself in the saving of time, money and resources.
 * Is the system web-based?**

The technical specifications for Destiny are as follows: o SQL Server 2005: Standard, Enterprise or Express Edition with Service Pack 3. o Windows Server 2003: Standard or Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 2. o Windows XP Professional: 32-bit version with Service Pack 3 or 64-bit version with Service Pack 3. o Windows Vista: Business, Enterprise or Ultimate Edition with Service Pack 2. o Windows 7: Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate Edition. o Windows Server 2008 R2.
 * What are the hardware specifications? Are they compatible with your school’s IT network?**
 * SQL Server 2000: Standard or Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 4.
 * Windows Server 2000: Service Pack 4

· Destiny is accessed from the following browsers and desktop workstation operating systems: · Microsoft® Internet Explorer version 6.x and higher for Windows 98 SE, 98 ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7. · Mozilla Firefox version 2.x and higher for Windows 98 SE, 98 ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7; Mac OS X 10.3 and higher, and Linux Red Hat 8.0 and higher. · Apple Safari version 1.2 and higher for Mac® OS X 10.3 and higher. · Staff workstations will need Adobe® Reader® version 5.0.5 or higher to view Destiny reports. · Workstations will need network connectivity (TCP/IP) to the Destiny server. · Workstations will need Internet connectivity to utilize online subscription services and · access to Follett eBooks. · Optional hardware devices (PHD Dolphin+™ 7200 scanners) utilize a local device driver. · **Destiny Quest™:** Accessible to users of Destiny Library Manager, the Destiny Quest · student search interface requires certain technical specifications for optimal operation.
 * Workstations**

· Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 Standard or Enterprise. · Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 Standard or Enterprise editions. · Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate editions. · Vista SP2 Business, Enterprise or Ultimate editions. · Windows XP SP3 Professional edition. · Destiny includes Microsoft SQL® Server 2008 Express Edition to manage the · database. · Destiny is packaged with an Apache project web server, and does not require IIS. · Apache or IIS can be configured to serve as a “front end” web server for Destiny, if desired. · An Internet connection is needed to support software installation, access to Follett · Software’s online MARC record database and other optional online services. · Customer is responsible to provide nightly automated backup processing. · Quad Core 2.4+ GHz, 4MB cache, 64-bit OS recommended, 4GB RAM, one 146GB · RAID-1 or RAID-5 volume with a minimum of 6GB of available disk space on the system drive. · It is highly recommended that Destiny be installed on a dedicated server computer, · i.e., a computer without any other major applications on it.
 * Server Software**
 * Minimum Server Hardware***

The above information was gathered from the Follett website. [] These system and hardware requirements are not extreme and fall easily into the parameters of existing district computers.

Several case studies concerning districts who have converted to Follett’s Destiny are readily available. These include the Vista Unified School district, which was trying to unify two dissimilar systems: an older, client-server library system that maintained its union catalog for elementary schools, and site-based textbook management programs used in middle and high schools. The district’s roll-out plan called for transferring 300,000 MARC records and more than 60,000 textbook records to the new system in the middle of the school year.
 * What do other school librarians have to say about it?**

Vista Unified district chose Destiny for a number of reasons: • The web-based system would provide an integrated approach to library and textbook management. • Library information—including images of the book covers themselves—would be available to staff and students in the classroom, and at home. • Destiny would also support the district’s Accelerated Reader program.

After implementing Destiny the following results were noted: • The number of books checked out to teachers and other staff doubled. • Elementary libraries circulated 26,000 more books after adopting Destiny, despite a reduction in enrollment. • Records on over 60,000 textbooks were flawlessly transferred in mid-year with no data loss. • Teachers are able to borrow classroom sets of books without buying them on their own. []

A second instance of a district successfully implementing Follett’s Destiny can be found in Texas where Tyler ISD had been using an older, site-based library management system that worked well, but placed time-consuming administrative demands on librarians and district technical staff. The district wanted a more streamlined, efficient library management solution. District librarians dreamed of being able to give any student in any school access to every book in the entire district. To fund a major upgrade of its library management system, the district planned to use money from a federal Title IID grant. But to meet the mandates of No Child Left Behind, the system would have to provide educational benefits for every student in the district and include a substantial professional development component.

Tyler selected Destiny Library Manager for its next-generation technology and expanded features. Because Destiny extended service to all students, the district was able to fund its library technology upgrade, as well as extensive staff training, entirely from No Child Left Behind funds. Destiny transformed the district’s library services in the following ways:

• District’s entire library database now resides on one server. • Browser-based interface was easy for staff and students to use. • Single-point maintenance sharply reduces time demands on district technical staff. • In conformity with No Child Left Behind, Destiny offered a wealth of face-to-face and online professional development options

As a result of this change many positive results came about. These include the following: • Staff, students and parents now have anytime, anywhere access to district library resources via the web. • Thanks to extensive training for district and school staff, the program was implemented in weeks; teachers and librarians are comfortable using it. • Time spent by school librarians for daily backups was eliminated and maintenance time for district tech staff was dramatically reduced. • Students can do in-classroom searches of the district’s entire library collection.

[]

References

American Society of Educators (Jan/Feb 2006). Library Management. Retrieved from []. Follett Software Company (2008). Destiny Library Manager Solution.Case Study: Tyler Independent School District, Tyler, Texas. Retrieved from [] Follett Software Company (2007). Destiny Resource Management Solution.Case Study: Vista Unified School District, Vista, California. Retrieved from []. Follett Software Company (2009). Destiny® v9.5 Server Service Pack and Operating System Requirements. Retrieved from []. Follett Software Company. ( 6 November, 2009). Follett Software Unveils New Version of Destiny**.** Retrieved from

[].

 * Deani, it looks like you have already been VERY busy with getting the information that is needed for our research, well in advance. Most of it looks like the information I received when I was researching to add Destiny to my school. Kevin

Thanks, Kevin. I, sadly, cannot stand to wait until the last minute, so I tried to get ahead of the game. Hope it turns out to be helpful. :) **