# SirsiDynix Symphony Reviews **Vendor:** SirsiDynix **Category:** [Library Management Systems](https://www.g2.com/categories/library-management-systems) **Average Rating:** 3.7/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 16 ## About SirsiDynix Symphony SirsiDynix Symphony provides a proven core for the next generation in library technology: the BLUEcloud LSP. ## SirsiDynix Symphony Reviews ### 1. Symphony - SirsiDynix **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michele G. | Library Director, Libraries, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 06, 2017 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Customer Service has to be our best feature. We are very happy with the level of service provided anytime we need help. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Lack of notification of features. Features may be available but are not turned "on". You have to ask. If you are paying for product, just give all features available with the subscription. **Recommendations to others considering SirsiDynix Symphony:** Do your homework! Rely on your sales manager and ask a lot of questions. Be sure to get EVERYTHING available to you and training is a must. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** It automates the library all around. From cataloging to patron records. We have everything in one place. ### 2. Library SirsiDynix Symphony Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laura D. | Head of Technical Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 13, 2021 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Everything has it's own folder and there are multiple ways to access them through a drop down menus, the side bar, or the overhead menus. It's perfect for anyone who likes to find things under categories. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** It's not very intuitive. It does take time to really learn everything about it, and because there are so many categories, users tend to get confused. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is compatible with RFID tags, which has been a new addition to our library. You don't need to physically scan in the book, it picks it up for you. ### 3. Straightforward and user-friendly system **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alex T. | Library and Information Adviser, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 03, 2020 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** The main menu is very intuitive and clear, which is great. I like the option to change the colour scheme and fonts as it is quite windows 95 looking otherwise. The option to change between tabs on a user's account is very useful, as their personal data does not come first, which is good for GDPR. History of Checkouts is useful because we can confirm exactly the time when someone claimes they returned a book. Same goes for the current Checkouts; sometimes users think they did not borrow a book which is on their account, and we can check if they borrowed any other books at the same time. Being able to override pretty much anything is extremely helpful, however it does require some policies in place. The automatic emails we can send to users, such as checkout receipts, return receipts, notifications of reservations available, even fines are very useful. I would advise revising wording for teams and testing out the layout first, as we have had several instances when monthy summaries cause confusion. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** This could be specific for our institution, but I wish the menu names could be changed. So, for example, it would be called reservations in workflows for staff, as well as in the student-facing part instead of holds. The Receipt printer and font/theme settings are a little hidden, as well. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have switched to this Library Management system for a different one, as we were adding a lot of new services, such as automatic renewals, reservations, etc. With the help of automatic emails, we have been able to almost completely stop using paper receipts. This helps our sustainability goals and it makes for our users easier to keep a record in their emails. ### 4. Review for SirsiDynix Symphony **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 12, 2020 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** I like that you can open a patron's record to view a list of the materials they currently have checked out, after which you can update due dates and also see their circulation history. You can also update any personal information, such as office number or phone number. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Several times a patron reported that they received an overdue notice for an item they returned. I checked their online record, which said they still had the item checked out. We checked the shelves and found that the item, based on the barcode, was indeed returned. So sometimes an item's barcode is scanned but the system doesn't register it as returned. **Recommendations to others considering SirsiDynix Symphony:** There are many different functions and uses, so take time to be familiar with each. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reserving materials for patrons who have an urgent need to do research. A notice is then sent to the patron who currently has the item checked out, so that it can be returned for the next patron to check out. ### 5. SirsiDynix for use in Community College Library **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 06, 2018 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** For anyone familiar with Integrated Library Systems, SirsiDynix at its most basic is fairly intuitive. When in combination with a system admin on site and programmers who can create the functionality necessary for the end user, Sirsi can be a dynamic and useful program! **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** SirsiDynix for our system of colleges has currently been less than stellar. It may be largely due to the fact that we seem to be unable to connect Sirsi with our main database for students, faculty, and staff as well as the cashier's office which means we have to hand input every patron (despite them being in the school database already) and fine do not automatically show up to pay and must be transferred by hand to the cashier. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sirsi has helped largely with cataloging and inventory. Despite reports being a bit of a hassle to figure out, Sirsi is able to give us an accurate view of when items have been checked in or out and when they were last accessed. ### 6. I use it for my job at the library **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laura D. | Library Assistant, Government Administration, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2018 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** I like how its easy to to sort through the titles and you can do it by library, title, author and so much more. Each task is divided into its own tab, and for some people that can make it a lot easier to use. It's not intuitive. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** It confuses me that there are so many different tabs. I know how to use it but for some people who are learning how to use it, there are so many different ways to actually use it that no single person could have the same way of doing something in it. I also don't like when you need to sort results alphabetically, if there are too many it won't. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** Other than the tabs, it can be very user friendly. And the fact that it clearly tells you what library it's at is super helpful. ### 7. SirsiDynix is good **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 03, 2018 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** It is very user friendly and straightforward. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** The terminology in general (which can be adjusted) and the 90s look and feel of it. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** I work at a univeristy library, so all of our items are catalogued using Sirsi. ### 8. library time **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** I like the ease of toggling back and forth through the check out and check in process. I love the cataloging widget. It is easy to use! This program makes my library automation easier. