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We are a Christian non-profit PreK-6th grade school. We currently are just re-inputting the 6000+ books in our library after previous software we had used crashed. Since the company did not exist, we searched for a cost effective solution that would be easy to use.
We're not done yet; We are close to 6000 already with more to add. I think we'll be under 7500 total books.
Why have you decided to use our software (price?, easy-to-use?, features?): All of the above, plus the fact that we can input or scan the ISBN and have all the book information automatically entered, saving us a ton of time. In addition, we could reuse existing student and book barcodes, while adding new ones seamlessly when we needed to. Printing barcode labels is very easy and straightforward as well. Inputting students and Checking in and out the books works without a hitch, even with some of our "dated" scanners.
Who is checking items out/in: Teachers and volunteers will check in and out the books for the students.
Who is in charge of running the software: As principal and an avid computer user, I acquired and set up the database. We have had many volunteers working on adding the books. Other than traditional oversight, the software is intuitive enough that "someone in charge" is not generally needed for daily usage.
What are some of the features you would like to see: I have only used with I know, so it may already be able to do some of this. The database resides on a single computer, so being able to backup to the cloud would be beneficial. Also being able to log in and manage from a different computer (when new student user interfaces are required) would be nice too.
On a scale 0-5, how do you value our services and Handy Library product: So far, I am very pleased with this product. At this point, I would rate it 5/5
David N. G., Principal
Maple Valley Elementary Rainier Christian School
We have been using School Library Organizer Pro at
Talitha Kumi School for about 3 years to keep track
of the school books. Talitha Kumi is a secondary
Christian German school serving the Palestinian
students in the West Bank. It receives support from
Berlin Mission Work in Germany, church and through
fund raising to keep the school running. The software
is user friendly with very good functionality and
very stable. It is also affordable compared to other
library software. The items being tracked in the software
are mainly the school books, periodicals and borrowed
items. The librarians are looking after checking items
out/in. The library is fairly small. Currently there was
a need for recording books with Arabic titles for a small
community college (with about 75 students) which is part
of the school. This is why we needed the Handy Library
Software. The librarians at the school library and the
secretary at the community college use application roughly
about twice a week. We keep backups of the database on
regular basis. The good thing about the software is that
the database is easy to maintain.
Talitha Kumi School, Nader
We're a small private bilingual school in Chihuahua, Mexico. Our students have a variety of books to choose from. We have books in multiply languages, German, Spanish and English books, also a smaller collection of Audio books.
We love your software because its easy to manage our library items! We're very happy with it! Especially with the new update. (Handy Library Manager) Our students mostly read German. The majority loves to read. They get the opportunity to borrow 3 books per week!
Our librarian, Mary has been in charge of our library for the past 5 years!
She's the one who's been running the software from the start...
We're very happy how our library is organized and how it runs with your software!
Librarian: Escuela La Esperanza
Thank you SOOOOOOOO much this is incredible!!
I am so impressed with the responsiveness and quick turnaround of this company!
You guys rock! Can I request one more adjustment? I would like to make it so
that in the Check-Out feature, kids can ONLY check out a book by scanning
their library card...NOT by using the borrower "lookup" tab? would it be possible
to disable or hide that tab so that kids can't sneakily check books out to anyone
other than themselves? that would make this program basically perfect!
I am a middle school teacher running a small middle school library.
I am often not available to check books out for students since I also
teach. So students need to be able to easily check books out
independently.
When I look at the check out/check in tabs, on the left
hand side there is a button that says "return all". But I don't want
a kid to click "return" without actually having returned the
books...this is why I have volunteer librarians handle all book
returns. Is there a way to disable this feature so that kids cant
pretend to return a book while actually keeping it?
Health Educator & Literacy Interventionist
Berkley Maynard Academy: An Aspire Public School
We run an after school supplemental learning program.
We are starting a small library
of books for our students. We have a little over 400 books
(around 250 unique books)
that are being managed by this library. When I investigated
library software offered on the web, I found that they are mostly
difficult to use. I first tried the Small Library Organizer Pro,
and it has pretty much all the features that we need. The price is
reasonable. But after communicating with a support team, I found that
the Handy Library Manager is a newer program. So we adopted it.
When I evaluated these two programs, I found that able to lookup
(and download) the book information from Amazon (or Library of Congress)
by just scanning the UPC barcode, is a great time-saver. Students will
check items in and out. The software will be used by one of our
assistants, a couple of days a week.
Chesterfield Kumon Center, Kam Chan
My organisation is a statutory body that is the regulator for higher education in Fiji. Your library automation software is
affordable and user-friendly, so we are government funded. Most of the local IT companies don't have
similar types of software that is readily available, thus customisation will cost thousands of dollars.
I have just had a brief look through the content of the features, and I must say that it is very appealing.
Frentina A.
Fiji Higher Education Commission
I want to create bar codes for the books in our collection and for the borrowers. I am new to this area and need help with this task. We are a small Catholic school with about 300 students and 20 staff members. Our book collection is about 4000 books and about 500 pieces of resource materials that the teaches borrow for classroom use.
My principal is open to the idea of purchasing the Handy Library Manager,
the price is right and I think the system is straightforward.
L/D Catholic School, Sister K.
HOTEL SCHOOL RIGA College
We use software in a private college. We organize books, CDs, journals. At present we plan organize
about 12000 items. Librarian is responsible for checking in/out process and she is in charge of running
the software as well. We decided to use your software because of affordable price.
