Follet Destiny Quest Automation Review

FOLLET DESTINY AUTOMATION SYSTEMHeather Westerfield, Olga Mendez, Raychel Treviño, Vanessa Sáenz

LSSL 5396.02- Fall 2015

HISTORY

1873 Charles M. Barnes opens a used bookstore in Wheaton, IL.

1901 C.W. Follett is hired as a store clerk.

1924 Follett purchases the company.

1876 Barnes moves to his company to Chicago and renames it C.M. Barnes & Company

1952 Dwight Follett succeeds his father as chairman of the board.

1957 The corporation is renamed, Follett Corporation

1997 Follett joins Internet Systems, Inc. to form

Library Systems & Services, L.L.C., 1999 The eFollett.com web site is launched

2000 Follett's three core market groups combine to form Follett Higher Education Group and Follett Library and School Group.*Merged Follett Media Distribution with BWI

2015 Today the company is located out of River Grove, IL and it’s president and CEO, Ray Griffith. Follett employs

over 10,000 people and rakesin nearly $3 billion in profit.

STRENGTHSThere are several automation systems in the market, but Destiny Quest by

Follet, has proved to be one of the most requested due the following features.

•Destiny Quest is supported by Follet Inc. and has access to Titlewave and all the resources

included on this website.

• It is a very inexpensive option, the basic package includes the installation, trainings, continue support by Follet.

• Include all the library features (circulation, cataloging, search, reporting and management) in one place.

•Destiny Quest offers the options of English and Spanish and Advanced Search.

•The search feature is student friendly, visually pleasant, and shows pictures of the covers to help young patrons to identify their books.

• It is a system that has accessibility with any device with internet (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, iPad)

• Destiny Quest mobile app was rated as excellent by Amazon customers).

•Patrons can create their own accounts and have information about materials that they have read, check out and have in hold status.

•Also they can post book reviews about materials they have read, and share it with other users.

• It promotes new arrivals and materials that could be interesting to the readers.

• It can work with the Renaissance •Accelerated Reader program.

WEAKNESSESAs with all automation systems Follet Destiny Quest is not without its faults.

Ebooks/ Digital Media

Some technical issues have

arisen with Follett Shelf and

integration,.

Expensive

The base version of Destiny is

competitively priced.

Useful features are costly add-ons that make the final price

fairly expensive.

Label Printing

Some users on web forums have

expressed frustration with label printing,

even after using the

troubleshooting guide.

Search Issues

Some younger users have

difficulty using the search function, as misspelled words don’t

bring up results.

There isn’t an autocomplete on the search bar, which means

dyslexic students or early readers

don’t have support from the program while searching.

Creating Reports

Creating custom reports is not intuitive

and may require help from Follett’s support team.

RECOMMENDATIONAlthough not perfect, we highly recommend this automation system for the

following reasons.

Students - Destiny Quest Interface

Nice colorful format is easy for kids to use, and gives them useful information and statistics right on the home page.

Simple keywords will bring up all books available

Searching for Books is Easy!Simple

keywords will locate both fiction and nonfiction books.

Students can easily see if a book is available or not.

Students can Place Their Own Holds

By simply clicking on the Hold It! button, students are able to hold books they are interested in.

Recommendations are made based on student choices.

Plenty of additional information is available for each book.

Students Can Create Reading Lists

Students can keep track of books read by logging them in and create reading lists for future reading.

Viewable Reading Logs

Information on lists can be accessed by clicking on these boxes.

Once you select a shelf, the books you have selected will appear. Students have the opportunity to rate the books here, and move them to the other shelves.

Visual Search Available

Features for the Librarian

Customizable home page allows to add popular link for easy access.

Flag alert lets you easily see if you have processing pending.

Librarian’s Dashboard

Important customizable information is available at the click of a button and can be expanded for a larger view and has a print option as well.

Importing TitlesBook companies will send you MARC records on a CD or will email you a file.

Importing them is as easy as browsing for the file and clicking on the “Import” button!

Check Out

Student Name

Plenty of information is available at check-out time. You are also able to take care of several things while you are on this screen including renewals, library fines, editing the patron account, accessing book information to edit as well, and printable receipts.

Reports

Many different types of reports are available and the ones used most frequently can be placed here on the My Favorite Reports page.

More on ReportsReport types are put into categories.

If you are not sure if a certain report will provide the information you need, click on the “More” button to get more a description of the information that report contains.

SOURCES

• http://www.follettlearning.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/fssmarketingstore/library-management-system •https://www.follett.com/about-story

• http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/05/01/library-systems-report/• • http://www.capterra.com/library-automation-software/spotlight/8972/Destiny%20Library%20Manager/Follett%20Corporation• http://librarytechnology.org/vendors/follett/ • http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Follett_Corp.aspx

• http://destiny.psjaisd.us/common/servlet/presenthomeform.do?continuation=true&tm=Home&l2m=Home• http://www.follettlearning.com/• http://www.capterra.com/library-automation-software/spotlight/8972/Destiny%20Library%20Manager/Follett%20Corporation• http://www.mightylittlelibrarian.com/?p=419• http://www.follettsoftware.com/LibraryConnections/post.cfm/the-places-students-can-go-with-destiny-quest

• https://edshelf.com/tool/destiny-quest/• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/destiny-quest/id472689459?mt