MCHENRY, IL – August 26, 2008 – One of the fastest-growing counties in Alabama has chosen Follett Software’s Destiny Textbook Manager to help it cope with a population that's expected to double within the next decade.
Baldwin County Public Schools, headquartered in Bay Minette, AL, serves a community that's growing so rapidly that it’s struggling to build schools fast enough. The district recently completed three new facilities and is building another six, all part of a $270 million capital improvement campaign.
With the pressures of rapid growth and continual student reassignments, the task of keeping schools stocked with textbooks had overwhelmed the district’s old management system, according to Textbook Specialist Sheila Geddie.
"We’re adding new sites each year, growing by leaps and bounds," Geddie said. "We needed to track textbooks to help control costs and enable us to transfer books from school to school rather than purchasing new textbooks every time someone needed one. We had a textbook program from another company, but it could not handle the variables, such as growth, that we needed to track.
And it wasn’t web based, so schools couldn’t use it. We needed web-based flexibility in order for everyone to get a handle on their textbooks," Geddie said.
To cope with district growth, Baldwin County switched to Destiny Textbook Manager, which it expects to have fully on line for the coming school year. The system installs at the district office and is accessed in the schools via any web-enabled computer. "We chose Destiny because of its flexibility, its site-based features, and the type of reports it generates," Geddie said. "We liked the ease of operation, and just fell in love with the whole package."
According to Geddie, Destiny will also help the district anticipate the needs of its continually changing community. "Our demographics change every year, and we need to provide for special programs for student subgroups," Geddie said. "Destiny Textbook Manager will enable us to forecast books for certain areas of the county. As new students register we can forecast our needs for the coming Fall and have those books in the schools and ready to go."
About Destiny Textbook Manager
Destiny Textbook Manager is an easy-to-use system that saves districts and schools time and money by giving them total control of their textbook inventory – anytime, anywhere. Using Destiny Textbook Manager, school or district staff quickly check textbooks in and out of inventory using a barcode scanner. Because the program is entirely web-based, books can be checked in or out at any scanner-equipped computer on the school’s network. Destiny Textbook Manager records the holder of the book and its condition at checkout, and updates condition information when the book is checked back in. Destiny creates a single textbook database for the district, allowing textbooks to be efficiently transferred between schools.
About Destiny Resource Management Solution
Destiny Textbook Manager is part of the award-winning Destiny Resource Management Solution, an integrated suite of browser-based applications that streamlines the control of instructional assets, allowing K-12 districts to devote more time and resources to student learning. The solution includes Destiny Library Manager, Destiny Textbook Manager, Destiny Media Manager and Destiny Asset Manager. Districts can choose to deploy the system in its entirety or select those modules that address top resource and information management priorities.
About Follett
Follett Software Company is the partner that over half of America’s school districts trust to help them manage everything from library resources and school assets to information for data-driven decision-making. Follett Software Company helps districts of all sizes track and use information and resources more efficiently so their dollars are best leveraged to help each and every student. Follett Software is a subsidiary of Follett Corporation – a $2.5 billion, privately-held company that provides products, services and solutions to the educational marketplace. Follett Corporation was founded in 1873 and has its headquarters in River Grove, Illinois.
