This MacNews Category Review looks at library management software for the Mac. Products covered include Access-It, Alexandria, Alternative Library, Athnaeum, BiblioMaker, Biblio-Tech, BookCase, Bookends, Bookshow, Booxter, Catalog Plus, Collection Keeper, Concerto, Daneismos, Delicious Library, Elica and EndNote.

Access-It

Access-It is a Web-enabled, networkable library system designed for schools. It features full authority files and a wide range of statistical reports. Access-It generates its own barcodes and includes the facility for e-mailing overdue notices.

Alexandria

Alexandria offers built-in library, Web and e-mail servers. The library automation software is used in thousands of libraries worldwide including the Houston Independent School District, Philadelphia Public Schools, and the Berkeley Unified School District.

Alexandria's integrated servers allow users to instantly access on-line and network tools without having to configure a server. Alexandria 5's client/server technology also gives librarians faster network speed by eliminating filesharing.

On-line features give Alexandria users the ability to receive instant on-line upgrades, without having to visit COMPanion's Web-site or wait for the upgrade to arrive in the mail. Updates and upgrades are easy to load and keep librarians current on versions that make it easier to use and support, according to the folks at COMPanion.

The company says that Alexandria is the first and only library automation solution that's Mac OS X native. "Alexandria users running on Mac OS X will enjoy its ground breaking enhancements including Aqua interface, a robust protected memory architecture, preemptive multi-tasking, and faster standards-based networking," COMPanion reps say. "Alexandria is 100 percent cross-platform for both client and server. Many library automation programs have a cross-platform interface but require the server to be on a Windows platform."

Alternative Library

Alternative Library is a library package that handles circulation, borrower information and statistical analysis of loans. It retrieves item descriptions from ASCIC and connects to Alternative Office, OASIS and other similar systems. There's no Mac OS X native version; the software works with Mac OS 7.1-9.x.

Athenaeum

Sumware Consulting of New Zealand produces three library packages that are produced on Macs, but which are cross platform. The company began producing library packages in 1993. The Athenaeum family of products consists of Athenaeum Light, Athenaeum Express and Athenaeum Pro. The products are aimed mainly at schools, but are also used in church groups, law firms and small businesses managing loan equipment.

Athenaeum Light is the entry level product. Athenaeum Express is Sumware's middle product, building on Athenaeum Light, with some of the most commonly requested features and revamping the interface. It's a full-featured, low cost library management package that lets you manage catalogs, borrowers, circulation and analyze borrowing histories. Borrowers each have their own borrowing and reserve privileges and Catalogue items can be marked not for issue, archived (and returned later if necessary).

Athenaeum Express will track your purchasing, including donations and depreciations, reservations, and overdue items. You can perform easy or complex searches (including multiple, stacked boolean requests). Reporting options allow you to create "culling" lists (by searching for books that have been checked out a user-specified number of times); analyze circulation statistics by catalogue item, borrowers, gender, rooms, or specific years (usually in detailed or summary version). You can also create overdue notices, bar codes (requires a bar code font), or inventory values for insurance or budgetary purposes on any part or all the catalogue.

Athenaeum Pro offers greater flexibility in configuration of borrower privileges, FlexiSpell assisting users with spelling difficulties locating library resources, control of issues at either borrower or catalogue item level, special management of library and "teacher" resources, with optional separate financial analysis of these two parts of the library; more reporting options; special options for handling "collections" of items when issuing, returning and stock taking; faster handling of items when disposing; additional options during the issue process, such as search for borrowers by name, manual override of issue durations; a special "GO" mode for fast issuing of many resources to a single borrowers and the ability for library administrators to override declined loans due to insufficient borrower privilege. Athenaeum Pro includes Sumware's separate utility for processing USMarc records, a standard format for sharing library catalogue data. A 90-day trial version is available.

BiblioMaker

BiblioMaker is a professional library management system, folllowing the international ISBD norms. It was developed for the Mac OS by Micro Consulting, a company founded in 1987 in Switzerland. It's the number one library management system in Switzerland and is also distributed throughout Europe. The software is available in English, French and German. 


