OPAC is the electronic version of paper card catalog which is very useful in searching for the books call number, author, publication and other important data that is available in the library. Use this to check if the library resources you need is available. Access it here.
Catalog Searching
Any user of Destiny Library Manager is a patron. The patron who logs in to the system has access to a range of features and functionality. A patron who does not log in to the system is called a Guest and has access to basic functionality only, such as searching the catalog. Below are the three types in Library Search; Basic Search, Power Search and Visual Search.
Basic Search
The default Basic search function allows patrons to use simple search terms or phrases to locate materials and to set limiters to narrow their search results. Its buttons provide the ability to perform five types of searches: Keyword, Title, Author, Subject, and Series.
A Keyword search displays the largest number of titles in the Search Results
list as it searches all title, author, subject, series, and note tags (fields of information) in the district’s MARC (title) records.
Power Search
A Power search is a more complex search interface that allows patrons to use
Boolean operators and additional limiters to perform a more precise search.
Boolean operators are words that link search terms to broaden or narrow search results. These operators are AND, OR, and NOT.
A limiter is a means of limiting a search to a particular field or fields.
Limiting Your Search
Both the Basic and Power search options let patrons limit their search to a particular Location, Material Type, Reading Level, and other limiters.
Library Manager limiters:
● Location (available in Basic and Power search) allows patrons to narrow the search to materials owned by their school, the entire district, or a group of schools (such as all elementary, middle, or high schools).
● Material Type (available in Basic and Power search) allows patrons to narrow the search to a specific material type, such as Book or Video.
● Publication Year (available in Power search) allows patrons to narrow the search to any material published during a specific year or range of years.
● Circulation Type (available in Power search) allows patrons to narrow the search to materials that share a particular circulation type. The default is All Circulation Types; click the Update button to limit the search to one or more of the eight types listed, such as Reference, Audiovisual, and DVDs.
● Award Winner (available in Basic and Power search) allows patrons to narrow the search to award-winning materials by selecting a specific state or “Literary Prizes” from the drop-down list. Once patrons select one of those options, they refine the search further by selecting a specific award. The Destiny Administrator must enable this limiter on the Edit District screen. Destiny updates the list of award winners automatically once a month.
● Reading Level (available in Basic and Power search) allows patrons to narrow the search for books that are not too easy or too hard for them to read. Patrons can enter values between 0.1 and 20.0, using one or both fields.
● Interest Level (available in Basic and Power search) allows patrons to narrow the search to books that should interest students in a particular grade level. Patrons must select grade levels in both the From and to fields.
● Reading Programs (available in Basic and Power search) allows patrons to narrow the search to books that match particular reading levels from the Accelerated Reader®, Reading Counts!®, Lexile® or Fontas and Pinnell®
Reading Programs based on reading levels and point values. This feature is available only with a Reading Program Service Enriched Content Subscription.
The Online Resources checkbox (available in Power search) allows patrons to include the library’s online resources in a search. Selecting this function opens a list of available resources to choose from. Online Resources are automatically included in a Basic search. This function is available if One Search™ is enabled.
Visual Search
Destiny’s Visual Search feature allows patrons to click on a series of pictorial buttons to search for resources instead of entering search terms.
Visual searches use two types of buttons: group and search (or URL) buttons. Click on the Visual subtab to display the group buttons. Group buttons represent broad topics to help guide patrons toward a particular area of interest. Clicking
on a group button displays the search buttons. When patrons click a search button, the Search Results screen opens and shows a list of the resources in the library’s collection that match the search topic.
Search Tools
Library Manager provides many tools that help patrons perform successful searches.
Wildcards help when patrons are unsure of the complete word or do not know
the exact spelling. When using wildcards, patrons might begin with a title search, then, if necessary, expand the search with a subject or keyword search.
● Asterisk (*)
The * replaces any number of letters at the end of a word. However, it cannot be used in place of a word’s first or last letter, and it cannot have any letters after it. For example, entering teach* and then choosing a Title search
locates any MARC (title) records with the letters teach in the title, such as teach, teaches, teacher, and teaching.
● Question Mark (?)
The ? wildcard replaces single letters; however, it cannot replace the first or last letter of the word. For example, entering m?n and then choosing a Title search locates any MARC (title) records with a single three-letter word that starts with m and ends with n, such as man and men. To expand the search results, patrons might conduct a Subject search with m?n, which yields results of titles that have the letters m and n and any letter in between in both the titles and the subject tags (fields). The broadest wildcard search is a keyword search.
If a patron misspells a search term while using the Keyword search, Library Manager tries to locate a match close to the word the patron entered in the Find field with the Did you mean... feature in the Search Results
Search Results
Search results are organized by material types on subtabs on the Search Results screen.
The Titles subtab lists materials in your library that match the search term. This includes Follett ebooks.
The Digital Resources subtab lists videos, pictures, or sound files from a digital provider.
The Web Sites subtab lists the websites that have information about the search term. This tab is only available to sites with a subscription to WebPath Express.
The One Search subtab lists resources in your online databases.
Now that you already know about the Catalog searching.
