Searching the Catalog
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Patron Options for Requesting Materials
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General Tips:
When looking for a specific book or material:
When doing broader searches:
Scopes:
There are 5 types of searches you can do on the library homepage:
If an item isn't available via either WOU or one of our Summit library partners, there are still other options! Patrons may still find items using:
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GENERAL TIPS:
Item Format: Located at the top of the item record. If the item does not have a 'cover image' it will be replaced with an image of the item format.
Basic Details: Will always have title listed at top and typically include the publisher, author and year of publication. Clicking on the title of the item record will open up the complete details for that item
Access Method/Availability/Call #: Shows ways in which the item is available to the patron, and includes Call # if physically available or part of Course Reserves. Access is color-coded:
Detailed Record Example
After you perform a search a list of filters will be present on the left side of the results page. What filters are present will depend on your initial search scope, but here are a few examples of the categories you'll commonly see. Use 'Show More' on each category to view more filters.
Availability: Good for narrowing down results to either electronic or physical items only.
Resource Type: A more specific version of the 'availability limiter'. Great for limiting yourself to one specific type of material, be if physical or digital. Some patrons will look for information but want it only in journal or book form.
Date: Good for patrons who are looking for current materials only. Articles about educational learning methods from the 1930s probably won't do an edcuation major a lot of good in designing their classroom activities. However, if they were looking only for historical perspectives, it may be helpful to limit your End Date down to the 1970s
Physical Location: Also great for patrons who are looking for books in a certain section. For example, an education student who needs a book about a disability, but it needs to be child appropriate. Limiting yourself to juvenile would be very helpful
Language: Can come in handy when a patron needs the book in a specific foreign language (or is looking at a foreign topic but still needs it to be written in English
Applying Multiple Filters You may apply more than one filter at a time by check-marking all that you want to apply. When you've selected all our filters, click the green 'Apply Filters' icon at the bottom of your screen Excluding Categories You may also refine results by exclusion. When hovering over any filter, check-mark the red box of all categories that you wish to exclude, then click the green 'Apply Filters' icon at the bottom of your screen. |
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The 'Advanced Search' function can be accessed from the bottom-right side of the search box, and is the default view on the Kiosk machines.
There are 3 important elements to the Advanced Search function:
1. Search Scope - The default search scope is very broad, so delimit to down to 'WOU' or 'WOU & Summit' before searching.
2. Pre-Filters - You can limit down your search results by material type (book, journal, etc), language (english, french, etc), and by year (last 5, 10, 20).
3. Boolean Operators - If searching for more than one keyword/phrase, you will use the boolean operators AND, OR, NOT
Each Boolean operator will have a different effect on your search results. AND: Requires that both search words are present, otherwise it will not be returned as a result. The more 'AND' operators you add, the narrower your results will be (until you get zero matches) OR: When you want to find either term. Good for finding results that include one term or another that are similar. Examples could be: 'education OR teaching', 'Facebook OR Twitter', etc NOT: When you want exclude a term that is similar to the one you want. For example, I want research on football, but I'm not interested in college football, or futbal (soccer). Ex: 'football NOT college NOT soccer' |
The course reserves are populated of items that WOU owns, as well as personal items that departments or professors “loan” to the library each term (or longer).
Search 'Course Reserves' using either the following:
Once the patron has found the item, they will need to take the call number over to the checkout desk
If a patron is logged into their account, they can view how long they are allowed to check out the item. Checkout lengths for course reserves vary and are determined by the professor.
There are five categories of checkout length:
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For Advanced Users:
If you know that the reserves for a specific class have been added, you can look up to see if the record exists in Alma.
Patrons may access both books and journal resources electronically. Some resources, typically journals, will have a variety of access methods and date ranges.
Online Books:
Click on the 'Online Access' area to open up the item's full details.
The patron will need to sign in to their account in order to see what full-text methods are available. If they are on the campus network, they will not be required to sign in.
Online Journals:
Journals that the university has online access to work mostly the same as electronic books, but there will be coverage restrictions (what years are available), and some resources are only available via an "as-needed" service called 'Get It Now'.
This particular journal is availalbe from three different databases. Two of them have access starting from 2001, and one of them is from 1998 to current.
We can also purchase specific articles from 1978 and 1998 using the 'Get It Now' on-demand service.
NOTE: 'Get It Now' does not allow you to browse journal articles (like the regular databases would) but is used for accessing specific articles.
WOU patrons (students, staff/faculty) may also request access to items in a variety of ways (including access to a course reserve):
When a user is logged in and is viewing a WOU-owned item, they will see a Request Options link. Clicking that link will open a new tab where the user can select one of the available options.
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[Staff/Faculty]
This process describes how to guide a patron through ordering an item from the Summit program. If you are ordering a Summit item on behalf of another patron, please follow the steps for ordering an item for a patron in Alma.
Once you've found an item available in Summit that you'd like to order, click on the item title to open up the full record.
If you are not already signed into your portal page or library account, you will need to do so in order to complete a Summit ordering request. Once you are signed into your account, click the appropriate Summit request link.
A new tab will open allowing the patron to finalize the request, select a pickup or shipping location, and sign up to receive SMS notifcations.
NOTE: You cannot place an ILL request on behalf of a patron, they need to be logged into their 'My Library' account to access the ILL request feature. If you're working with a patron online and they're having trouble, either forward them to, or provide the contact information for the ILL/Summit coordinator.