Transcript
SARAH:
I think how much you decide to spend on your library management system very much depends on the type of school you're working in. And it also depends on how you think it's going to be used. It might just be something that's for the library. But it might be something that actually has a wider remit, and other parts of the school might use it too-- for example, for textbook management. This all affects how much you're going to invest.
Generally, the more expensive a library management system is, the more functionality it's going to have. And you might decide that you want a system that's going to search across databases or allow students to search by a picture or an image rather than using words. You might be looking for it to create reading lists. And if you've got a sixth form, maybe you want that library management system to create bibliographies and citations for your students.
Some library management systems allow you to have multiple landing pages dashboards. And that's great, because you can actually advertise different things to different groups of borrowers. For example, you might have one for younger students, one for older students, or you might have one for the staff.
And other ones will actually incorporate things like videos of authors talking. And you could upload maybe a PDF, not just of articles, but one of the things I found really useful was to upload exemplar work. I’d get the teachers to give me an example, make it into a PDF, load it up, and then students had a model that they could work from for their project.
Some library management systems, once someone's logged in, will give them a private space. And here, they'll be able to compile a wish list or write a review about the books that they've written.
Another really great feature of some library management systems is that they can link to the school management system. And then-- I mean, in the old days, you'd have to manually update all your borrowers every time they moved up a year. No longer. Most of these systems now will do that automatically.
Some allow you to put up borrower photographs. And again, that's great. If you're doing issuing and you've got no idea who some of the people are in the class, you can just look at their photographs. But other people prefer to use maybe fingerprint recognition or an ID card.
If you're brave, or perhaps because you're not in the library all the time, you could set up a self-issuing kiosk. And you might allow students to make their own renewals or reservations as well.
Now, some systems allow you to make quite advanced reports. And these reports might include looking at how many people have tapped into a particular database or a particular reading list. And this is really useful for staff as well.
Certainly, I remember one member of staff who had set her class the objective of reading at least three books on a reading list for over the next-- they had to select something over the next three days. And she was able to actually look at the report and find out how many hits had been made on the reading list we'd collaborated on and set up together.