Heritage News & Events
Heritage Version 4.2.7 and Heritage Online 3.2 news!
Heritage 4.2.7 is available now to all Heritage customers with a current support contract. Please visit the Maintenance Downloads page on our support website if you wish to download it. For more information please contact
Heritage Online 3.2 will follow shortly. All users wanting to upgrade to this version will need to upgrade to the new licensing structure and select the version that best suits the usage of their Heritage Online. The advantage to the new scheme is that each 'band' includes unlimited overflow licences, so no users will ever be refused access to Heritage Online! There are still existing customers that haven't upgraded their WebOPACs to Heritage Online yet. A working example of Heritage Online is available here for those that are interested. The upgrade is free, so what are you waiting for?
Heritage Connect Live, which enables Heritage to pull borrower details straight from your HR or enrolment system using ODBC is also available. In addition to this, the first release of Heritage Connect Out offers an ODBC interface for pulling data from Heritage (to export to Crystal reports etc). More details...
Exhibitions and Trade Fairs
IS Oxford staff attend a number of library exhibitions each year. Our sales and support services staff are present to demonstrate the Heritage software and answer any questions you may have about Heritage or IS Oxford.
Forthcoming Exhibitions
We will be attending the following exhibitions later in 2008:
CILIP Library Management Systems Showcase, London
The next CILIP showcase will be held on Friday 14th March. Registration is free of charge. The CILIP Showcases are an ideal environment in which to get an in-depth look at systems - there is plenty of seating and a waiting area (as stands tend to be very busy) with tea, coffee and sandwiches provided for delegates.
Library + information Show , Birmingham NEC
The Library + information Show this year will be held on 23rd & 24th April at the Birmingham NEC. Registration is free of charge. Entrance is free to pre-registered visitors.
BIALL Conference 2008, Dublin
The BIALL (British & Irish Association of Law Librarians) 39th Annual Study Conference & Exhibition will be held from the 12th to 14th June 2008 at the RDS in Dublin.
CILIP Library Management Systems Showcase, London
The later CILIP showcase will be held on Friday 7th November. Registration is free of charge. The CILIP Showcases are an ideal environment in which to get an in-depth look at systems - there is plenty of seating and a waiting area (as stands tend to be very busy) with tea, coffee and sandwiches provided for delegates.
Online Information 2008 , Olympia
The Online exhibition this year will be held from 2nd to 4th December at Olympia. Registration is free of charge. Entrance is free to pre-registered visitors.
Heritage Biometrics
Biometrics? That's 'fingerprint recognition' to you and me. Sounds very futuristic, but schools using Heritage have requested this module and it is now available. An outline of the features of Heritage Biometrics is provided if you are interested, but it is really very simple - if your readers keep forgetting their ID numbers or cards then why not use their fingerprints instead? After all, it is highly unlikely that they'd visit the library without them....
Congratulations Southport College!
The 2nd Umbrella Awards Dinner, organised by CILIP, saw Heritage users Southport College Library announced as the winners of the Tribal Technical Innovation Award as a result of their implementation of the Heritage Biometrics module.
A group of us from IS Oxford went to the dinner at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield to celebrate their achievement and cheer them on! We would like to congratulate Sue Haydock and Kath Halfpenny and their staff for a really well-deserved honour. The Biometrics module (i.e. fingerprint scan recognition) can stir up strong feelings in certain quarters, but Sue and Kath not only planned and managed the implementation well, they allayed the understandable concerns, and as an outcome they more than doubled library usage (in the period 1/9/06 to 1/4/07 compared with the previous year). They also significantly increased the "street cred" of the library. Only 4 of the 3,000 or so library users reserved their right to stick with the old library card identification method.
Kath wrote an article on the CILIP website about their experience and there is also news on the Southport College website. It's well worth a read if you are interested in knowing how they went about it and all the positive benefits that resulted.
Well done Sue and Kath. You'll have to clear a shelf in the library to display your award!
Charitable Giving
Each year at Christmas we give each of our staff £200 to spend as they wish on www.goodgifts.org. This year quite a varied selection was made with choices as usual involving children and the environment. In total we have helped supply fourteen children with a years schooling, four children with the gift of sight, four orphans dowries, re-united three children and supplied heart surgery for six babies. We have also helped with 260 meters sq of cleared minefield, three water pumps, clean water for two schools and supplied four music therapy sessions. As well as supplying our usual village library we chose to teach two mothers to read, supply two traveling libraries, three book grants and sponsor four deaf book groups. Closer to home we chose to plant 40 meters of hedgerow, 216 meters sq of greenbelt, two bluebell woods, three meadow of flowers, a meadow of spring flowers and a family of trees. We also chose to support seven old dogs in retirement, supply four chicken banks, five goats for peace and save two Indian tigers. We also supplied a cow, a pig, five chickens and a cockerel, two dogs for comfort and guinea fowl for two families. Not forgetting the older generation we supplied 25 eye tests and specs for the elderly and a sponsored tea dance!