Heritage News & Events
Heritage version 4.2.8 released!
The upgrade to Heritage 4.2.8 is available now to all Heritage customers with a current support contract. Please visit the upgrades page on our Support Website if you wish to download it. For more information please contact .
This upgrade includes a number of significant new features and a large number of fixes which are detailed in the changes and fixed helpsheet. The major improvements include:- Search favourites and lists
- Search history
- Reviews and star ratings
- Recent additions search
- Google preview link from the OPAC (in addition to cover images)
- Composite loans (loan of a group of items as a single item e.g. a kit or box of items)
- Reader notification emails e.g. for pre-overdue notices and circulars
- Media specific cover images in the OPAC
An upgrade to Heritage Online 3.3. will be released shortly. This will bring across to Heritage Online the new features in the OPAC of Heritage 4.2.8. A working example of Heritage Online is available here for those that are interested. These upgrade are free to users with maintenance contracts, 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 in the first half of 2009:
LIS (Library Information Show)
Join us for the 20th Library Show at the NEC, Birmingham on 10 - 11 June.
Thursday 18 June 2009 to Saturday 20 June 2009, University Place Conference Centre, Manchester
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....
More Innovation Awards for Biometrics
Congratulations to Basingstoke College’s LRC staff, who have been awarded a team award at the first-ever BCOT Staff Awards ceremony. Winners on the day were handed awards after being nominated by departmental managers based on specific criteria, such as demonstrating exceptional imagination and enterprise on a project or piece of work.
The LRC team was recognised for the implementation of a significant new development - the Heritage Biometrics module.
It was felt that the use of biometrics was indicative of a very modern service, promoting customer service by making the issue of books faster and easier and getting rid of the traditional card system.
- Biometrics is customer-friendly, removing obstacles to access of resources
- Getting rid of library cards meant no more delays arising from lost cards, and enhanced security from not being able to pass cards around
- It is environmentally sound, and has the potential to reduce expenditure
Most importantly the students have accepted and enjoyed the change – the library is now seen as being ‘cool’!
Another Heritage customer, Southport College, won a Tribal award for their biometrics implementation in 2007.
Charitable Giving
Each year at Christmas we give each of our staff £200 to spend as they wish on www.goodgifts.org in addition to individual larger charitable gifts by the company as a whole. This year quite a varied selection was made with choices as usual involving children and the environment. Again this year we have supplied another village library in India. The three most popular gifts this year were support an Afghan girl which was a new option this year, a years schooling and re-unite a child which have both always been very popular. Options for Children are always popular in one way or another and in addition to the above we have chosen to transform the life of 3 Indian street children, supply 4 maternity kits, give the gift of sight to 2 children, supply 6 schools with clean water and supply 3 orphan's dowry. Closer to home our popular choices were to supply 2 families of trees, 2 fruit trees, 3 bluebell woods, 3 meadows of flowers, plant 21 bagpipe saplings and restore 12m sq of greenbelt.