Library Technology Guides

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Statistical Report for OPALS

5 Responses for OPALS in 2008

3 Responses for OPALS in 2007

2022 : gen: 8.87 company 8.85 loyalty 8.71 support 8.77

2021 : gen: 8.85 company 8.79 loyalty 8.71 support 8.76

2020 : gen: 8.83 company 8.82 loyalty 8.73 support 8.78

2019 : gen: 8.78 company 8.80 loyalty 8.64 support 8.74

2018 : gen: 8.92 company 8.93 loyalty 8.78 support 8.91

2017 : gen: 8.85 company 8.88 loyalty 8.74 support 8.85

2016 : gen: 8.59 company 8.58 loyalty 8.52 support 8.63

2015 : gen: 8.58 company 8.69 loyalty 8.55 support 8.69

2014 : gen: 8.48 company 8.66 loyalty 8.54 support 8.66

2013 : gen: 8.70 company 8.81 loyalty 8.75 support 8.79

2012 : gen: 8.63 company 8.76 loyalty 8.72 support 8.70

2011 : gen: 8.20 company 8.45 loyalty 8.46 support 8.35

2010 : gen: 8.43 company 8.63 loyalty 8.71 support 8.76

2009 : gen: 7.67 company 7.93 loyalty 8.00 support 8.12

Comments

Vendor has just (October 2014) implemented a union catalog for its congregational library customers. This is a feature requested by these customers and includes only those libraries that specifically requested to be union catalog members. We are very excited by this development, and impressed by OPALS - MediaFlex's willingness to implement this feature for a relatively small customer group. (Type: Church)

I don't know what a "discovery interface" is. (Type: School)

OPALS is a wonderful library automation system. The support from Media Flex is unbeatable. The company takes all input from the end users for all updates which enhances their software continuously. Due to their tech support and easy to use software, we have purchased other automation for the library to use. (Type: Consortium)

We are very satisfied with OPALS. Meets our needs and the price is right! (Type: School)

Very inexpensive for capabilities received. Graduated fees make automating feasible for small nonprofits with limited budgets. Flexibility for designing and customizing layout and content of OPAC Home Page is a plus for libraries without access to their own separate website. Keyword searching overcomes many issues created from by bibliographic records transferred from non-MARC databases, as well as records entered by people with limited understanding of standard library cataloging. Excellent customer support & rapid response to questions. Did not answer question above about whether customer support has gotten better or worse in past year. It has been excellent for as long as we've used the system (over 5 years). Most support is provided by email, with screen images often supplied to illustrate the the responses. (Type: Church)

Customer service is extraordinary and the company continually upgrades its product in response to customer concerns and ideas. We look forward to greater improvement. (Type: School)

At the moment, we do not subscribe to any electronic resources, therefore I left that answer blank. (Type: Academic)

OPALs takes a bit of navigating, and is definitely optimized for k-12 school situations, but it does what it is supposed to do, comes with excellent service from bibliofiche, and is low cost. (Type: Public)

We love OPALS (Type: School)

I am an enthusiastic OPALS user. Customer service is unsurpassed in any field, much less among library services. It is affordable and features an intuitive user interface. Centralization of library services (to Destiny)has been discussed at the supervisory union level, but I would resist a move on the basis of the advantages of OPALS I have mentioned. (Type: School)

OPALS is an excellent open-source ILS, and the staff is accessible and easy to work with. The online catalog provides lots of neat features for users and staff. I do hope that OPALS expands features for user accounts and provides more customization for libraries in future releases. (Type: Church)

OPALS is an excellent company to work with. Their customer support services are the best this library has ever experienced. (Type: Academic)

My only complaint is that I had the ability to add unlimited items to my bibliographic pathfinders when we first used the OPALS system and a restriction of 50 items was superimposed subsequently. As large, long, projects may use any number of interdisciplinary resources, it is a pain to create multiple pathfinders for a project. Other than this, I am well pleased. (Type: School)

OPALS works well enough. The company is very responsive to suggestions and feedback. They have given us good training and helpful updates. It's just a big system that tries to include the needs of many types of libraries, which can make it cumbersome. (Type: School)

[...] (Type: Consortium)

Very satisfied with the functionality for the price we paid and the relatively inexpensive annual maintenance. (Type: Special)

We are just in the process of switching systems so we do not have any information regarding any changes which have taken place in the company/system over the last year. The customer service has been excellent! (Type: Public)

We are still in the process of automating and are not up and running yet. The Opals customer service has been very good. I have had two trainings online with a very helpful tecnology person who has walked me through the set up process and helped with trouble shooting. I am very happy with our choice so far. (Type: School)

We already have an open source system, so 2nd to last question is not as applicable (Type: School)

Always outstanding customer service with OPALS/MediaFlex. (Type: Consortium)

I have been working with this vendor since 1998 and they have always been responsive and provide excellent customer support and service. I have recommended this vendor to many other libraries over the years and all the professionals who deal with them are very satisfied. (Type: School)

