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Table of Contents

How do I...

Other Catalog Features

Quick Help

...find my PIN?

Your PIN (or, Personal Identification Number) is is a 4-digit password assigned to your library card and given to you when you first receive your library card.

Your PIN serves as a password to your library account online, and helps protect your privacy.

After logging in to the catalog, you can change your PIN to any 4 to 10 letter/digit combination you desire, by going to My Account / User PIN Change.

If you do not know your PIN, please contact your library to receive a new PIN.

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...perform a search?

To perform a search:

  1. Select a type of search from the pulldown menu.
  2. Type your search words in the text box.
  3. Click Search.

You can choose from the following search types:

To further narrow your search, you can choose any of the following optional settings:

Format:

Audience:

Fiction / Nonfiction:

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... search for an exact phrase?

To find an exact phrase (such as a movie or song title), enclose the phrase in double quotes ( " ).

For example, to find the movie The Bridge over the River Kwai, search for:

"bridge over the river kwai"

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...place a hold?

To place a hold, click the Place Hold link for any item after performing a search.

To place a hold, you must provide:

*To avoid having to provide your library card number and PIN each time you place a hold during your session, you can use the log in at the top of the screen. This will keep you logged in for the length of your session.

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...renew materials online?

To renew materials, click My Account, and then click Review Account / Renew Materials.

To renew materials, you must provide:

*To avoid having to provide your library card number and PIN each time you place a hold during your session, you can use the log in at the top of the screen. This will keep you logged in for the length of your session.

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... use wildcard characters (substitution and truncation)?

The ? symbol is used as a substitute for a missing character in a search term, usually when you are unsure of a spelling or when you want to find two forms of one word. For example, if you enter wom?n, the catalog locates records containing either "woman" or "women."

wom?n finds woman or women

The $ symbol is used to truncate search terms and can represent a single characters, many characters, or no characters. When more than one term in a search expression is truncated, each term is searched for all variations. For example, if you enter jame$, the catalog locates the specified records containing the terms "Jame," "James," and "Jamerton."

jame$ finds jame, james, or jamerton

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...choose search words?

When choosing search terms, try using 2 or 3 "key" words. Using more words might slow down your search and return too few items. Using fewer words might return too many items.

For example, the search term fishing might return too many results. Instead, try freshwater fishing or saltwater fishing.

Also, the catalog is NOT case sensitive; you don't need to type capital letters, and punctuation is ignored and need not be typed.

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Other Catalog Features

In addition to searching, the catalog provides access to some other cool resources.

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