I just researched and implemented a new circulation system for fifteen cruise ship libraries. The collections consist of approximately 2500-3K books and a couple hundred board games on each ship.
After vetting many programs and finding that most were too complex for our minimalist cataloging needs, I found one that offered great ease in importing Excel files to populate library records and more importantly borrower information. In addition, I was limited by the lack of internet access onboard and needed a dedicated solution on each ship.
Simple Library Organizer by PrimaSoft fit the bill and even better, when I started to ask questions about using custom metadata fields for borrower information like Stateroom Number and Departure Date, PrimaSoft simple added the fields and offered me a fully customized solution. This is one of the only library software products specifically for use on a cruise ship.
The lesson here? Why not ask for what you need? It was a similar experience to using an open source solution and custom coding. Now, I have a product that will work even better than the out of the box solution.
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