Socrate, description

Description and functionalities

What is Socrate 4 Windows ?

It is in the first place a complete and simple to use, solid and fully equipped library management software. Everything is included in the price!

Is Socrate ergonomic ?

Yes. All screens have been designed for use with or without a mouse… Barcode readers are supported !

Can Socrate be customized to the specific situation of my library?

Yes. It has a large number of unlimited parameter tables.

Does Socrate support the cataloguing of periodicals?

Yes. There are specific fields for this type of information.

Does Socrate support decentralized sublibraries?

Yes. It is possible, for each bibliographical record or for every reader, to fill in an library code, a different sublibrary code and a loan count system.

Does Socrate support multiple loan fees?

Yes. You can create fees based on the reader, the age category, the type of material, the price, the entry date. Moreover, it is possible to fix priorities between these criteria.

Does Socrate support multiple POS (points of sale)?

Yes. You can create as many POS and as many loan desks as you like. Each POS can be linked to the person responsible for the loan desk.

Is Socrate multi-currency?

Yes. The purchase price of materials (books) can be entered in the original currency. The conversion to local currency is carried out automatically by means of a currency table.

Is Socrate multilingual?

Yes, there is a language code for most inputs: books, readers, authors, etc...

Is the loan and reservation process simple?

Yes, very simple. All transactions take place in the same module, giving an overview of current loans and reservations, record details of the reader and the loaned and/or reserved materials. A loan ticket can be printed.

Can Socrate really take me by the hand?

Socrate is in the first place an assistant, who forgets nothing. Help messages take you through every step. Every field comes with a help text to tell you what the field is for. There are also messages to remind you of outstanding readers' debts, available and non available reservations, etc…

What about the support of Socrate?

The library is invited to subscribe to an annual maintenance contract. The maintenance contract entitles the user to telephone support and free downloads of the latest Socrate versions from the Internet during the period covered by the maintenance contract.

I am looking for a modern and fast cataloguing system, can Socrate offer it?

Yes. The bibliographical record is complete and easy to fill in since it is based on a series of tables: authors, secondary authors, CDU-Dewey, subject, collections, editors, which make it easy to rapidly fill in a bibliographical record… Inputting records is made even more easy through import from several CD's - BNF, Electre, Unimarc - and from our website www.bibliotheque.be, which contains more than 1 million ready-to-use bibliographical records.

Does Socrate offer tools to help the reader look up materials in the catalogue?

The full-text and real-time indexing function provides the reader with a real, Internet-like search engine. He can immediately look up any word in the entire catalogue and/or in the biographies of authors, secondary authors, CDU-Dewey and subject fields. Indexed words are listed in a directory.

Does Socrate provide all necessary elements to set up official statistics?

Yes. The entire database is questionable and calculation elements in loan statistics are memorized without time limit..

How detailed is the statistics function?

There are specific codes related to loans, readers or media to generate cross counts. This makes it possible to follow-up and calculate the impact of a purchase campaign on the loan activity!

Can Socrate import external catalogues?

Yes. Socrate supports Unimarc imports and can be used with CD's such as BNF or Electre or import records from our website www.bibliotheque.be

Can Socrate import external readers?

Yes. The import function is based on delimited text files. An other extensive and Excel-based import function offers lots of possibilities. Imports and updates of teachers' and pupils' management are easy to do.

Can Socrate export its data to other software?

Yes. The entire database is exportable. It is a truly open database. Export in Unimarc format is supported.

Does Socrate offer access security?

Socrate deals with its own security. The library manager can assign a number of well-defined rights to each user… The number of users is not limited by Socrate, but by the power level of your computer…

Does Socrate offer backup functions?

Yes. Socrate has a compressed backup function to save your data. Backups can be made on tape streamers, zips, writeable CD's, a hard disk on another PC…

Is Socrate compatible with all Windows platforms?

Yes. Socrate runs all Windows 2000 or XP Pro or Home environments.

What server does Socrate need to operate in a network?

A simple Windows NT dedicated workstation can do the job. From 5-6 workstations on however, we recommend a real NT 2000 or XP server. A Linux server with Samba network management is a valid and economic alternative.

See price list... and Required material

Can Socrate be used on a simple, stand-alone PC?

Yes. Socrate can run on a stand-alone PC without any problem. The software and databases will then be installed on a single PC…

Does Socrate support subscriptions to periodicals and magazines?

Yes. Socrate handles specific data related to subscriptions and follows up issue date predictions. Periodical management is linked to the catalogue and cataloguing follow-up is provided.

Can Socrate print barcode labels?

Yes. Socrate offers many lists, such as library-specific label printouts with barcodes for the catalogue number of materials or for the purpose of editing readers cards. Books can even be registered during the loan session.

Can Socrate scan book covers?

Yes. Socrate scans your documents directly into the bibliographical record of the book or material that is being catalogued. Socrate does the scanning and stores the scanned image in the right place.

Does Socrate support guarantee fees and alerts?

Yes. Socrate generates alerts during the loan session, when the state of the material (map, CD, etc…) needs to be checked or a guarantee fee asked.

Is Socrate compatible with anti-virus software?

Anti-virus software is not a problem. Keeping strictly to the role of library management software, Socrate has almost never been attacked by known viruses. Nevertheless we prefer a light and efficient anti-virus, such as Nod32. Heavy anti-virus software such as Mac Afee or Norton tends to reduce the performance of mid-size PC's.