5 Features I LOVE About The NEW Destiny Version 21.0!

I am so excited about the NEW Destiny Version 21.0! 

The new Destiny version is loaded with so many amazing updates and new additions.  We are having a great time getting to know it in our library and today, I want to share 5 features I LOVE about the NEW Destiny Version 21.1 with all of you. 

1. To start, users can now easily access all areas of Destiny from the new waffle menu in the top-right corner. 

When you click on the waffle menu, the drop down menu features all of these different choices shown above and let's you easily go back and forth between them from the waffle menu.  It remembers where you left off which makes it so handy to do all of the tasks we do as librarians. 

For example, you can be working in Destiny Back Office and a student can come up to the circulation desk asking for help finding books about animals.  You can go to Destiny Discover to help the student, and then go back to what you were working on in Back Office. 

2.  There is a NEW district-level and site-level Library Dashboard. You can see it circled in the image above. 

I love this new addition so much as it gives us access to useful and exciting library and resource usage data. 

You can look at the date in special time frames and by grade levels. 

When I look at my Dashboard, I can get a snapshot of Active Highlights such as Checkouts, Holds, Books Checked-in Today, Copies Added, and more. 

And I just love the Reporting features shown including Library Circulations, Most Popular Titles and Series, and Library Circulations down to the Sublocations. 

Your Library Dashboard can be customized, and the Reporting features can even be moved on the Dashboard. 

3. And guess what?  

Within the new site-level Dashboard, there is a place to that even recommends books for your library! 

At the bottom of the Customize your Library Dashboard page, you can enable Show book recommendations for your library. 

This will then show you Top Picks, New Series, and Complete Your Series categories. These are customized book recommendations based on best sellers, your school's interests, and your library collection. 

I love that these will fit the needs and interests of our readers. 

4.  From the Recommendations for your Library widget, I can also click on the choice and it will take me right into…

....our Titlewave, where I can build lists and order books.  

This is such an amazing collection development tool. It will not only save me time, but will help me build a collection for our readers wants and needs.  

I can also get to Titlewave from the waffle menu too. 

5. I also want to point out how awesome it is to have the Most Popular Titles and Series widget on the Dashboard.  

This gives us a glimpse into what our students are checking out and will also help us as we add and highlight more of these titles and series in our library. 

We are going to have lots of fun with this information, as it will be at our fingertips every day. 

As you can see, there are so many features to love about the NEW Destiny Version 21.0.  This is just the start, and I will be sharing more as we work on collection analysis, weeding and collection development during the last few weeks of school in our library. 

To find out more, you can go to Follett Community to What's New with Destiny 21.0 here.

I know you will love all of the updates too!  
 

Shannon McClintock Miller
Innovation Director of Instructional Technology and Library Media
Van Meter Community School
Van Meter, Iowa

Shannon McClintock Miller is the Innovation Director of Instructional Technology and Library Media at Van Meter Community School in Van Meter, Iowa. She is also the Future Ready Librarians Spokesperson working with librarians, educators and students around the world every day as an international speaker, consultant and author who has a passion for education, librarianship, advocacy, technology, social media and making a difference in the world and lives of others, especially children. Shannon brings a special expertise and vision to conversations around school libraries, education, technology, creativity and student voice. Learn more about Shannon on her award-winning blog, The Library Voice. Follow her on Twitter @shannonmmiller.