Biblio-Tech

Biblio-Tech is a documentation resource center and libraries management system. It has a single-user or client-server architecture with desktop tools and integrated Web server. Biblio-Tech runs under Mac OS 8.6-9.x.

BookCase

BookCase organizes and tracks book collections of any kind and size. Features include the ability to track books using dozens of fields; the ability to view a list of your books by categories; exporting of book information in plain text, HTML or biliography format; the ability to cross-reference your books with the "Library" feature; book searching capabilities; and, of course, the capability to print information on your books. BookCase works with Mac OS X and Mac OS 7.x-9.x.

Bookends

Bookends is a Mac-only reference management/bibliography generation application. It’s not intended for general libraries (i.e. keeping track of books checked out, etc.), but is useful for managing your own collection of books, journals, etc., not to mention importing references from the Web, attaching documents to any reference, formatting papers for publication with automatic generation of bibliographies, and more.

Basically, Bookends Plus is a database for managing references. It of course has the standard storage and retrieval capabilities (such as Boolean searches). With it you can "process" manuscripts so that reference citations appear as desired (numbered, superscripted, author-data, etc.) and a fully formatted bibliography of the cited references, in almost any style, is generated.

Bookends also lets you import reference information from hundreds of on-line sources, bookmark Web sites so that you can go to them directly from Bookends (via your browser), "attach" any kind of document (PDF files, graphics, even a QuikcTime video) for display from within Bookends or, if it can't, for automatic opening in an app that can do so. Bookends even has a built-in CGI so that you can "publish" searchable bibliographies on the Web that can even be added to or edited by someone on a remote platform (Mac or otherwise).

Bookshow

Bookshow is a multi-user legal library management package that integrates with Findlaw. It sports automatic inclusion of bibliographic details plus a summary of the text.

Booxter

Booxter is an application that helps you manage your book collection. It gathers book information from various sources on the internet to allow you to view, edit, sort, categorize, export, and print books in your collection. It's compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 and higher.

Catalog Plus

Catalog Plus from Follet ables library patrons to search by title, author, subject, call number, series, keyword, category and more. They can search and access electronic books through your OPAC.

Follet also makes Circulation Plus, which lets users automate manual tasks such as check-in/check-out, fine calculations, overdue notices, holds, renewals, inventory and more. Both products are compatible with Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.x.

Collection Keeper

Collection Keeper keeps track of what's in your collection, including all costs and expenses, sell price, market prices, library of pictures, reports and printable labels; create unlimited types and categories for organizing collections.

Concerto

Concerto is a Mac OS X professional software package for schools of music and art. It features the comprehensive management of teachers' and library resources, accounting, stock control, contacts, correspondence, user accounts and more. Both standalone and client/server versions are available.

Daneismos

Daneismos is Mac OS X compatible library management software that works with any SQL Database (mySQL recommended).

Delicious Library

Delicious Library's digital shelves act as a visual card-catalog of your books, movies, music and video games. With the scan of a barcode Delicious Library adds an item to your digital shelves, downloading tons of info from the internet like the author, release date, current value, description, and even a high-resolution picture of the cover. You can import an ntire library using the iSight video barcode scanner, the Flic Wireless Laser Bar Code Scanner, or entering the titles by hand. Delicious Monster works with Mac OS X 10.3 and higher.

Elica

Elica can be used for library management (memberships, loans, etc.) or for managing digital business documents. It can be accessed via Internet/LAN.

EndNote

EndNote is a Mac-first bibliographic database program. It's bibliographic management software used by researchers, librarians and students worldwide. Its features include the ability to search online bibliographic databases, organize references and images, and create instant bibliographies. EndNote 8 offers Unicode support for any language, unlimited library size, new reference types and fields, and Microsoft Word compatibility.

EndNote implements support for the Unicode standard, providing users with a solution for processing and displaying multi-lingual text. Since Unicode covers all principal languages; with EndNote researchers and students can cite references and create bibliographies for their papers in the languages of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Rim.