The system we have is good. It would be better if it allowed more e-mail communication with patrons. Right now we can only do overdue notices, sent to one e-mail address. I'd like to be able to send things to multiple e-mail address and I'd like to send different kinds of notices and reports. (Type: School)

We are a small academic library, so we need something both affordable and standards compliant. OPALS is a very good match for us. It has an e-book feature, but we aren't using it -- I would delete my rating (4) for that question if I could. I rated customer support 5 because it has remained the same. (Type: Academic)

The biggest plus with this ILS is the level of support, from first responders, to programmers, to the CEO... unmatched by any other software company that I have experience with. The other biggest plus is the functionality of the system itself and the integration between buildings, our Union and Consortium. (Type: Consortium)

Mediaflex has provided excellent service for the OPALS ILS. It is great that they continue to enhance the system and provide regular updates. (Type: School)

The system has worked beautifully for the past 7 years and we rarely need customer support - perhaps once a year. We are a small non-proit with a very specialized French children's collection for internal use only. We suspectl that we are probably exploiting only a very small % of the system's potential and would like to explore how to maximize the software. (Type: Special)

We are very pleased with our automation system although, as its services become more complicated and comprehensive, the system glitches are increasing whereby things that worked before aren't working as well now. Hopefully, these will be fixed as time progresses. (Type: School)

Our library archives specialized, printed works. It does not manage digital resources which is why we did not submit a rating for that question. (Type: Academic)

n/a (Type: School)

Migrated smoothly from our previous system. Follow-up tutorials and service has been timely, professional and courteous. This is our first year. Cannot submit a rating as to whether service has improved at this time. (Type: School)

Great support team; very responsive to requests (Type: School)

Wonderful and quick customer service. Their response to problem resolution is fast, efficient and customer focused. They hold user groups so that they can continue to enhance OPALS and its capabilities. (Type: School)

The developers at OPALS listen carefully to their customers' feedback, frequently adding innovations to meet client needs. Highly recommended. (Type: School)

I have had exceptional service, response, and assistance from Media Flex/OPALS. The catalog works flawlessly for me, and it is simple to add, delete, or modify records. It is an elegant system. Its report functions are well-targeted. Above all, its staff is dedicated to delivering consistently excellent service. (Type: School)

I really like the flexibility of this system and new features that are added from time to time. (Type: School)

Our first year using the system. Service is excellent this year and so cannot compare with previous years. We also do not have electronic resources yet and could enter a rating for that part of the survey. (Type: Synagogue)

We have been very satisfied with our overall experience with OPALS. They have been very attentive to our needs. The migration from our old system to OPALS was an easy process, and 99% of the items transferred without the need for any additional input or edits. Customer service is very responsive and the overall cost of switching to a new LMS was very reasonable. I would highly recommend this company and software to other libraries. (Type: Academic)

We use OPALS for our local catalog as well as our regional union catalog. The [...] holds the records for approximately 167 school libraries in our region. (Type: School)

Not many digital resources im our library collection yet. The system has digital resource management and discovery functions that we plan to use. (Type: School)

OPALS is a very good system, easy to use by both staff and students. The support is amazing--response time is extremely fast for both technical issues or how-to questions. I would recommend OPALS to anyone who is looking for an easy, versatile and affordable ILS. (Type: School)

Very happy with OPALS (Type: School)

The [...] union catalog aggregates the collection of [...] libraries. It serves as a z39.50 accessible cataloging source and is used for collection development. The union catalog does not manage digital resources at this time, although this is planned i 2015. (Type: School)

We are in our sixth year. The system has completely evolved since then and we were not charged more than our annual services fees for all of these changes. Service is outstanding; efficient, competent and courteous. (Type: School)

I have been using Harry Chan's OPALS product for over 10 years. It was one of the first open source library automation solutions to market for a reasonable price and with the firm grounding of having been serving school libraries for decades. (Type: Consortium)

I could not ask to work with a better vendor. Support is quick, reliable, personal and phenomenal! It is wonderful when you are made to feel like the only customer. Support sends screenshots and lengthy explanations whenever needed. I've asked some really ridiculous questions yet I was never made to feel as if these questions were menial or unimportant in any way. This vendor is very open to suggestions from those of us using their product. (Type: School)

Did not submit a rating for e-resource management. Not managing eBooks at this library at this time. When we do, we will use OPALS e-resource management utilities. (Type: School)

We continue to love OPALS ! (Type: School)

We appreciate OPALS every day ! (Type: School)

the only challenges with the system are that it isn't very user friendly so I sometimes waste time figuring out how to do something that was more obvious in other systems I've used (Type: School)

I am so happy to have discovered OPALS (open source) for our small church library. In addition to having the necessary affordability, it has all the features we need and is incredibly easy to use. OPALS is designed to be used in a school library environment. I wish I had known about it when I was working in a school library. (Type: Church)

OPALS is inexpensive and quite good. However, they are slow to provide modules and templates for those libraries that are not school libraries. Their customer care, while friendly, has not been extremely helpful. However, it is a wonderfully easy to use system and mostly very reliable. (Type: Synagogue)

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Library Technology Guides is a service provided by Marshall Breeding, independent consultant, author, and speaker.