Heritage upgrade

Just to keep you up to date with the latest developments regarding the new incarnation of Heritage...

The new version/upgrade will be called Heritage Cirqa and here is the lastest from the ISOxford support website.

Heritage Cirqa represents the next generation of the Heritage library software and is due for general release early in 2012 (we anticipate that most existing users will wish to wait until the summer break before upgrading).

This version of the software has been designed to work in conjunction with an IIS Heritage service so that it can be accessed remotely from anywhere over the internet. It is based on standard Windows Internet technologies yet is still easily maintainable by library staff.

There is no need for any additional library staff training for those already familiar to Heritage as both the functionality and user interface will remain the same. Existing users can upgrade to it when they are ready and all new customers will receive it as a matter of course.

Adding staff

It has been decided that we will no longer be giving out staff library cards when they sign up to the LRC.  Most staff will be wearing their ID badges and we get to know many of them any way.

Staff will still need to be allocated a Reader ID and this can be done by typing the letter Y and tabbing out of the field to allow Heritage to allocate the next available number.

NB Don't forget that an expiry date needs to be entered and it has been decided that we will enter 31 December 2050.

Staff records and Moodle

In order for staff records on Heritage to integrate with the Moodle block please could one extra piece of information be included when adding new staff records.

In the Alternative ID field please enter the network username of the staff member e.g. mhitchcock

This way everyone will have a working Heritage Moodle block (hopefully) when Brian reinstates it.

Adding Students

Just to clarify what is happening with student records:

An import is being carried out on a weekly basis (Friday) so any students who have been added during the week will have their full details added at this point.

Students who are not on Heritage should be checked on Eclipse to ensure they are enrolled.
If they are not on Eclipse they should not be added to Heritage.
If the student thinks they have enrolled and therefore should be on Eclipse refer them back to their tutor or IAC.

Adding DVD Orders

When adding orders for DVDs to Heritage please check the catalogue before creating a new record.

If another copy is already in stock somewhere the extra copy needs to be added to the existing record.  If you've searched the catalogue using 'Enquiry' or 'Heritage Online' take a note of the S number so you can quickly find the correct record when entering the order.

Advanced Bookings Report

I have amended the 'Advanced bookings waiting to be picked off the shelf' report so that you can now enter your site code (FC, GC, or MW) to limit the report to items at your site.

This should make things clearer for staff working through the report to get items ready for collection.

DVDs and BBFC certification

Now that we have imported all student records which includes date of birth all the work to include the BBFC classification will come into play.

If a 17 year old student brings an 18 rated film to the Issue Desk Heritage will recognise that they should not be allowed to borrow it.  You will see a message which will ask you if you wish to continue with the loan. 

Unless the student is on a Media course and has a note on their record indicating that they can borrow 18 rated films you must click 'No' and inform the student that they cannot borrow the film and perhaps they would like to choose another one.

Heritage blog goes mobile

For those of you with smart phones I've enabled a new feature just for you!

If you go to the blog on your phone it will now display in a mobile friendly version.

In Library Use

Please note that items of equipment should not be scanned under the Y666 (GC & MW) or F5 (FC) accounts for in library usage.  This account is to be used for resources taken from the shelves by staff or students and used in the LRC.

Also a gentle reminder for users of the Y666 account at GC and MW - please ensure that items are returned as soon as possible to avoid the other site accidentally returning them which will put items 'In Transit'.

Heritage Moodle block

As you may have picked up from Brian's email ( 8 August) he is integrating Heritage with Moodle.  This will provide students with information about their loans, reservations, and possibly a search box within Moodle itself.

I am yet to see which elements Brian is including but if he uses all of them the Moodle block will look something like the image below.

Rebranding the catalogue

As you are all aware the three college sites have new branding and we have all been working hard over summer to change over to the new logos etc.

The new branding has had larger implications for Stoke Park as we have changed our name to Guildford College.  Over the last few days I have been working on Heritage to implement the name change so you will start to see some differences.  The site description has been changed and I am currently working my way through all the locations so they will be ready for the start of term.

So for all previous locations that were prefixed SP the change means they will now be prefixed by GC.

Associated document - loc.gov web links

When catalogue records are imported from QuickCat please remember to check the Associated Document  box on the Related tab (see image below).

Any URLs from http://www.loc.gov/ should be deleted as they show up as failed links in the URL checker.

Use of Y666

This one is just for MW and SP staff...

Whenever possible please could you try to ensure that any items issued to Y666 are returned immediately.  If items are left on the record it is very easy for the other site to return your items by mistake which puts them 'In Transit'.

Thanks everyone!

Screencasts?

Here is a question for everyone...

Would it be useful for screencasts to be available for certain functions/processes in Heritage?  If you think this would be useful please let me know what topics you would like to be covered.

This one is up to you - so if you want something to be available in this way drop me an email or post a comment on this blog entry by the end of May.

If there is no response I can cross this option off the list of possible things to do!

Marie :-)

Did you know...?

Setting circulation 'trap' messages

You can add messages to accession records which will pop up when the item is put through circulation. Just open the accession record, enter the message in the Circulation message field on the Notes page, then click Save.

Reservations and Cancellations

One to look out for...

... when deleting the catalogue records of items that have been cancelled so that there are no copies available or expected.

If you have a reservation on an ordered item that is subsequently cancelled you must clear the reservation before you can delete the catalogue record.

