Moving Our School Library Forward

In my opinion, The OPAC assignment was one of the most useful to me as a current, albeit novice, LMS. I began the unit questioning its worth as compared to some of the others and wondered if I would value the experience with its time and energy demands. This doubt coupled with the confusion of where to begin led me to drag my feet a bit at the thought of beginning my quest. After my first attempt at making some sense out of the Breeding site offered, I wasn't feeling too much better. Then two things happened. The first was that reality slapped me in the face screaming "You have to do this so get over the whining and get to work!" This reality check was the impetus of the second. In researching other library OPAC systems and paying closer attention to my own and what it has to offer, I concluded that I don't know very much about the system I've been using for the past four years except for the applications that I had become familiar with. Because I came into the position as a permanent LMS sub, a role that lasted for two years, I was expected to function as best I could without guidance from a mentor or the tech support. After being offered the position as a permanent LMS teacher, things began to change and I was assigned a mentor. I was able to catch up and fill in the blanks through the help and support of her and others. Still I became comfortable with what applications I needed I continued on through my blissful ignorance believing that this was enough and that I was doing the best I could under the circumstances.
With the help of Marshall Breeding's site and after my eye-opening experience of researching other school library automation systems and my own in more depth,I have come to the conclusion that this assignment has been so beneficial to me by making me aware of the importance of knowing the system you are3 utilizing so that your students benefit fully from its use.
I interviewed myself as an LMS using Follett's Infocentre. In additio, I interviewed Gary Metzenbacher, a Library Media Specialist in East High School, Columbus, OH. Mr Metzenbacher uses Sirsi/Dynix. I had heard from colleagues that this system would be one worth looking into as a possible replacement for InfoCentre. Mr. Metzenbacher answered questions and gave his opinions as a current user as to the positive and the negative points of Sirsi/Dynix. In comparing the two systems using criteria such as tech support and user friendliness, I have decided to prepare an argument to keep Infocentre in our district schools. One thing that Mr. Metzenbarger said that holds true when choosing an automation system for your school library: "Costs are not always monetary and one needs to make sure they consider the user frustration or acceptance as a very real cost to any system you implement or consider." Metzenbarger also stressed tech support as an important component:
"Additionally you need to consider long-term customer support.Is the system reliable and will there be technical support over time or will it get orphaned and leave you with problems?"
I found it advantageous to talk to a "live" LMS. In discussing the advantages of any system with someone who has been using it in his library, I was given a picture of the system in action within a school library environment with a firsthand source of positive and negative points. On the other hand, if I had discussed the same only with the system's sales representative, there would always be the feeling that the main goal of the discussion was to sell the system. The only sure proof of an automation system's success is in its initiation wihin the school library and observance of daily student and teacher use.