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** When our network goes down and I haver to manually input it is more difficult. I don't like that the program does not allow you to toggle between check in and check out. It is supposed to but my computer does not allow it to . Tech department has got it working but it only lasts for one day. I would like to leave both windows open all the time. **Recommendations to others considering SirsiDynix Symphony:** I highly recommend this for your library or school. It makes your job easier and allows you more time to get things done and print out reports. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** more time to get things done and enjoy patrons. I like to plan book talks and to spend time interacting with students. It is also easy for student helpers to use. ### 9. Symphony ILS from a SysAdmin perspective **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michael G. | Developer Analyst, Higher Education, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 13, 2017 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** There is an integrated desktop client with options for pretty much any function in the system. Offline transactions saved our butts a couple of times when our remote site lost network connectivity. It was easy to upload and reconcile the offline transactions. The addition of the Web Services API's made life a lot easier for us and they seemed to work pretty well. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** The client, while integrated and near feature complete, is definitely a design of the past. It would be nice to see a proper web-based client (one that does not require purchase of a cloud solution). The public catalog option was abysmal, which is why we opted to use an open source discovery layer and require access to Symphony's Web Services API's. The mobile circulation option was almost unusable. We hoped to use its collection weeding functionality, but we couldn't get it to work. The company, while trying to address the drawbacks of their current system, seems to offer promises but ultimately fail at delivering on those promises within a reasonable amount of time. **Recommendations to others considering SirsiDynix Symphony:** I'd probably opt to use their cloud-based option for new deployments to save on cost and on-site expertise. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** As an academic library which shares a catalog with a public library, the Symphony system was chosen to fulfill a variety of needs. We needed well-formed support for both Dewey and Library of Congress classification systems as well as intuitive patron-driven search and browse options. We also required both the acquisitions and cataloging modules as part of what we considered to be key to any Integrated Library System. For those purposes, the product works well (with some minor usability issues). ### 10. Effective But Unnecessarily Complicated **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 25, 2018 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** When new "wizards" are opened, they remember the current record being used in the other wizard(s). Search and retrieval is reasonably fast. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** There are perhaps more wizards than necessary that serve very similar functions. I dislike closing them all individually before being able to close the software. It can be very difficult to find the correct record because the search often pulls up old records or related records. Sometimes it appears that there are multiple lines for the same record. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** SirsiDynix Symphony serves many functions, with Acquisitions, Cataloging, Circulation, Reserves, Serial Control, and Utility tabs. This may reduce the number of total software products necessary for the functioning of the library. ### 11. Sirsi, needs cajoling, but could be worse **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2018 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** I like being able to specify categories and easily sort of toggle through settings to find the appropriate material. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Really random and irrelevant items will sometimes come up and disrupt a search. Also, there are sometimes too many categories and not enough options to include multiple (e.g. juv_easy and deposit). **Recommendations to others considering SirsiDynix Symphony:** Try not to over categorize items. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use it as a cataloging system for our county wide library system. ### 12. It's a tedious system. **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laura D. | Freelance Writer, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2017 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** When you look at the screen, everything is there for you under individual tabs. So if you're learning how to use it, it can be easy as long as you know the exact task you wanna do. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** I also feel like there are too many tabs. Before I used Sierra, and everything you wanted to do was intuitive. Anything to help with a patron, it was all under the Check Out tab. It feels like an extra nuisance to go to all these different tabs. **Recommendations to others considering SirsiDynix Symphony:** It's an adjustment period learning how to use it, but once you do it's pretty easy. It's just a lot of little windows. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm currently learning how to use it. But it's really useful to help patrons find books, whether or not it's checked out at that library, whether it's a local item only, etc. ### 13. Very powerful and easy to use library software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2017 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Easy of use, many functions, a very good fit for the company we work for. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Searching by title is a nightmare. Have to type in exact title to get proper result, if not, only show irrelevant info. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps the staff to keep up with the collection easily and reduce customer complaints. ### 14. Library Integrated System **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2017 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Easy navigation. Simple yet highly functional. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** At times it can take time for it to load. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** Efficient and automated management of basic library operations. ### 15. SirsiDynix Symphony **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Libraries | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2017 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** It's organized, fast, reliable, and user friendly **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Hard to learn, not used by all libraries **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** It;s used for Library databases. It's up to industry standards. ### 16. mostly easy to use. lots of options **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Government Administration | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 28, 2017 **What do you like best about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Easy to use. Lots of options for what to use it for. **What do you dislike about SirsiDynix Symphony?** Almost too many options. Days there is a lot of lag. **What problems is SirsiDynix Symphony solving and how is that benefiting you?** lots of places to leave notes for items. ## SirsiDynix Symphony Discussions - [What is SirsiDynix Symphony used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-sirsidynix-symphony-used-for) - [View SirsiDynix Symphony pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/sirsidynix-symphony/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-10+15%3A45%3A31+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=047a1be0-33d6-4099-af07-35e0e2151286&secure%5Btoken%5D=6838e6e5a57d701791c8c6ac2b4d3cff89b4b1091e2e32e3ba7b75034c9b7d87&format=llm_user) ## Top SirsiDynix Symphony Alternatives - [Sierra ILS](https://www.g2.com/products/sierra-ils/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (24 reviews) - [Alma](https://www.g2.com/products/ex-libris-alma/reviews) - 3.3/5.0 (23 reviews) - [Polaris ILS](https://www.g2.com/products/polaris-ils/reviews) - 3.5/5.0 (14 reviews)