Follett update

Follett sponsored a  lunch for school librarians at the AASL conference and provided an interesting update on their world.  Since the majority of school libraries (including mine) use Follett, it seems worth sharing what they're up to, including:

• Follett has caught on that we're all genrefying our collections and is in the process of creating a support system to provide help with cataloging, icons for book spines and signage, signage, etc.  They are currently conducting a national survey of school librarians (you may have received their link) and look for more to come soon.  
• Follett also has a $200K Challenge that very few school librarians apply for.  They are seeking librarians to share stories of how their school library impacts their school positively, and there is serious money up for grabs.  Read about this here.
• They also shared a new product called Light Box, which is a sort of extreme e-book with embedded links, videos, etc.  It was fairly impressive and a good value at $40 for a school subscription for multiple users:  http://school.follett.com/lightbox
• They are redesigning the interface for their Destiny circulation software.  They plan to integrate with Overdrive, Mackin and to provide lessons related to content.  They plan to launch this over the summer of 2016.
• They discussed parent access to their children's library records--causing some unhappy murmurs at my table--this is something to watch forl
• They also are now collecting data from Destiny checkouts across the US each month and publishing a list of the top 10 (and top 50) books checked out by students each month.  I checked it out and cannot say it differed wildly from the top 10 books checked out in my school.