Medical

Heritage Medical Case Study

The original specification for the Heritage Library Management System was written by two librarians at the Cairns Library, part of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. As a result, the core design of Heritage met the needs of medical libraries very well. Subsequent developments in, for instance, serials management and web-based access, have ensured that Heritage continues to be their first choice. There are now around 150 medical libraries using Heritage in the UK and Ireland, but just two of these libraries are featured here: Frimley Park Hospital and North & North East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trusts.

Frimley Park Hospital

Frimley Park Hospital is a large, 700-bed Trust serving a catchment population of 365,000 and employing a staff of around 2,500. Opened in 1974, it is located just inside the West Surrey Health Authority boundary and provides a full range of district general hospital services to the population of North East Hampshire and West Surrey.

Suzy ThompsonThe library at Frimley Park Hospital is managed by Suzy Thompson. The stock consists mostly of books and journals, which are catalogued on Heritage. They also hold a few video cassettes.

Suzy first heard about Heritage from other NHS librarians, and had seen advertisements in the Library Association Record. Before arranging an on-site demonstration of Heritage she looked through the IS Oxford website, which she found to be “very informative … [it] contained all you needed to know (apart from prices!). The ‘Putting the case forward to your manager’ web page was a very good idea)”. Suzy is referring to a document available on www.isoxford.com in which suggestions are given of how the case for a library management system can be put to a librarian’s own superiors who do not necessarily have an idea of how broad ranging the benefits of a good system are. Click here to access the document.

Frimley Park’s existing library management system was Soutron’s Inmagic, which, according to Suzy “drastically needed replacing. Luckily, it was reliable as we had no support on it, so we were just on borrowed time”. They obviously required a data conversion from Inmagic, and this was a very important consideration when choosing a replacement system. Suzy explains her requirements:

“We wanted a user-friendly, flexible system which would:

Suzy invited IS Oxford to her library to give a demonstration of Heritage. This enabled her to take a thorough look at the system and to have all her initial questions answered. IS Oxford then provided her with a copy of Heritage for her to trial so that she could evaluate the system at her leisure. She also spoke to existing Heritage users: “I emailed and/or asked regional colleagues already using it for advice/opinions/feedback and all of us saw it in operation in our nearest local libraries”.

After a detailed evaluation, Suzy eventually decided to go for Heritage. This decision was based on a number of factors:

“I was very impressed by the quick response rate of the IS Oxford staff to my queries and by their helpfulness and professionalism. We liked the user-friendly system and it satisfied most of our selection criteria. More regional libraries used this system than the other one that we were considering; colleagues provide a good source of support, especially as there has been talk of launching a local Heritage user group”.

The installation and implementation of Heritage at Frimley Park was a very simple process, Suzy liaised closely with the sales, training and data conversion teams at IS Oxford to ensure that everything went smoothly:

“The process was thought through – getting the funding through the Finance department, receiving the software, going through the trial data conversion and ironing out any problems with it, having training before the final data conversion (which meant closing the library for a day), implementing the system on one of our quieter days so that we could get used to it in less pressured conditions and noting down any problems to report back to IS Oxford as we came across them.”

Heritage has already made a difference to Suzy’s workload, particularly the everyday circulation facilities:

“It has made the whole circulation process much more efficient. It is much quicker to issue and return books using Heritage and much more flexible as you can easily switch between screens. More information is at our fingertips – e.g. users’ loan histories and their current loan and overdues information etc. We can see if they are nearing, or have exceeded, their loan entitlement. Any operation is now just one click of the mouse for us, as opposed to multiple keystrokes.”

Frimley Park libraryAutomating the more routine library management tasks has released much-needed time, enabling Suzy to concentrate on the more interesting and rewarding aspects of library administration such as the creation and customisation of management reports and document templates. She has found some of the reporting functions quite fiddly and so is looking forward to the new Heritage Report Writer which will be available as part of an upgrade later this year - upgrades are free as part of the IS Oxford support service.

This new facility is very sophisticated yet it will be simpler to understand and easier to manipulate than the existing reporter, which has served Heritage well for the past five years but which customer feedback had shown could be improved. IS Oxford are constantly working to update the functionality of Heritage, keeping up with the latest advances in library management technology, but also recognise the importance of system design, ensuring that modules and facilities are as clear and user-friendly as possible.

Frimley Park Hospital run Heritage on an NT network with two additional full access user licences, Heritage Online, the Inmagic data import module and the Serials Cataloguing & Enquiry module. Their data was converted from Inmagic DB/Textworks by IS staff.

