Cost+Savings

=Browser-based library management slashes costs: Follett's destiny[TM]: centralized district library management cuts hardware needs by 97%, technical manpower by 87% Greenville.=

Greenville County School District has opted to use Follett's Destiny cataloging system in effort to slash costs and improve services.


 * Quoted from the article: (I didn't want to paraphrase because I think this is a great testimonial) **

Low Maintenance, Easy to Use

To upgrade to meet the needs of the large district, Van Pelt chose [|Destiny]

[TM]--a 100% browser-based, [|centralized]<span class="hint" style="background-color: #fdf5e6; border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: black; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: black; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: black; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: black; font: normal normal normal 1em/normal Arial; margin-left: 6px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; visibility: hidden; width: 300px;">

library management solution that could be administered district-wide from central servers. Destiny features circulation, cataloging, searching, reporting and management in one easy-to-use system, offering several advantages over alternative products, including:


 * Destiny serves each school entirely through the [|browser]<span class="hint" style="background-color: #fdf5e6; border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: black; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: black; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: black; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: black; font: normal normal normal 1em/normal Arial; margin-left: 6px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; visibility: hidden; width: 300px;">


 * No workstation applications to install


 * No costly, time-consuming site visits to fix problems


 * Updates instantly go into effect for every site

costs or complexities
 * No [|terminal services]<span class="hint" style="background-color: #fdf5e6; border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: black; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: black; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: black; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: black; font: normal normal normal 1em/normal Arial; margin-left: 6px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; visibility: hidden; width: 300px;">


 * Destiny is immediately available to every user at every school 24/7


 * Maintenance is all handled at the district server

"Huge Savings"

Thanks to Destiny, Greenville was able to reduce its manpower commitment for library automation by 87%, and its hardware commitment by 97%. "Now we're running on two file servers, with two people," Van Pelt says. "That in and of itself is going to be a huge savings in my opinion."

Dr. Lonnie Luce, the district's executive director of education technology services, agrees. "Maintenance and time savings with technicians was one of the biggest things we realized," he said.

Another source of savings for the district is a cut in the amount of hardware devoted to library management. "I had to spend quite a bit every year just to keep up our file servers," Van Pelt says. "With Destiny, I don't think we will have to purchase them as often. It's going to free up my budget to buy the things we really want."

Also, since the solution is totally browser-based, all components are accessible from any computer with a [|web browser]<span class="hint" style="background-color: #fdf5e6; border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: black; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: black; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: black; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: black; font: normal normal normal 1em/normal Arial; margin-left: 6px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; position: absolute; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; visibility: hidden; width: 300px;">, at any time. So if a media specialist needs to run some circulation reports from home, for example, no problem. If they want to do cataloging, this can be done from any Internet-connected computer.

Students, teachers and parents also get around-the-clock access to district library resources via the web. "You can give users different access levels, so students or parents can go in and look at records," Van Pelt says. "As one of our media specialists said, students were always coming down to her to find out about fines or books due. Now they can go to the computer to pull up that information." [[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Browser-based+library+management+slashes+costs:+Follett's...-a0117922126|

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Browser-based+library+management+slashes+costs:+Follett's...-a0117922126]]