Heritage Connect
Why Connect
Libraries and resource centres do not operate in isolation from other parts of an organisation. Personal data held in management information systems, for example, may also be required in the library management system. Utilising data that is available from other systems within an organisation not only saves time and effort but can also significantly improve the quality of that data.
Heritage Connect is the collective name for a range of modules available in Heritage to streamline the operation of the library by making use of external sources of data. There are currently three categories of Heritage Connect modules (comprising a number of separate modules):
Heritage Connect Live
It has long been possible to import details of library users into Heritage. Heritage Connect Live takes this process a step further by doing so in real-time. Ask for details of a borrower in Heritage and Heritage Connect Live will immediately update the record from your central database. Now you can let your HR department or Student Records Office look after maintaining details of your users whilst you concentrate on running your library service.
How does Heritage Connect Live work?
Heritage Connect Live utilises ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) to link to other databases. This interface is available on nearly all database systems that are in wide usage including all systems based on SQL such as SQL Server, Oracle, My SQL and SQL Anywhere.
When a borrower record is requested in Heritage, Heritage Connect Live will first update the Heritage record based on the latest information available from the central system before allowing any further processing. If the borrower is new to Heritage then a new record can be created on-the-fly. Importantly, if the remote system is unavailable for any reason then Heritage will still allow you to continue because it keeps a copy of the data locally. Records can also be imported and updated in batch mode.
Of course, the likelihood is that more information will be required about a user in Heritage than is kept on a central system. For instance, borrowing rights, loan and reservation stops and SDI all use data that will be specific to Heritage. Heritage Connect Live therefore allows you to specify not only what data should be brought across from the remote system to create new records, but also what data to put in essential fields when it is not available from the central system.
In addition it may be that certain information tends to be more up-to-date in the library than elsewhere and should not be overwritten. Heritage Connect Live handles this by allowing you to specify which fields to leave alone if they already exist in the Heritage copy of a record. Or it may be that the data in the central system does not directly map to a field in Heritage. For instance, an HR system might show someone as a leaver, whereas Heritage would wish to know when they will ‘expire’: again Heritage Connect Live allows rules to be set up to update a Heritage field based on the content of one or more fields from the remote system.
There may be times when you do wish to refresh even the data that is generally more up-to-date in the library. The batch mode in Heritage Connect Live handles this by allowing you to have multiple different configurations which could be used at different times. It is also possible that some data may need to come from a second system. For instance email addresses might be held on a different database to postal addresses. This can be handled by using multiple Heritage Connect Live modules.
A final consideration is the authentication of users, particularly where they are operating self-issue facilities. For many users maintaining and remembering multiple passwords and PINs can be a cause of significant frustration. We have available an LDAP facility which can remove this problem by allowing users to use their network username and password to access Heritage. Network usernames must be available within the data provided to Heritage Connect Live so if you are interested in this facility then please contact our Sales team to discuss how it might operate within your network environment.
What is required for Heritage Connect Live?
The principle requirement for Heritage Connect Live to work is an ODBC connection from any workstation that will be retrieving data from the central system e.g. circulation workstations. This not only means that the central system must support ODBC but also that network connections exist between the two systems and that any firewalls separating them can be configured to permit the necessary data traffic. The port required for ODBC connections can differ from system to system.
An ODBC connection will also require a username and password in order to access the appropriate data from the central system. If an external reporting tool, such as Crystal Reports, is already in use then the configuration information will be very similar.
For LDAP connectivity the workstation (or server in the case of Heritage Online) must be able to connect to the Domain Controller and the user logged on to the workstation must have sufficient network rights to permit validation of usernames and passwords against the domain controller.
The other major requirement is that there is a means of uniquely matching records in Heritage with those on the remote system. The most usual way of doing this is to use the staff number, network login name or student enrolment number as the borrower ID in Heritage, but other Heritage fields can also be used for this purpose. For Heritage Connect Live LDAP the Borrower ID (also known as the Reader Code) in Heritage must be the same as the Network ID.
It is anticipated that each user of Heritage Connect Live will have slightly different requirements, even if they are connecting to the same central database as another Heritage site. For this reason Heritage Connect Live is always supplied with a day of online configuration support.
It is technically possible to connect to most systems supporting ODBC in order to extract data. However, it is important to check with the supplier of your student, or staff, management system that you are permitted to do so under the terms of your licence or maintenance agreement. If you fail to do so and a corruption occurs in the data in your management system, for any reason, then your supplier may be entitled to charge you for fixing your data.
A separate Heritage Connect Live module and additional configuration assistance will be required for each database that you connect to from Heritage.
Finally, it is important to note that the effectiveness of Heritage Connect Live is going to be dependent on the performance of the network and the external database from which the records are being taken.
Heritage Connect Import
The Heritage Connect Import modules enable catalogue or reader data to be imported into Heritage from a wide variety of sources. Naturally, these are not classified as ‘live’ imports, as the required data must be exported from the external data source before the facility is run to import the records into Heritage, but the import process is both user-friendly and incredibly quick.
At present we offer a standard catalogue import facility within Heritage free of charge, which is provided in order to import very basic details from virtually any source. Of all the catalogue data import modules in Heritage, Quickcat Online is by far the most popular, but for those customers that prefer an alternative source there are also specific modules available for the following data sources and suppliers:
Askews, Bertram Library Services, BNB, Books for Students, Dawsons, Endnote, Heath Books, Holt Jackson, Inmagic, Kent Books, Parkers, Peters, Somertons, TES Bookfind and Whitakers.
Regarding reader data, we also offer a Generic Reader Import Module, which will import reader data from management information systems as and when necessary. This will still be available for users where a live link, as provided by Heritage Connect Live, is not a necessity (or possible).
Heritage Connect Out
An ODBC interface for Heritage that will enable users to pull data from Heritage in order to manipulate it in other products (e.g. Crystal reports) is now available.