Advantages and disadvantages of Destiny Follette

¶ … Follett's Destiny should be the 'destiny' of our library's future search system

Follett's Destiny automation service is one of the most effective and exciting library search databases on the market today. Our library must move forward into the 21st century, and further its mission to excite the next generation of readers about the resources of the library system. Creating a computer-literate library that fully deploys the resources of the World Wide Web in finding information is an essential component of its task.

Because Destiny is a web-based system, students and teachers can access the resources of the library from a home computer. They can check to see if a book is available without even leaving the confines of their home because Destiny can be used from any Internet-connected computer. Patrons can also check their own, personal accounts, to see if they have books that are about to become overdue. Destiny brings the library into the home of the student. It also expands the student's horizons in the school library, as it allows the student to search the collections of other elementary schools, from which the student can borrow books through interlibrary loans.

Destiny is very user-friendly for students, even young children. It appeals to visual as well as verbal learners because the book cover is pictured in the search list. Selecting the book title displays practical information, such as the copies of the book available in all the elementary schools and other helpful information for student research such as a description of the book and the book's reading level.

Destiny makes the research process less intimidating. Searching Destiny is a learning experience for the student, as well as an important step in the research process. Selecting the book cover image offers links to web pages and online reviews. This provides students with an important 'jumping off' point in their research. Destiny allows the user to make a booklist of book selections, so he or she can more easily keep track of his or her growing list of research-related titles. Destiny even creates a bibliography from a booklist with a touch of one button, showing the young web searcher the format of a typical bibliography at a very young age. Normally students do not become familiar with bibliographic formats until middle school -- now even elementary school children can see what a bibliography looks like by using Destiny.

One of the concerns about students using the Internet as part of the research process is that they may stumble upon age-inappropriate materials. However, through Destiny, students can use its Web Express feature once they select a book. This "connects the reader to pre-selected, teacher-approved, grade-leveled Web pages that correspond to the subject of the book that the reader selected" ("Destiny," Greenwich Public Schools, 2010). Destiny also provides the searcher with suggestions of other topics for research related to the book, which makes it an excellent jumping-off point for preliminary research and open-ended research papers.

Destiny is relatively easy to install and to operate. "Both on-site and web-based training and our technical support are available by toll-free telephone, email and the web" for librarians (Destiny, Follet Software, p.8). Destiny offers centralized check-out, fine, and reporting services for entire school districts. This can be very useful in streamlining procedures and bureaucracy for large school districts, and creates continuity in the student's library experiences from elementary to middle to high school. The Destiny platform supports Library Manager for the district's textbook and media collection: this is yet another way in which Destiny brings the library into the classroom and the classroom into the library.