First we talked to Savannah Truelove and Laura Glaser at McNeil High School in Round Rock. (All the RR high schools have two librarians. Isn't that awesome?) I was so sure they would say that they love iBistro, but they both said they hated it. They don't like how it doesn't do any guessing, and Laura gave the example of Christopher Paul Curtis' Newbury-winning Bud, Not Buddy. She said that if you don't type it in with the comma, then it won't pull up the listing. That's pretty annoying. They also mentioned something about how it doesn't work well with their circulation software and that they would both love to have the Destiny system instead.
But then the next week, we visited Gullett Elementary in Austin, where I asked Gullett librarian Kay Gooch and O'Henry Middle School librarian Sara Stevenson about iBistro. They both said they like it. When we mentioned the McNeil librarians' complaints, they admitted that the lack of guessing was annoying, but overall they seem pleased with it. Granted, Sara admitted that it's the only system she's ever used, so she doesn't have anything to compare it to.
But moving on, I've found another school library OPAC program, called Sagebrush, being used in Elgin ISD.
The initial Quick Search page has a simple layout and is easy to understand. It still has tons of white space, similar to Destiny, which I don't love, but it might be my favorite layout of the OPAC's I've looked at so far. It allows for the basic searches: title, author, subject, and keyword. And when I try my now standard keyword search of Jane Eyre, I get about a dozen responses. Some have a little videotape icon next to them, one has a book icon, but the rest have no icons. I can print the list or add them to the "My List" feature as well.
When I click on one of the Jane Eyre listings, I get the full catalog record, but the one additional feature I like on the catalog record page is that you can "click left" or "click right," which will show you what's next to it on the shelf. Great for research!
A navigation bar runs along the left hand side, offering an advanced search option as well as a visual search. When you click the visual search button, you see 9 different general categories (people, places, science, sports...) connected with a small image. Clicking on sports image brings you to a more specific ten item list with images (soccer, baseball, basketball, golf...) Clicking on the soccer image brings you to the listings of the soccer-related books.
Back along the navigation bar, next is Reading Lists, which isn't being used and I don't know why. It's a perfect spot to list all the award winning books. A missed opportunity by the Elgin High librarian, I think. Next is the Reading Program Search, which is handy if your school is using reading programs. You can choose either Accelerated Reader or Reading Counts and can then search by reading level, desired point level, and word or phrase. The last choice is Other Libraries, but again, Elgin isn't using it, which is too bad. It could at least connect to the other libraries in the district, I would think.
All in all, Sagebrush doesn't have many bells and whistles, but I like the few that it does have. It is easy to use and has a simple layout. I wonder why Elgin seems to be the only school in the area that's using it. I'd be curious to see the prices on all these programs. I wonder how that plays a part.
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