The Well at Willen (a work of the Society of the Sacred Mission) is a modern faith based community of families, couples and single people who are attempting to live a shared expression of life through their values of spirituality, hospitality, inclusivity, peace and justice and sustainability. It is based around in a large house with library and meeting rooms in three acres of land located on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, next to Willen Lake. The community, which was founded in 1997, is Christian based but welcomes people from different faith traditions and none, and is actively working to create and foster dialogue understanding and acceptance.

What range of media do you hold in your library? Is it all catalogued on Heritage?

Mostly books (c. 12,000) and pamphlets; small periodicals collection; a few DVDs and CDs. Not yet all catalogued.

Can you remember where you first heard about Heritage?

We first heard about Heritage in an article in the Library + Information Gazette.

Do you remember how many library management systems you looked closely at?

Five or six.

What were you looking for in a library management system? What were your priorities?

Ease of use (including use by volunteers); ability to import catalogue records; cost; system support; reliability.

Why did you choose Heritage over the other systems you were considering?

Heritage most closely met our requirements, and the demonstration given on-site indicated that the system would be more appropriate than the alternatives being considered.

What are your overall impressions of IS Oxford staff (this includes Sales, Training and Support staff, plus any Developers you may have dealt with)?

Everyone has been helpful (I haven’t needed a great deal of contact after the initial period of purchase and installation).

How did the initial installation process of Heritage go? Did you find it straightforward?

Yes, I don’t recall any problems.

What did you think of the Heritage training?

It was convenient to have training on-site here, and the trainer was very adaptable. A whole day of one-to one training was quite intensive (for me and the trainer) and I think we both flagged a bit towards the end of the day.

Have you used the support website? How useful did you find it?

Yes, on a couple of occasions only. Both times it answered my query.

How has Heritage improved the day-to-day running of the library and services offered to your users?

Improved efficiency; greater accuracy; ability to search the catalogue by subject, keyword, etc.

What are your favourite features in Heritage?

Quick Cat is invaluable for ease and speed of importing catalogue records. I am still in the first phase of our computerisation project – i.e. adding catalogue records to the database and accessioning stock – so I haven’t used all the available features yet. So far, the system is used for borrower registration, loan transactions and reservations, and catalogue searches, and these functions are straightforward.

Do you have any other comments you would like to make about IS Oxford or Heritage? Would you recommend it/us to other libraries?

I would recommend it to other libraries in a similar situation to us – i.e. small, specialist libraries requiring an easy-to-use system with support available when needed and no hidden costs.

The Willen Library have been using Heritage since 2007. They currently have the Quickcat Online Module.