If the reservation is not cleared you will get a message informing you that you cannot delete the record as there are copies on loan.

Now, obviously, you haven't had the book so it can't be on loan but the reservation is a circulation function and creates a link between a reader record and the catalogue record.  This link has to be cleared for the deletion to work.

• Cancel the reservation on the reader record.
• Then to clear it completely you will have to run the Check Reservations process.
• Once this has run you should be able to delete the catalogue record.

NB It is easy to see whether a catalogue record has a reservation attached.  Simpy go to the Other tab in the catalogue record and if there are any reservations the names will be listed in the Reservers box.

Search by site

Don't forget that you can limit your search by site to retrieve only items that are available where you are...

In Advanced Search you need to change the 'Search in' setting to LSC from the drop down menu.

Then enter the code for the relevant site (see below) in the 'Search term' box:

SP
MW
FC

Rating and Reviews

Have you checked out this new feature yet?

Some of the LRC staff added fiction reviews in time for the World Book Day events but this facility isn't just limited to fiction.

It was mentioned in the CPD session we ran for staff and showed them how they could highlight certain texts by submitting a review.

Four people wrote reviews on the day so look at the following titles to see what they said:

Electrical installation calculations
EB12903

Organisational behaviour
9780273715368

The extension of the franchise, 1832-1931
9780435327170

Animal learning & cognition
9781841696560

We've also just had our first student submit a review.

All reviews are moderated before being published so we have control over what appears on the catalogue.

Alt ID - making it easier for staff to login

Did you know that you can add an alternative ID to a reader record?  This could be used for staff to make it easier for them to login when using the catalogue.

If you enter their network username in the Alt ID box on the reader record they will be able to use this as their Reader Code instead of having to remember the Y number (or other ID).

Then they just have to remember their PIN!

Reports and Display Items

It is possible to run a report to show the usage of items that have been used in a display.  However, in order to do this the initial set up must be correct.

Every item that is to be used in the display must have an accession note added to its record.

• Go to the accession record of the item and click on the Notes tab
• Add a line for the start of the display (see no. 2 in the image below) - you must enter the Event as Displayed, the start date of the display, and finally in the Notes box the name of the display.

• If you have also set the Status of the item to Display you will find that a 'Found' event is added when an item is issued (see no. 3 in the image above).

Running the Report

The report you need can be found at:

• Cataloguing menu
• Reports
• Usage (recalculated) of displayed items

It will prompt you for:

• Display date
• Display title/name

PLEASE NOTE: Before you run the report the recalculate usage function in Heritage must be run.  Please contact me when you need this to be done and let me have your start and end dates as appropriate.

Overdue Serials

There is a report in the Serials menu which will give the details of titles which are overdue and it will also prompt you to limit it by site.

• Serials menu
• Reports
• Overdue issues, by title, with selected site...

This will provide a list of issues which can be checked against your actual holdings before claiming for missing issues with Ebsco.

Heritage Cirqa - new system out later this year

IS Oxford will be releasing their next generation of the Heritage software in 2011, probably in summer.  It will replace both Heritage and Heritage Online and be a single version of the system.  It can be accessed remotely from anywhere by any workstation that has a good internet connection.  The functionality and user-interface will be unchanged but reports and batch processes will fun faster as all data retrieval and the majority of processing will happen on the server (rather than being subject to the client-server network bandwidth restrictions.  An improved job scheduler will allow for the running of reports as a background process rather than one that ties up a workstation.  The new model will allow IS Oxford to offer a “hosted” implementation to libraries.

This could help with the slowness issues experienced particularly at MW.  It sounds like an exciting development and one, perhaps, where we are among the early uptake.  I will be keeping abreast of developments and announcements regarding the new system.

Item Requests

Items that are to be requested for a student or member of staff should always be placed on Heritage - unless there are exceptional circumstances which make this impossible (there should be very few of these).

If the item is needed quickly you should still place the request on Heritage but then it is OK to phone the holding site to see if it would be possible for them to pick the item of the shelf to get it 'In Transit' asap.  If the timing is right this could mean that the item is in the courier bag a day earlier and consequently arrives at the collection site sooner.

GMD - Medium Description

Just to clarify the use of this field now that we have ICT using Heritage and adding their own equipment.

Please could the following media be kept for the sole use of ICT as the overdue letters and loan periods are set differently to suit their requirements.

Laptop
Mobile Device
ICT Equipment

Similarly please could ICT not use any other medium listed as this will lead to problems with loan periods and overdue notices.

If either the LRCs or ICT need to use another medium or need one adding to the list please contact me so that I can ensure that your loans and overdues will work properly.

Searching for Readers by First Name

Did you know...

that as well as searching by Surname you can also search for Reader Records in Circulation by First Name.

In the Enter Reader Code box you need to type a comma before entering the name

e.g. ,MARIE

This will generate a list of the people whose first name begins with the letters entered from which you can choose the correct record (as it would in a Surname search).

Reader Email Addresses

Heritage will accept just one address in the email field on the Reader Record.

So you cannot enter two addresses as you would do in an email program
i.e. j.smith@hotmail.com; johnsmith@gmail.com

An Invalid Email report will be logged when attempting to email any reader with multiple email addresses listed in one field.

If you have been entering multiple addresses in this way I can run a report to identify these records so let me know and I run one off for you so that the extra address can be deleted.