Heritage Management and Reports
Reports
Heritage contains a large number of predefined reports which can be run
to show anything from recent additions to the catalogue to the borrowing
habits of library users. Statistical information about the use of the Resource
Centre is becoming fundamental to decision making and Heritage provides
a comprehensive range of reports to support this process.
For information that is required on a regular basis, it is possible to schedule
report generation using the Heritage Event
Scheduler. Reports can then be produced automatically at regular intervals
without the intervention of library staff, further easing the burden of
administrative tasks necessary in a busy resource centre.
Heritage offers two report environments, the Banded and Command line report writers. Banded reports are generally provided with a pre-defined layout. Command Line reports are used to quickly retrieve information from Heritage fields via an easy-to-learn syntax, and present the information in a tabular format. Formatting commands have been provided so that the reports can be exported, e-mailed or printed in the required font and character size. A number of Banded and Command line reports are provided as standard, but tools are provided for library staff to produce, export, save and re-use their own reports (site-specific where necessary).
Presentation
The Heritage report writer can be used to produce reports on any aspect of the system which can then be presented to managers and financial controllers. Layout is simple and virtually any data can be pulled from the database into a report template. There are a large number of pre-defined reports supplied with the system, but you can also create your own, as well as modify ours.
The Banded report writer also handles letter creation. Letters are used for lots of purposes in Heritage, not just for the obvious things, such as overdues and reservations, but also for membership renewals or current awareness bulletins.
Heritage letters allow mail merging, just like reports and names, addresses, courses, department and any other data from Heritage, can be merged automatically using the`banded' layout structure. Headers, footers and page numbers are all automatically added and the layout can be designed around your own corporate stationery for that professional look.
Customised Report Writing
Even the most sophisticated software will not cover every conceivable requirement and that is where general tools such as the report writer come in. Report writing tools allow the librarian and other users (with the right privilege access) to make their own reports and listings. Heritage offers a number of ways of producing reports on just about any data held.
Many reports are already provided in Heritage, particularly in the areas of Cataloguing and Management Statistics, where the user is prompted using screens and forms. These reports allow the user to choose predetermined criteria which will limit the report to exactly what is needed e.g. ``all records added since November last year in the outsized collection" or ``all issues and returns made between two dates and by course or department".
Command Line reporting is different in that it allows the user to choose all the criteria for the report - including the file - and then allows the user to determine how the results are produced. It is possible to print, email or export the results of a report in a variety of formats, including csv, rtf, html and xml. Heritage offers both a menu-driven report writer for the beginner and a command-driven one for the experienced user. Both allow the user to store report specifications for re-use in a library which can be viewed when necessary.
The Heritage Connect Out module enables users to pull data from Heritage (e.g. to manipulate in products such as Crystal reports).
"I just had to write and congratulate you all on the new reporter in 4.2. It is wonderful. I have now set up reports [into double figures] to show such varied things as a list of items recommended by one person during a specific time period, found all my stock that had no accession numbers, able to tailor make booklists on request, the list is quite extensive.
Once again, thank you."
Carole Graham, Isle of Man College
January 2005
Record Tags *new
A new feature in Heritage enables library staff to tag records for special reporting or processing purposes. Any number of different tags can be created – either personal tags for one-off purposes or permanent tags to indicate groups of items which need to be regularly edited or reported upon. The Accession tag, for example, might be used to create a group of items that library staff wish to temporarily assign a different loan type (e.g. short loan rather than standard loan in times of high demand) – this would be undertaken via the Global Change facility.
Statistics
Heritage keeps a track of the movements of every item in your library and can use this information to produce a wide range of statistics. We provide spare pages of fields on the Catalogue and Reader records for library staff to record information that may not be catered for in existing Heritage fields, but we already provide standard fields that will assist in the production of a vast range of reports (e.g. in addition to basic reader information we also include fields such as the 'FTE' field, which enables staff to record a 'Full-time equivalent' figure for students, for use in statistical reports).
Global change and deletion
— see under Housekeeping
Data import
Importing catalogue information into Heritage usually requires the purchase of an additional import module. We supply various data import modules from sources such as Whitakers, TES Bookfind and BNB, as well as from book suppliers such as Cypher, Dawsons etc. A MARC import module is also available.
Reader Import Module
If borrower details need to be imported, the optional Generic Reader Import Module will enable the library staff to download student records from a management information system on a regular basis. This download can be scheduled to happen on a regular basis without the intervention of library staff (this assumes that a download of information from the management information system can also be scheduled). At certain periods, such as the start of an academic year, it could be very frequent (e.g. hourly), reverting to daily or weekly later on.
If the information that needs to be imported cannot be imported via a standard Heritage import module then we may be able to write a specific module for your purposes (although this would incur a consultancy charge).
See Heritage Connect for additional information.
Heritage Connect
— see the Heritage Connect page for details of collecting data from other systems.
Data Export
Data can be exported from Heritage in a variety of formats including, but not limited to, csv, ascii, txt, rtf and html.
An XML export facility is also provided so that information can be exported and reports produced on the data by third party tools.
A Marc export facility is also available as part of the Marc Cataloguing Module (optional module).
An ODBC module for pulling data from Heritage (Heritage Connect Out) is also available.
Customisation
Heritage can be customised to blend in with other systems used by libraries and will therefore provide a seamless environment that will enable users to find, use, and manage information of varying formats in an easy, straightforward and rapid manner. It is possible for library and IT staff to customise backgrounds, field names, menu names, help text etc. Corporate logos and other facilities can be added if required. These customisable features are transferable with system upgrades.
Almost all customisation is menu-driven, so library staff do not necessarily
require IT qualifications to make the changes they require! The catalogue
is available both from a ‘standard’ network and a browser, so
a different interface can be offered via an Intranet or the Internet if
required.