On Wednesday, October 26, the Library unveiled a newly designed catalog for the public to use. By November 28, the new catalog will become primary. However, we still will offer a link to the old catalog for patron use until January 2, 2017.
The new catalog has been designed to work well on all screen sizes, from the monitor on your desk to the screen on a cell phone. To see the differences between the old and the new catalogs, visit the InfoGuide at http://ebrpl.libguides.com/NewCatalog.
The new catalog also contains the following new features:
- Search results will be sorted by relevancy. This means the results you see are more likely to match what you searched for. It currently only works with keywords searches. However for non-keyword searches, it will sort by popularity which should still produce better results than our current catalog which sorts by year of publication.
- Patrons will be able to temporarily renew their Library card online. If a card has expired, they may click on a button on the My Account page to renew their card for 21 days. This option to renew is only available once the card has expired, and is only available on the account once per year. This means that after the 21-day extension, patrons will only be able to renew their card by visiting a Library in person.
- Online registration for new patrons will be available. Patrons who find us online but do not yet have an account with us will be able to register for a temporary online card. This card number may be used to access our databases and e-resources and place holds from our catalog. The card number will expire after two months. After that time, patrons would need to renew their account in person and receive a permanent, regular use Library card.
- Passwords will replace name codes. Currently, when patrons sign into their account online, they must type in their card number as well as their name code. The name code is the first four letters of the last name followed by the first three letters of the first name. Beginning on October 26, all new patrons will use a password to log in to their account instead of a name code. The default password for these new patrons will be their date of birth in the dd/mm/yyyy format. All current patrons will still log in using their name code as their password. All patrons with an email address, current and new, will be able to change their password at any time and reset their password if forgotten.
- Patrons will be able to add or change their email address from the My Account page.
- Patrons will be able to add and access linked accounts from the My Account page. This means parents will be able to link their child’s account to their own. They can then use that link to easily renew the child’s items without leaving their account. This requires an email address on all linked accounts.
We’d love to hear your feedback! To let us know what you think of the new catalog, simply click the green button at the top of the new catalog page to leave your comments via the Feedback Form.
Now you’re ready to actually use the search functions. If you’re looking for a person, like Steve Avery, you’ll want to include his whole name in quotes, like this: “Steve Avery”. Otherwise you’ll end up with results on Steve Avery, and also everyone named Steve, and everyone named Avery. And that’s a lot of people.
