Over 15 years ago, our little church's library purchased the rclsoftware for cataloguing. It has met our needs perfectly and survived upgrades. It continues to work and thankfully, I have not needed any technical support, since it is no longer available. We have to purchase a new computer and we have to upgrade to Windows 11. Will the rclsoftware survive? I searched your Q&A and found the latest mention of rclsoftware was in 2017. Is there anyone out there who can advise? I am not computer savvy and am concerned we will lose 15 years of work.
Thank you in advance!
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As for keeping your RCLsoftware system, there is almost no way to avoid a "fresh install" on your Windows 11 device. Even if you have the original install files (on a CD or a saved download file), the "2017" install process will probably not be compatible the high-security setup demanded by Windows 11. You, most certainly, will have to change library applications.
DO NOT DESPAIR! Your data should transfer to another system. (We at Library Concepts have a mantra, "Thou shalt never lose data!")
Look in your RCLsoftware system for EXPORT options. If it includes MARC export, use that function to create a file of your bibliographic data. If your software has an Excel or "comma/tab -delimited" export (a CSV file) use that. Most current library systems can import these files without much trouble. The IMPORT functions may even be built-in, so you can do it with no extra cost. Your new library application vendor will certainly be able to help with this.
Thank you. this is extremely helpful. I have been fearful that Windows 11 would be too much for the software.
I greatly appreciate your advice.
Kathy
Most likely Microsoft and the company that developed the software are the only ones that can truly answer this. Normally the company you purchased the software from would make adjustments and send you an upgrade, or tell you the software will be in sunset mode after a certain date, but it looks like this will not be the case here. How do you back up your data? If you can download all your data, it may be possible to convert it to another product. Not knowing anything about the software, it is hard to guess. I would be on the lookout for another company to convert the data.
Thank you. It was created by a gentleman who just wanted something for small church libraries. I can back it up and export it to excel.
I appreciate you taking the time to reply.
Kathy