Suzy would be happy to talk to prospective Heritage customers. Her email address is suzy.thompson@fph-tr.nhs.uk.

North & North East Linconshire Primary Care Trusts

The second of the featured libraries in this section is North & North East Lincs PCTs, based in Brigg. The resource centre is run by Angela Clarke, who moved to the library from Hull College in 2001. The library serves the needs of the primary healthcare community in South Humber and their aim is to facilitate research, professional development and clinical practice and to provide access to the information required by their customers. The resources are available to all primary care staff and all practice staff, including general practitioners, practice nurses, practice managers, health visitors, district nurses and pharmacists.

Brigg resource centreAngie holds a diverse range of materials in the library: “Books, reports, journals, circulars, directives and few videos and charts. It is intended that all media will be catalogued but some stacked material may take a long while to be inputted.”

Angie already had experience of Heritage at Hull College, where she had previously undergone a similar procurement process and chosen Heritage to replace her Bookshelf system in 1994. Her experience from using Heritage for several years meant that she anticipated that she might purchase Heritage when she moved to the Health Authority, but she also knew it was very important to ensure that her staff were happy with her choice of system.

Prior to the decision to move to Heritage, therefore, she provided an evaluation copy of Heritage for her staff to work with:

“... staff support is another key implication in the successful implementation of new systems (Management of change principles). I made sure that the staff at the Health authority worked with the demo system and also did online training so they were comfortable with the change.”

She then drew up a careful implementation plan in advance of the procurement. There are many factors to consider when organising the changeover from one system to another, the primary ones being the scheduling of the data conversion and training. Angie had previous experience of this, but it is still a very good idea to draw up a plan to make sure that the procurement goes smoothly (IS Oxford Sales staff would be very happy to advise on the order of events and anticipated timescales if necessary).

A copy of Angie’s plan is set out below:

LIS Library sub-group Heritage plan (March 2001)

ITEM ACTION BY WHO TARGET DATE REVIEW
Proposal with Business case Present to LIS Steering group TW (Director) 15th March 19th March (bi-monthly meeting)
Purchase order Send to finance TW 19th March 23rd March
System Requirements Specify AC PW (Network) 16th March 23rd March
Data Download Sample Save DB Textworks to Zipfile PW 16th March 23rd March
Train Technician & Librarian Send on course to IS Oxford CD KF April 2001 April 2001
Trial Heritage in H/Authority Install Heritage on HA Server. Tryout in Resource Centre CD (Technician) KF April End April 2001
Change to Heritage at HA After sending full save of DB text to IS install full copy on server and have training day then go live CD
AC/KF
IS Trainer
May End May 2002
Union catalogue Install Install UNIFY module on server. Install UNIFY at HA, GY, SC libraries. Arrange first text CD April 2002 END May 2002
Put Heritage on line to designated users Install OPAC on Web-browser CD June 2002 Aug 2002
Review system Arrange meeting of Library staff AC Aug 2002 End October 2002

One of the main reasons that Angie decided to choose Heritage again was the look and feel of the system. Many library systems offer similar functionality, but the way in which they provide it is vital – after all, library staff are going to work with the system all day every day so clear, uncluttered screens and elegant work-flows are essential: “It is always good to have a system that looks good on the desktop for users as this definitely ups the users’ perception of a switched-on library service.”

Angie’s decision to go for Heritage again is significant in confirming Heritage as a high quality and sophisticated system that keeps pace with the latest library management technology. Furthermore, it is based on a knowledge of the long term support that IS Oxford provides. Building good relationships with customers and accommodating their needs wherever possible is an important aspect of IS Oxford’s support service.

Angie is very happy with the relationship she has built with IS staff: “IS Oxford staff have at all times been friendly, supportive and interested in issues I have. I blame myself for not always keeping up with some of the developments I am waiting for.”

Finally, Angie has a word of advice for prospective purchasers:

“[Heritage is a] smashing product but be aware that there are Networking issues particularly for healthcare libraries working across a WAN . Work closely with your Network manager before introducing it to your Network.” (Angie had an initial problem which was resolved by upgrading her server).

If you require any advice regarding technical aspects of Heritage please contact the IS Oxford sales team.

North & North East Lincs. PCTs run Heritage on an NT4 network with five additional OPAC user licences, Heritage Online server module, the Serials Management module and they will shortly be implementing the Unify module. Their data was converted from Inmagic DB/Textworks by IS staff.

Angie would be happy to talk to prospective Heritage customers. Her email address is Angela.Clarke@nelpct.nhs.uk.

For details of other medical libraries that use Heritage please contact Emma Duffield, Sales Manager, on (01865) 481010 or email .