Follett International Asia Pacific Blog

A customer recently asked some questions that I thought would be relevant to others.  Please contact me if you need additional help on these or any other matters.

1.  How do I allow access to other libraries in my district for my patrons:

Adding additional sites requires a district user with Manage Patrons for the District rights.  Someone would need to go in as the destinyadmin and click on Setup in the right hand side.  They would then need to click on Users and create a district login for you.  After this is created, then you need to log in as this before clicking on a site by the District Users Login and then click on the District Link in the top right.

2. I am exploring using Destiny to catalog and access local resources – specifically, student created material, usually in digital format.  I have figured out that I can do so by creating a MARC record and then attaching an electronic resource file (jpg, etc.).  I notice that I can also add a URL to access those items that are web based (so we can do student web-based documents or works).

a)    Is this my best route?

It depends on the content.  If it is used for simply archival, then Destiny would be good choice.  You can also make these items hidden on Destiny, so only people who have the right to see hidden materials can view the content.  If it is something that you may need to edit, then I would have a link to the file in a place where you can access it instead of uploading it in digital content.  If it is something that will be removed at a specific time, then Destiny may be better since there is an expiration date.  Since the date is for informational purposes only, you would still need to maintain these by running reports on expiration date and then manually delete them.  If they are quite large or if another site can provide a better interface, then a link would be better.

b)    Are there limits to the size of the files that can be attached ?  (so would I be better off storing the resources on an external site and simply adding URL link?

Hosted customers have a default limitation of 1GB for digital content.  This can be increased if requested.

c)    Do I need to add a copy ? (I wouldn’t think so, because an electronic resource or URL would not need to be checked out, but then it says no local copies available 😉

This is a good point.  This is a good item to put into the digital resource tab in Destiny.  In order to identify what is moved to the digital content, a district user must be created with Manage Library Materials for the District rights.  They would then need to go into the district, click on Back Office – Configuration and identify a specific MARC tag that designates it is a digital resource. You will also need two icon for each.  This way they are not tied into a copy and people can click immediately from the search results to see it.

3. I am also exploring adding student reviews to library materials. Within your current system, it looks like I can only find a review if I know the book being reviewed.  Is there any way for a patron to search for …

a)    Books with reviews?

Written reviews, no, but you could send this in the request a feature section in the Contact us in Help.  However, a title report can be generated in report builder to identify what books have been reviewed.

b)    Books with review average of 4 stars or more?

Yes, in Destiny Quest, after searching, you can limit your results by rating of the titles.  These would more likely have a written review.

c)    books reviewed by a certain reviewer?

No, you could suggest this as a feature.  The reason that this was omitted might be because of privacy issues.  In Back Office – Site Configuration, you can adjust what is shown about the reviewer (No Name, Full Name, First Name-Last Initial, Initial Only).  Be sure that when you allow reviews that this setting reflects your school’s privacy policy.

Can you advise how to merge marc records?

If you think that your records could be better quality by comparing it to what we have, you can do an Alliance Recon.  Go to Catalog Tab, Update Titles, and Recon Subtab.  You can always do the default of only brief records since these do not have any subjects in the record.  However, if you do the All library records, any subjects that you have entered that are not in the 690s fields will be replaced be what we have on file.   Ours are usually better unless there is a dedicated cataloger that puts in special subjects for your curriculum.

Next create a resource list called duplicates.

After that you can see what records have duplicate standard numbers which is a good start. Go to Catalog Tab, Update Titles, and Recon Subtab to find the titles.  View the titles that were found and add them to the Duplicates resource list.  (You can go back and forth to the report easily be clicking on the Job Summary breadcrumb that is under the word Catalog in the Tab menu.)  

After you are done, go to the resource list and select Duplicated title for each entry of one of the titles.  Select “View these Duplicates” from the “I want to” dropdown menu.  Choose which is the best title and click merge.  You can then remove this title from the resource list and go to the next one.

 If you come across any titles that are duplicates that may have different standard numbers, just add them to the Duplicates resource list.