Follett Unveils Major Updates to Market-Leading Destiny Solution

Offering an innovative Chrome extension and access to open education resources (OERs), as well as ushering in a dramatically refreshed user interface, Follett today announced one of its most significant updates ever to its Destiny product.

“We continue to invest in our market leading solution, and these updates are game changers for the marketplace,” said Nader Qaimari, President, Follett School Solutions. “For example, Destiny 14.0 becomes the first library system to support a Chrome extension that provides library resources right within Google search results, which will help customers bring library resources to teachers and students in new and innovative ways. It’s all about bringing the library resources to the students and teachers where they live.”

Students will now be presented with a ribbon of Destiny resources after they have started a search within Google, a benefit not lost on educators who have tested the new 14.0 release.

“We are excited about the new Destiny Chrome Extension because we now have a connection between our libraries and Google,” said Suzy Ferrell, Director of Library Media Services, Clear Creek (Texas) Independent School District. “Google has become a routine part of search strategies and while it has many great features, we never want our patrons to forget about the resources we have in our libraries. The Chrome extension helps remind our patrons that in addition to Google results, our libraries have a variety of excellent resources available to them.”

Destiny’s support for OERs is an extension of Follett’s ongoing commitment to the U.S. Department of Education’s #GoOpen campaign, which supports educators who are transitioning to the use of free, open and safe content in their schools. Destiny 14.0 will introduce searching and access to OERs from the Learning Registry, a shared repository of learning resources, all designed to help future-ready librarians curate and guide teachers where to find the best content and use it effectively.

“Librarians have always been in a position to curate content for teachers to use to support classroom needs,” Qaimari said. “This addition of OERs in Destiny will help to support the librarian-teacher collaboration in a new way.”

Additional features of Destiny 14.0 include:

• Refreshed look. In the wake of extensive research with customers, Follett has introduced a dramatically refreshed look and feel for both Destiny Library Manager and Destiny Resource Manager. “We have focused on modernizing the user interface in a way that is very easy for our customers to transition to – everything is still in the place where customers will expect it to be,” Qaimari said.
• Follett has consolidated its previous Library Manager search/discovery and digital content user interfaces and mobile apps (including Follett Shelf, Universal Search and BryteWave) into one simple solution, Destiny Discover.
• Integration with Baker & Taylor Axis 360. In the wake of Follett’s April acquisition of Baker & Taylor (B&T) – the leading distributor of books, video and music products to public libraries and institutions – Destiny users can now access B&T content without another login.
• Improvements to Destiny Resource Manager. Follett’s solution for managing all K-12 learning resources has added capabilities to better manage expensive resources such as iPad carts, and provide enhanced support for district warehouse operations.

Further, and for the first time, the new Destiny release supports integration with OneRoster – the IMSGlobal standard for loading in student rosters and class schedules.

“This is a big deal as the OneRoster implementation ensures that teachers and students have reliable access to the print and digital assets cataloged within the application,” said Rob Stratton, Coordinator for Instructional Materials, Media and Instructional Technology for Lee County School District in Fort Meyers, Fla., and a Destiny customer. “OneRoster streamlines the roster data integration for districts by providing the same file sets for everyone, and helps ensures that applications are up and ready on day one!”

In a separate news release later this week, Follett will announce details how the Destiny 14.0 release also will support single sign-on integration with leading LMS platforms and LTI standards.

To fully introduce Destiny 14.0, Follett is hosting a free webinar at 2 p.m. CDT Tuesday, Aug. 23. For more information, and to register, visit this link.

For more information about Follett Destiny, visit FollettLearning.com/library-manager. For more information about Follett, visit FollettLearning.com.