Duranis Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 Currently we are running Junior Librarian 3.2.2 which is ancient but does exactly what we need and has been pretty solid. We have a maintenance contract with MLS but they are pushing for us to move to the cloud version and have doubled the cost to renew the maintenance agreement while offering to "upgrade" us to their cloud version for the low, low price of £1,400+annual maintenance costs. To be fair that does include migrating the data and setting it all up. I can fully understand them not wanting to support seriously out of date software and promoting their latest products but the way they have done it annoyed me (basically sent spam emails twice a week to every email address they have here for about a month). Also I have not heard good things about their online system and the Liberian really likes using what she already has. Also management ideally want something that is locally installed and run so its not reliant on the internet being up (even though the internet has only been down for a total of about 20 minutes in the 3 years I have been here). So, has anyone used Junior Librarian.net and found it is any good? I like the idea of the Ebook library as well but again not sure it works as smoothly as they say based on what other people have told me. Anyone using that as well? Open to hearing about any alternatives as well.
mikeprice Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 We have just started using this PrimaSoft Library Software, Handy Library Manager it is very basic but works fine - you would have to extract all your current stuff and import it but that should be do-able only problem I have had it that is iis not school oriented - so you have to use a custom filed if you want a class/form group but I have downloaded the database management stuff and I can now manipulate it is Access easily so updating the classes every year is not easy They have just releaseed a new version that has extra web search facilities as well so kids can search for book in the library via any browser
LeMarchand Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 One of my 3 has the NET version, and so far the biggest problem has been that the library is unattended and no-one thinks to go to the homepage if someone decides to use the browser for other purposes. I balk at their "conversion" charge elsewhere as I suspect that the process is: Export as csv Import csv Charge ££££s
TwistedHelixis Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 A few days before Christmas we had an issue with Junior librarian (the older version) and they could not fix the issue as their version at the office was working fine. (they did not seem very concerned at helping us) . As we were going round and round I said I would call them about it after Christmas, they then said the contract would be out by then and they could not help, oh but we could upgrade to the new version. Not a happy customer.
Duranis Posted January 4, 2017 Author Posted January 4, 2017 I balk at their "conversion" charge elsewhere as I suspect that the process is: Export as csv Import csv Charge ££££s Yep suspect that is most likely the case. I vaguely recall the database being encrypted in some way, shape or form though which made it difficult to get at the data yourself (though I could be imagining that).
LeMarchand Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 Yep suspect that is most likely the case. I vaguely recall the database being encrypted in some way, shape or form though which made it difficult to get at the data yourself (though I could be imagining that). I can't just open the mdb files with Access 2016, but I can't imagine that with the relevant version (+ the decryption key?) it's that difficult to do. For the price they charge, you'd think it involved someone sitting their entering everything manually.
mikeprice Posted January 4, 2017 Posted January 4, 2017 As far as upgrading is concerned they were trying to get us to use the 'cloud' version for months - when I refused on tha basis of the ongoing charges (i.e. cots over 5 years etc etc) they offered to sell us the not WWW (i.e. installed on local sever) old version for a much lower price henceanything trying to force you onto the all singing all dancing (but most never gets used) version is actually just marketing which is why we went for the much cheaper PrimaSoft thingy IMO
synaesthesia Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 MLS are all about the £££, there's no secret there. I would strongly recommend against using their products. I too have primary schools still using the old local version on an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. I do have a contingency plan - library book recording is little more than stock control for which there are hundreds of free example databases for Access or would take very little time to make one with a front page form to make things easy for the staff. It might not be as pretty and won't try to sell you everything under the sun but it works. It'll certainly be enough to take care of what's left of local libraries anyway!
witch Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 We use the net version and it does seem to work fine - although nobody uses it other than the library people. The maintenance contract is a ridiculous price though. We find the support pretty good except that you can't get through for hours at the beginning of September!
elsiegee40 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 MLS are all about the £££, there's no secret there. I would strongly recommend against using their products. I too have primary schools still using the old local version on an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. I do have a contingency plan - library book recording is little more than stock control for which there are hundreds of free example databases for Access or would take very little time to make one with a front page form to make things easy for the staff. It might not be as pretty and won't try to sell you everything under the sun but it works. It'll certainly be enough to take care of what's left of local libraries anyway! Just don't go there with Access. For your own sanity. Fine in the short term; regretted in the long term. My job used to be Librarian as well as IT Tech. The Access database I inherited was a pain in the backside. It wasn't designed properly and I never had time to take it apart and start again. The job was too big with several thousand books to deal with. There's more to a librarian's needs with the database than just adding books to it and recording the books against a user. It's not as big a job as writing a MIS, but it's not a small one either.
