OPAC Decisions

In comparing my current system, Follett InfoCentre, to one that I have heard a lot about, Koha, I decided that we should stick with Follett. I am still learning new features that InfoCentre offers so this weeks assignment was very beneficial to me. I talked with our high school Librarian, Valerie, and she was very informative. I realized that I probably should have been asking her some of these questions in September! For example, I did not realize that Infocentre lets you align the catalog with the curriculum allowing teachers to find resources much faster. They can also create lists based on the curriculum and then just pull those books. This feature will save me a lot of time finding resources. I also did not know that you can just scan the ISBN Label on the book and it will pull up the Marc records from several different places that I get to chose. You can also print the barcodes for the books you entered by creating lists. I am so excited about all of this new information! When I explored Koha I found it very confusing and not very user friendly. I think that InfoCentre is easier for students to navigate, especially having the visual search options. For younger students that do not yet know how to read, this feature is great. In the future if our school was looking to switch systems, I would recommend staying with Follett and just upgrading to their newest system, Destiny. I am going to do some more research regarding this system because based on some of the class discussions this week, that system sounds interesting.