Post #5 Follett Destiny; Automated Library System

As I mentioned in my last post, since my library had no automated system and no card catalog, I had no idea what kind of books were in there and what condition they were in. One of my first major goals in my new library (after weeding) was to choose, obtain and install an automated library system.

Since Follett has been buying up many automated systems lately, there weren’t too many other brands left for me to choose. After reviewing several other automated systems, I decided to purchase Follett’s latest automated system called Destiny.

Destiny is a completely web based automated system. Students can use any computer with Internet access to view the catalog for the school library. Every classroom has several computers with Internet access and will be able to search the school library catalog from their classroom when needed,

There are several ways Destiny allows students and teachers to search. You can search by keyword, title, author, subject and series. If any of these results do not provide the user with what they were looking for, there is also an advanced search option which allows the user to narrow their search.

There are several added options that my school purchased that I believe to be valuable resources to students. The first is TitlePeek. This feature adds a picture of the book’s cover to each listing for the book; sort of like Amazon.com. The image of the book’s cover is connected to it’s ISBN number. So, if I have a 1992 copy of Bridge to Terabithia, TitlePeek will show the 1992 cover, not the cover with the movie images on it.

The second added feature my school purchased is called WebPath Express. When a user preforms a search, they will of course see all the materials that the school library has to offer. If you subscribe to WebPath Express, teacher-approved websites are also displayed in the search results. This is especially nice because the students are already on the Internet to search the catalog, so all they have to do is click on the link to view the website.

I have only begun to explore all the possibilities this automated system offers since I am just working on importing all the materials in my library right now into Destiny. I am excited to become an automated library and can’t wait to introduce Destiny to all my students!