2. B Y : D A N N A C H U R C H ,
A L L I S O N C R A I G , K AT H Y
E V E T T S , L A U R A F U L L E R ,
& LY N D A G A R Z A
L S S L 5 3 9 6 C O M P U T E R S C I E N C E
A P P L I C AT I O N S TO L I B R A R I A N S H I P
3. A BRIEF HISTORY
The Follett Cooperation began in 1873 as a homebased used book store by
Charles M. Barnes in Wheaton, Illinois. Between 1873 and 1923, the
company was run by Charles, his son William, and William’s father-in-law
John Wilcox. The company moved to Chicago, Illinois, and developed into
a prominent book wholesaler.
C.W. Follett began as a stock clerk at C.M. Barnes & Company and began
to work his way up in the company becoming vice president and stock
holder of C.M. Barnes & Wilcox Co. in 1912, and finally taking over
management of C.W. Wilcox & Follett Co. in 1918. In 1924 after the
death of Wilcox, Follett & his wife purchased the company & his sons
joined the family business adding a publishing company, retail college
bookstores, and library book company over the next 2 decades.
In 1952, C.W. died, and his son continued his legacy. In 1957 the company
was given the name we still know it as today, Follett Corporation. Follett
Corporation is the world’s largest single source books, entertainment,
digital, and multimedia for libraries, schools, and retailers, and is highly
invested in a future in eCommerce.
4. FOLLETT STRENGTHS
• Convenient access through any web
browser and with free mobile apps.
• Easy-to-use circulation, cataloging,
inventory, and reporting capabilities.
• Destiny offers powerful district-wide
management functionality.
• Follett is available in both English and
Spanish.
• Connected to Titlewave book ordering
site.
5. • Destiny features new
arrivals and top ten books.
• Destiny offers powerful
district-wide management
functionality.
• Includes all standard
automation library
features.
6. • User friendly with simple
search features along with
abilities for advanced
searches.
• Includes technical support.
• Follett has launched Students’
Choice- a monthly list
developed by compiling
regularly generated
circulation statistics from
school libraries.
8. WEAKNESSES
• Although improved, eBooks
are slow.
• The interface is dated in
appearance.
• Assigns students to
English/reading teacher
automatically. This is
difficult to change for
schools that are not blocked
or with elective classes.
9. • No spell check or auto
complete for younger
users.
• Price: Extra cost for add-ons
like TitlePeek, Web-Path
Express, and Asset
Manager.
• Reports are difficult to
generate and require many
steps.
10. WHY WE RECOMMEND FOLLETT:
• Follett Library Management System is used by more K-12 school
districts than any other company. It has more than 60,000 customers.
• Destiny Discover allows access to students to all print and digital books
in the collection.
• All students can access Follett using any web browser and free mobile
apps.
11. CONVENIENCE
• Librarians are able to access the
system from home.
• For librarians, it offers ease of
use for all circulation needs, as
well as cataloging, inventory,
and reports.
• Getting help from Follett is easy.
There is a help button available
on their pages!
12. QUALITY CONTROL
• Follett does regular system updates. The last one was
completed in August of 2016.
13. PARTNERSHIPS
EBSCO
• Follett is in partnership with
EBSCO to add 600,000 ebooks
to the catalog of titles for
purchase.
OVERDRIVE &
MACKIN
• Other partners include
OverDrive and Mackin
Education Resources to provide
more ebooks to K-12 schools.
14. FOLLETT PROMOTES LITERACY
• Follett has launched Lightbox as
an interactive learning
application to help increase
student engagement and overall
literacy.
• Follett gives back to
communities. It was part of a
project that provided 17 million
books to New York City schools.
17. REFERENCES CONTINUED
• Comtex. (2016). Follett releases new updates of Destiny solution. Datamonitor.
Retrieved from
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15EEF6BF976BCDC8?p=WORLD
NEWS
• PR, N. (2013). “Follett software’s Destiny Library Manager plays key role in New York
City initiative to connect students to millions of books.” PR Newswire US, January 11.
Regional Business News, EBSCOhost (accessed November 17, 2016).
• School Libraries. (2016). American Libraries, 475, 38.
