Urls, images and links to other media in Heritage
Pictures, websites, documents and any other digital media can be linked to the Heritage catalogue. Many of our users have captured and linked photographs, maps, PDFs, diagrams and even learning objects or old examination papers to their catalogues.
Both
Heritage Online and the OPAC will display images and other media in the
appropriate viewer which runs up automatically. Website URLs can be linked
to records so that users can visit the site without having to know the address
or have to type in the details. Images and other media can be printed or
copied to other applications for inclusion in assignments or research work.
For institutions with larger numbers of library users, or where security is important, it may prove useful to be able to store photographs of borrowers in their reader records. These images could then be seen at the point of issue, prior to an items release, for added security.
For those institutions with large photographic collections, it is possible to catalogue these in Heritage and hold scanned representations of them so that the originals don't get worn out. Scanned images can be achieved very cost-effectively these days with very good scanning devices costing little more than £100. Files can be held locally or centrally; the latter allows them to be shared across different systems, e.g. the library software and the administration database (for staff or user photographs).
Book
covers, journal articles, maps, contents pages, movie clips and audio recordings
are just some of the things that can be attached to the Heritage catalogue
record. It is even possible to create a link to an external website such
as Amazon from each catalogue record so that users can access the item record
in Amazon to look at the cover or read reviews! For an example please visit
http://online.heritage4.com.
Web site addresses (URLs) can also be catalogued. Users are then able to go straight to the web site as part of a normal catalogue search. This facility makes the web a natural extension of the library's resources. Our URL checker also ensures that the links are kept up-to-date.
A simple 'find file' facility in the Catalogue screen allows you to quickly locate and attach files of any type and, provided there is an appropriate application to show that file on the user's PC, it can be opened by the user.
The scope is enormous and this facility, perhaps more than any other, enables the library to treat the whole information world as its own resource.