Wouldn't this type of thing be binder specific and not ABLE specific,
though?

Mykie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mykie Howard
Serials Librarian
Morehead State University
Camden-Carroll Library
150 University Dr.
Morehead, KY  40351

my.howard@moreheadstate.edu
ph:606-783-5116
fax:606-783-5037

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Ham, Deb
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 10:13 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] LARS vs ABLE

We transitioned from LARS to ABLE about 2 years ago.

ABLE is nice and has some great features, like being able to transmit your
order online with one click, but it doesn't always WORK.

For example, when we installed a new firewall on our campus server this
fall, the link to the site stopped working. It took several months and our
local IT person to figure out how to put an exception into the security
program to allow the ABLE site through. At this point, I had to either skip
some bindery shipments during our busiest time of the year or do all of the
work in an old version of LARS. It was a mess to deal with -- especially
since the day before the bindery shipment went out, ABLE was working -- so I
had to put everything into ABLE. Not a fun prospect when you're dealing with
over a hundred pieces.

Also, we have a bindery shipment due this Friday and ABLE has been down for
the last 3 business days and our bindery doesn't know when it will be
accessible again.

We had LARS for quite a while, but it ALWAYS worked. The 5 years that I
worked with it, we never had any technical difficulties at all.

That said, ABLE looks very similar to LARS, and there are nice pull down
lists for every option when you're creating a title. The reports are also
"cleaner" looking if you have to use those.

However, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't. I realize that the LARS
update is now several years past due -- but if you have a computer that can
run it, I don't see many advantages to changing to ABLE.

Deb Ham
Library Specialist -- Serials
Reinert-Alumni Memorial Library
Creighton University
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68178