synaesthesia Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 (edited) I would imagine that depends on the needs of each school, @elsiegee40 - I know a few that just use a spreadsheet of all things as that's all they needed it to do. I feel your pain with inherited systems though, especially made by those that don't actually consult with the people intended to use them! What other requirements would a librarian in a primary need other than basic stock control/booking in & out? Genuinely interested there in case I may be able to throw something together. I know our librarian does a hell of a lot more with Eclipse and would probably swear equally at a database/spreadsheet but she works with a secondary school The biggest issue she needs to deal with as well as physical media are e-books and the likes which have been even more of a pain in everyone's backside! We quite often end up putting the world to rights when trying to deal with what should be simple issues Edited January 5, 2017 by synaesthesia
witch Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Our librarian flags up new books on the system has a section for book reviews I believe
elsiegee40 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 (edited) Basic stock control needs to be done properly. You need to know - how many of each book you have, - when each was added to the library, - be able to remove the right copy from the database when you chuck it out, - know who's borrowed which book and who's returned it, - analyse reading habits by genre, - control who can or can't borrow certain books, - control the number of books borrowed by different types of user - control different lending periods for different users - cope with book recalls and reminders and, if necessary, threats. - search for books by title, author, theme, genre, who's borrowed them... With a bought library system it will do the hard work of categorising the book and giving you the Dewey code. Without that adding books takes forever, even in a primary library. Primary schools use a simplified Dewey which differs from the full one. You do learn some codes over time but it's never straightforward; what also slows you down is flicking through fiction for genre. I'll probably think of more later. That's just off the top of my head. Edited January 5, 2017 by elsiegee40 1
synaesthesia Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Cheers. The only difficult part about that would be the dewey system although I vaguely recall seeing something that uses a public library (not the reading book sort of library) to do just that, so you would query that external source and it'll pull down the relevant information including categories from that. And indeed stock control shouldn't be done lightly, it should be closer to asset management.
LeMarchand Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 - analyse reading habits by genre Your librarians are a lot more dedicated than the ones I've come across! I don't think any that I've worked with have even wondered if such reporting is possible. To be fair, they're all part time and overworked as it is. @Duranis, there are a few free library software systems. I did offer to take a look as we only seem to have a single machine licence for JL but the person asking for a "sub library" never bothered to reply to my email, so I've no idea if any of them are any good.
elsiegee40 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Your librarians are a lot more dedicated than the ones I've come across! I don't think any that I've worked with have even wondered if such reporting is possible. To be fair, they're all part time and overworked as it is. @Duranis, there are a few free library software systems. I did offer to take a look as we only seem to have a single machine licence for JL but the person asking for a "sub library" never bothered to reply to my email, so I've no idea if any of them are any good. The librarian was me. And I couldn't do most of what I needed to do, or of what was requested by the teachers because the cruddy Access design didn't allow it. I am more than capable of writing SQL to interrogate, I spent 8 years working as a technical DBA, but the basic database design was bad.
synaesthesia Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 This is it, as said every school is different. Libraries should be an area where people can expand their knowledge, yet it's more and more difficult to persuade young people to use them. They'll read a book but not know where to look next or not go out of a comfort zone/genre. With the good advice from an experienced librarian and a system to back it up, they will be able to see what other books they might enjoy based on feedback they've given other books, series or authors. That might have been natural to the majority of us as we didn't know any different but these days a librarian is just as much a teacher and salesperson as they are someone who looks after the books.
LeMarchand Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 The librarian was me. That'll be why the librarian was dedicated! these days a librarian is just as much a teacher and salesperson as they are someone who looks after the books. [rant]Not in Dave's "Big Society". A librarian, if there is one, is an unpaid volunteer. Literacy is an undesirable trait.[/rant] 1
Steveduk Posted January 10, 2017 Posted January 10, 2017 MLS are all about the £££, there's no secret there. I would strongly recommend against using their products. I too have primary schools still using the old local version on an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. I do have a contingency plan - library book recording is little more than stock control for which there are hundreds of free example databases for Access or would take very little time to make one with a front page form to make things easy for the staff. It might not be as pretty and won't try to sell you everything under the sun but it works. It'll certainly be enough to take care of what's left of local libraries anyway! Totally agree with this! I've given up with their support re. their scheduler service running at 100% CPU. They just ignore emails or take ages to reply. If we start voting with our money they will have to react to survive. We've been looking at Oliver from Softlink and I'd appreciate it if anyone has feedback on the product or company. Cheers Steve
Steveduk Posted February 3, 2017 Posted February 3, 2017 We fixed this.. Delete the file %wherever its installed%\MLS.NET\bin\AD.Log Once this file grows things slow down so schedule a task to bin it every now and then!
mikkydoos Posted February 3, 2017 Posted February 3, 2017 Junior Librarian.net is a terrible product and their support stinks. I constantly have problems with it.
Steveduk Posted February 3, 2017 Posted February 3, 2017 Junior Librarian.net is a terrible product and their support stinks. I constantly have problems with it. We only use Eclipse now, JL was binned for the same reasons!
Anaconda Posted April 8, 2017 Posted April 8, 2017 @Duranis, there are a few free library software systems. I did offer to take a look as we only seem to have a single machine licence for JL but the person asking for a "sub library" never bothered to reply to my email, so I've no idea if any of them are any good. I have heard about some "free library software solutions" and I would not recommend this path to anyone looking for easy-to-use library management software. Typically, you would need to hire a computer expert to even install and set up the "free software". And free software typically doesn't offer any support.
simmotech Posted January 17, 2018 Posted January 17, 2018 I can't just open the mdb files with Access 2016, but I can't imagine that with the relevant version (+ the decryption key?) it's that difficult to do. For the price they charge, you'd think it involved someone sitting their entering everything manually. Does your Access database consist of 3 files - Library.mdb, Locks.mdb & Security.mdb? If so, I have a password cracker that works in less than a second.
simmotech Posted January 17, 2018 Posted January 17, 2018 Have you guys seen this thread: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educational-software/176611-library-systems-what-others-there-5.html Especially the screenshots and notes in the latest posts. I need more help speccing the system so that it will cover everything you and your librarians need.
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