HOTEL SCHOOL librarian
We are a small, all-boy high school with about 250 students. We are using
your software in a library that consists of approximately 10,000 books.
Both students and faculty check out books from this library. We have a
librarian with student assistants who check items in and out and run the
software on a daily basis. We also have an undergraduate and graduate
program that utilize works in other languages, your new software supports
Unicode, which will enable to use it with some of our other libraries that
contain texts in other languages. (approximately 20,000 audio recordings
and 50,000 religious works in other languages). The audio recordings are
checked out but the religious works are for in house use only. We have been
using book organizer deluxe for several years and have enjoyed it
organizational and tracking qualities; we're looking to upgrade to simplify
the check in/check out process.
David Cynamon
Israel Henry Beren High School/Ner Israel Rabbinical College
The library we have is part of a non-profit school run in Rwanda, East Africa. We have students from 3 years old through 10th grade and will add another level each year until we have through 12th grade. Our library is organized in 3 sections, Lower level, Junior and Senior. Currently, we only use the software for books.
Our lower level section will eventually reach 10,000 books while the junior and senior sections will probably be no larger than 5,000 each. The teacher responsible for the class is the one who checks the books in and out.
I decided to upgrade to Handy Library Manager because of several reasons. We had been using an earlier version of your project before and it worked well. Other packages I looked at were more difficult to manage. Also, the support provided is excellent. Thank you! I am the manager of the software.
One feature which would be nice to see is an easier way to set up the default barcode structure. I know I’ve seen it before but finding it is a real chore!
I would rate the software at a 4 out of 5 as perfection is pretty tough to find!
Michael Koch
In a scale of 0-5, I would give the company a 5!
Handy Library Manager is used primarily to catalog Christian based books, periodicals, and pamphlets. Library also catalogs a small number of general education and Philippine books. The maximum number of materials they can hold in their library is around 20,000. Library currently has about 13,000 items now.
I decided to go with Primasoft Software because of the price and after scoping out the product decided it was user friendly. The staff at Primasoft had been very helpful from the start and continue to be so. The librarian, Beverly Najchoom, and her library aides are checking the books in and out for students. Beverly also runs the software program.
I needed to bring ACU a lot more bar code labels this spring, so I contacted Primasoft explaining my situation. Primasoft proceeded to get 3,000 labels all ready on pdfs for me and posted it on the web. I was able to easily access them and print them all up on my laser printer. I am so grateful for that! It saved me a lot of money not having to order them from a printing company.
Kathleen W. Eiring, CEO
Zgouvas, Eiring & Associates
Library type: School (preK-12)
Library items (books, equipment, movies, cds, toys, ... ): So far just books
Maximum number of items you plan to manage: We have about 5000 right now with little space to expand, so no more than 6000.
Why you decided to use our software: While the price was very attractive, the main reason I picked your software is because of the level of control I had over details and the ease of use.
Who is checking items out/in (students?, teachers?, members?, volunteers?, professional librarian?): Once I enter all the books into the catalogue, students, teachers, and volunteer librarians will check out books.
Who is in charge of running the software (volunteer, librarian, is it on daily or casual basis, ...): I am a volunteer librarian and am the one running the software. I currently run it on a daily basis. Once we’re up and running other volunteer librarians will also run it on occasion.
What are some of the features you would like to see: I would like the search function to be able to search on more than two attributes.
In the scale 0-5, how do you value our services and Handy Library product: 5
Librarian, Amanda Hyatt
Library type: It's a school for children from 0-5 years old
Library items: Just books for now
What is the maximum number of items you plan to manage: Not sure, I believe we have about 1200 or so currently
Why have you decided to use our software (price?, easy-to-use?, features?): Two reasons: Price and ease of use (short learning curve)
Who is in charge of running the software: An employee of the school
Who is checking items out/in: Teachers and other personnel check them out for the children
What are some of the features you would like to see: Hard to say
On a scale 0-5, how do you value our services and Handy Library product: 5 - your documentation and support are good, too!
James A. L.
Systems Analyst I
CAP Tulsa
library type: The library is a small school library at a Juvenile Corrections Facility
library items: I actually track Books and Movies
why you decided to use our software: It is very easy to use, affordable, and just right for the size of libraries, both media and books, that we have.
who is checking items out/in: The books are checked in and out and maintained by a Supervisor, due to the nature of the facility.
who is in charge of running the software: The supervisor also runs the software.
what are some of the features you would like to see: I would like to see images for the movies come up when the ASIN number is entered. I don't have time to upload images for the movies.
in the scale 0-5, how do you value our services and Handy Library product: 5
Wendy Kingsley, BSED
SPECIAL EDUCATION SUPERVISOR
Abraxas Academy
Library type: Catholic School
Items: books
Library: I try to input at least 30 books at a time. We've been using your software, but was updated and I am still learning the new updates. Students are the ones checking out books I am a part time Librarian and really enjoy working on inputing books, is just all new and need to do it more often to get it.
I rate the help a 5/5, always there to help me.
Librarian, Hannah L.Library type: Small Private Career College
Items: books related to courses and encyclopedias
I am currently using and testing out the trial version of Handy Library Manager,
and I am finding it super easy to use so far. However, I was thinking to myself –
“It can’t be this easy”, but the How-To sections really help. Thanks for all your
support on this.
S.G., Librarian
Toronto School of Management
Comment: I am impressed with the simplicity and power of this software and the availability of training materials.