Date: Wed 05 June 2002 8:09 AM
From: Vicki A. Lukas (New Bedford Free Public Library)
<vlukas_at_sailsinc.org>
Subject: Re: Converting to Sirsi
Janet -
We went from Dynix to SIRSI in September 2000. We had
been using the Dynix acquisitions system since 1992. We
do not use SIRSI acquisitions for the following reasons:
1 - no on-line ordering - in spite of being told by the sales people
at the vendor demos we would be able to continue on-line ordering
the trainer had no idea - at first - of what we were asking for.
She assumed we were going to print out hard copy orders and
mail them. She called her office and was told we could FTP our
orders, but had no idea how this was to be done.
2 - the process of creating an order even for a single item was so
cumbersome that I could not justify forcing my half time
acquisitions person to create orders on-line, particularly
when he would have to still turn around and manually place all
of the orders through other means. It takes him less time
to order through the internet than to create the orders in
Workflows and then print out an order.
Sorry I can't be of help to you with your specific questions - I just
wanted to alert you to what we found. Perhaps your situation
is different. If I had more people I might have tried it, but
my department is small. I have 5 people total to
do all of the acquisitions, cataloging, and processing for a system
with an annual acquisitions budget of $300,000+. I am the only
professional in the department, and my duties also include
hardware maintenance for the branches. My staff and I are
also expected to work circulation and reference as needed and handle the
magazines for our main library. My half time acquisitions person
is in charge of all audio-visual cataloging and a-v hardware
maintenance.
We are very happy with cataloging, but deeply disappointed in the
Acquisitions product. I understand that the 2002 Workflows
release has on-line ordering - we will look at it again at that time.
I would be interested in hearing from you if you are brought up on
the version of Workflows that allows on-line ordering.
Good luck with your conversion!
Vicki A. Lukas
Head of Technical Services
New Bedford Free Public Library
New Bedford, MA
-------------Original Message-------------------
Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 1:09 PM
From: Janet Hofmeister (Kansas City Public Library)
<jhofme_at_kckpl.lib.ks.us>
Subject: Converting to SIRSI
Our library is converting from the Inlex system to SIRSI. I am
interested in hearing from any other libraries who have converted to
SIRSI from another system. What can I expect? What problems did
you encounter?
Our fiscal year will be in full operation for 3 months before we convert
to SIRSI. I am told that SIRSI will only transfer our vendor records
from the old system. How would you handle the 3 months interval
between the old system and SIRSI?
Any help will be appreciated.
--
Janet Hofmeister
Acquisitions Supervisor
Kansas City KS Public Library
625 Minnesota Ave
Kansas City KS 66101
Tel (913) 279-2346
Fax (913) 279-2033
Jhofme_at_kckpl.lib.ks.us
Received on Sat Jun 08 2002 - 10:04:35 EDT