Advantages of a Centralized Catalog for School Media Centers

Kristy S. Patterson, Troup County Schools
Instructional technologist

Synopsis:

Gwinnett County’s 103 schools recently changed their library automation system to one that is 100% browser-based. This article describes some of the advantages (and disadvantages) of making such a change. Implications for a similar implementation in Troup County Schools are also discussed.

Mary Barbee, Coordinator of Media and Information Services for Gwinnett County Schools, shared her experiences and rationale for taking the “giant step” of changing her system’s 103 school media centers to a different library automation system. When the system was faced with the challenge of opening ten new schools a few years ago, they decided that it would be a good time to look into a system that would be 100% browser-based. (Some automation systems claimed to be browser-based, but still required a workstation setup. They wanted one that would require no “hands-on” work by their technicians.)

The disadvantages of such a widespread change are somewhat evident:

• There is a good deal of expense involved in the purchase of a brand new software product.
• Many people are somewhat resistant to change and would miss their old way of doing things.
• The media specialists would have to learn to use the new system.

These disadvantages were outweighed, however, by the many advantages of the new browser-based system. Some of these advantages are specific to their choice of software, but others could be applied to any centralized cataloging system. Those advantages include:

• the ability to access the online catalog from any computer (or handheld device) capable of interfacing with the Internet, either at school or at home.
• the capability of printing any page using the print option on the browser bar.
• the simplification of the process of installing upgrades and patches to the software.
• simplifying the need for technical support.
• improved data quality through the use of shared (centralized) MARC records.
• streamlining the process of cataloging records (i.e., they are done only once for the entire district).
• an increase in productivity and efficiency for the media specialists, since they no longer have to worry about importing and cleaning up MARC records.

Gwinnett County’s success in making a smooth transition to a centralized catalog system can prove to be a good example for others. Although Troup County is not considering changing our automation system, we are looking into the process of centralizing our records. The information that Mary shared should be very useful to us during this transition. Some questions that came up during the session prompted discussions on how equipment should be cataloged and how interlibrary loans could best be handled. (I subsequently emailed Mary, and she was kind enough to share her system’s Interlibrary Loan Guidelines with me.) The suggestions from the group, along with the information provided by Mary, should prove to be quite beneficial to our media specialists as we consider centralizing our automation system. I plan to share this information with them at our next systemwide media meeting so that they can make an informed decision about the process.

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