Heritage Training & Forum JISC RSC Joint Event

Yesterday I attended an event organised by JISC RSC-Eastern. Held at the Jisc Offices in London the event comprised of a Heritage forum following by training on basic reports from an IS Oxford trainer. The forum was well attended with representatives from a range of FE institutions. Top of the forum discussion was Cirqa. Several people are looking to upgrade and were keen to hear other's views on it. Unfortunately, only one attendee is actually running with Cirqa so we weren't able to get a range of experiences. Other topics that came up included:

• issues with Heritage versions 4.2.9 & 4.2.10 freezing. This prompted a short discussion on the effects that Windows 7 and different software can have when conflicting with Heritage.
• issues with managing SDI notifications
• problems with sending emails from Heritage, particularly in relation to pre-notifications
• sending notifications by text
• success (or not!) of installing the Heritage Moodle block
• practical issues surrounding stocktaking
• embedding resources from JISC Collections into the catalogue
• search hints in the OPAC and their effectiveness

After lunch, and a chance to chat more informally, Peter Way from IS Oxford delivered his training session. He began by reminding us of the various ways that we can find help with Heritage from the system cue cards, the manual and helpsheets to the Marvin mailing list and Heritage Support. He then gave a brief overview of Cirqa highlighting the benefits (access anywhere - no longer tied to a network; faster running reports; no longer having both the in-built enquiry and the OPAC) and mentioned the support available to upgrade along with the option of having IS Oxford host the system for you. We then began the main content of the training session looking at basic reports from which I got a few useful tips that I can apply to my own reports.

I did feel that the forum lacked a little focus (at one point Maryse Fisher who kindly organises these for us did worry that we would finish far too early!). Perhaps this could be overcome by each attendee having to prepare one or two items for discussion, along with a brief update on any service changes or improvements they have recently implemented on Heritage. Overall though the day provided an excellent opportunity for networking and discussion opportunities.