Taking a look at…COMPanion Corporation Alexandria

Presented by:

Nancy Garcia, Luis Mercado, Elizabeth Tanguma, and Meshullee Wallace Woods

The History Behind…COMPanion Corporation Alexandria

• The founder of COMPanion Corporation is Bill Schjelderup. He began offering library automation software in 1987. His goal was to provide user-friendly, state-of-the-art technology to meet the needs of librarians, technicians, and administrators.

• Alexandria is one of the biggest industry-leading products in the library automation market. It is offered throughout the United States and the world.

• The company is located in Salt Lake City, UT. The CEO of the company is Bill Schjelderup. COMPanion Corporation also lists Sandra Brown as Chairman.

• For nearly 28 years Alexandria has been automating school, public, college, church and special libraries.

TIMELINE

1987- COMPanion Corporation was

founded1997- Alexandria was released for Windows

2000- Eisenburg, Berkowitz and the Big-6 partner with Alexandria

2002- Everton Publishers, Inc. choose

Alexandria

2004- COMPanion releases Alexandria v5.44

rev D in March and Alexandria v5.4.4.1 in

October2010- COMPanion

releases Alexandria v6.03

2014 Alexandria Library Automation Software and

TABvue enhance partnership

Strengths Of The System

• It is specially designed for K-12 libraries

• The mobile app is compatible with iPhone, iPod and iPad

• Self-service kiosks allow patrons to perform their own book drop and checkout transactions, freeing librarians to take care of other library responsibilities.

• Alexandria provides several setup options so you may select the one that best fits your library's unique needs.

• With Alexandria’s item management interface- Title Assistant you can easily acquire MARC records. LONG VERSION( Title Assistant makes it easy for you to locate and obtain complete, rich, and up-to-standard MARC records by searching across hundreds of Z39.50 servers, or by specifying your own favorite sources.-maybe too long for bullet so use

Strengths Of The System (continued)

• Alexandria's free Cover Art utility brings your collection to life by displaying book jackets for items in your collection.

• It can perform a comprehensive analysis of your collection with Alexandria’s powerful Super Summary reports.

• Alexandria can automatically email overdue, hold fulfillment, and item renewal notices.

• With Alexandria, answers are always close at hand. A user can talk to somebody from support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, email our Technical Support Department directly from the program, or access our Online Help with a single click. 800.347.6439

Strengths Of The System (continued)

• Has all the same functions as Destiny and Atriuum in terms of modules in cataloging, circulation, textbook management, admin management, etc.

• It integrates with NetTrekker for additional resources for students.

• The library gets to choose from different server solutions such as cloud, multi-data station, distributed, or centralized catalog.

• The additional features that are offered enrich the students’ resources. They get book reviews, summaries, the cover art is displayed, it has some sound effects, and also has a few digital books available.

Weaknesses Of The System

• It does not have a discovery interface like the other programs. This means that the search function is still at the standard level and cannot produce more than the item(s) you searched for. With discovery interface programs, the search function is more flexible and allows the user to produce more resources from the keyword(s). For example, it could correct spelling errors for the user and also retrieve database articles and other “you might also like” this type of items.

• You must have Safari, Google Chrome, or Firefox to work the system efficiently. Explorer takes too long to load.

• Sometimes the book covers do not show on the list of results. It’s a great feature for the kids to see the cover art of each book, but it should work correctly for all titles.

So recommend it or not?

Alexandria has many great features but one that really stood out was that Alexandria has a mobile app and this one is available on iOS and Android, with a portable Bluetooth barcode reader you’re free to roam around the library and still circulate anywhere. The portability alone makes it a modern day marvel that can be appreciated by any user.

It is also a good system that would be beneficial to schools. It is very similar to Destiny and Atriuum, looks good, and all the extra features make it very marketable. Among these features are the reviews and being able to look up just Award Winners in the library collection. As this company partners up with other third parties the system will just keep getting better.

References

• About COMPanion Corporation. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://www.companioncorp.com/about/profile.html

• Alexandria Press Releases. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://www.goalexandria.com/about/press_releases/index.html

• Bilal, D., & Bilal, D. (n.d.). Structuring user requirements and selecting a system. In Library automation: Core concepts and practical systems analysis (Third ed., p. 279). Santa Barbara, California: Libraries Unlimited.

• Library Management - Library Software - Library Management Systems - Library Automation - Library Automation Software. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.goalexandria.com/solutions/index.html

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=18932

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=18931

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=6174

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=6517

References (continued)

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=9074

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=9972

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=10341

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=10825

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=11384

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=15472

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=16241

• Library Technology Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2015, from http://librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=18932