Meet the Library Catalog

There are two places where you can search for libary resources -- SophiSearch and the library catalog. But how do you know which one to use? And how can you access them?

On the library homepage you will now find two search boxes. The original SophiSearch box in yellow:

And the Catalog Search in blue:

You can also get to the catalog search directly at librarycatalog.austinseminary.edu

SophiSearch searches ALL of the library holdings, both print and electronic. The Library Catalog is focused on physical resources in the Wright Center at Austin Seminary and the Harrison Library at the Seminary of the Southwest, and it also gives you access to your personal library account. This table lists which platform you should use for some common tasks:

Task	SophiSearch or Catalog?
Accessing course reserves	Library Catalog
Placing a hold on a physical book	Library Catalog
Renewing your books online	Library Catalog
Requesting a scan of an article or chapter	Library Catalog
Finding a peer-reviewed journal article	SophiSearch
Placing an inter-library loan request	SophiSearch
Finding an e-book	SophiSearch
Finding everything available through the library on a topic	SophiSearch

 

Logging in is the first step to using many of the exciting features in our catalog. To start, click on the link that says "Log in to your account" in the upper-right corner.

How you log in will depend on what type of library card you have.

• Austin Seminary Students and Employees will log in with their library email address.
• Community Borrowers can log in with a username or password of their choosing. Contact the library to set up your password.
• SSW Students or Employees will log in at https://librarycatalog.ssw.edu.

When you are a dedicated libary user, it can be hard to remember what all you have checked out and when it is due back. Luckily the library catalog makes it easy for you to keep track of all your loans! Here's how:

• Log into your personal library account by clicking on “Log in to your account” at the top right and following the instructions. See the "Logging In" tab below for more details.

• Click the down arrow next to "Welcome, YOUR NAME" at the top right and click "Your Account"

• The “Summary” tab will list all the items you have checked out from either the Wright Center at Austin Seminary or the Harrison Library at the Seminary of the Southwest. You can see when the items are due and how many automatic renewals (if any) you have left on the item in the "Renew" column.

• Note: Most patrons will get three automatic renewals for most item types if another patron hasn’t requested a hold on the item. This means you don’t have to do anything at all, and your book will be renewed for the maximum amount of time! Faculty and staff, who have a one-year check-out period, will need to renew books manually or contact the library to renew them for another year. For more information on loan periods for different types of patrons, see the Using the Library page on the library website.

• If you have items that are available for renewal, you will see an option to select a check box in the "Renew" column. Check the boxes for the items you would like to renew and then click “Renew Selected” at the bottom of the screen. You also have the option to select “Renew All” to renew all the items on your account that are available for renewal.

• Finally, you can always get a quick look at how many items you have that are checked out, overdue, or on hold from the home page of the library catalog once you have logged in:

• As always, if you have questions about what you have checked out, how to renew, or anything else, just email us at library@austinseminary.edu or stop by the Library Services Desk.

Is the book you want (or desperately need to read for a course) checked out? Do you simply not have time to retrieve the book you need from the stacks (as much as you would like to leisurely browse all our lovely books)?

The library catalog has a solution for either scenario (and probably others that are not coming to mind): Placing a hold on the book(s) you need. This is sort of like reserving a table, and pre-ordering take-out, all rolled into one: it means that we will retrieve the book(s) for you and keep it at the library services desk for you to come pick it up at your convenience (within seven days).

Here is how it works:

(1)  After logging in to your patron account (see above for details on how to do that), look up the book you want in the catalog and click “Place Hold.” In this case, the book is one that is currently checked out to another patron:

(2) Confirm the hold (note that you can choose to place a hold on a specific copy; if you do not choose a copy, the hold will be placed on the next available copy).

(3) You will receive an email letting you know when your book is available for you to come to the library and check it out. We will hold it for you at the library services desk for seven days.

Note that you can also place holds on books that are not checked out and are currently available in the library:

You can also place holds on books at the Harrison Library at the Seminary of the Southwest (SSW) (and students at SSW can place holds on books that are here). The staff at the Harrison Library will retrieve the books for you and let you know when they are ready for you to head over there and pick them up (it is a pleasant 10-minute walk from here). You can use the same library card to check out books from both libraries and have them all in one account.

“It’s on reserve in the library.” Maybe you have heard your professor say this about a book. Great. So you head over to the library and come to the library services desk, but can’t quite remember the title, or the author. You could probably find it on the syllabus, or email your professor, but in the back of your mind you are thinking, “There must be an easier way.” And there is!:

Click the “Course Reserves” link right above the main search box in the catalog interface (if you are on the homepage, click the blue "Catalog Search" tab and click the red Search button).

This brings up a list of the courses (at least the ones that have books on reserve). Note that this includes both Austin Seminary (APTS) and the Seminary of the Southwest (SSW) courses:

You can sort by class name, professor’s name, course number, department, course number, and term; you can also search by professor's name, course title, etc.:

Clicking on the name of a course brings up a list of all the books, including e-books, that are on reserve for that course. It will tell you if a given book is available or checked out; there is also a link to e-books:

If you are a faculty member (or just want a handy way to gain access to the list), you can copy the URL and paste it in your syllabus, or notes, or, well, I suppose you could print it out and stick it on your refrigerator, where all important things go, but it may not help you very much there.

Sometimes the name of something gives you a pretty clear sense of what it is. For example, if you see a sign at an intersection that says “Four Way Stop,” you can be pretty sure that means that cars coming to this intersection from all four ways should stop (though of course, questions of who should stop first, and whether anyone actually stops, are another matter).

At other times, the name or label is less helpful. Unfortunately, the “Request Article” function in the library catalog is one of these. Let’s say you are looking for some insight on next week’s assigned scripture readings in the Everyday Connections commentary, and you see a button that says “Request Article”:

You might be thinking: “Wait a minute, this is a book, not an article (or a journal, or a magazine). Why is it offering me this option?

 Do not be deceived, or discouraged from using this. What this means is, “Ask Us to Scan Part of This Book and Send It to You.” I guess, to be fair, that would be a bit long for a button label. Maybe we could talk the good folks at Koha in to changing this to “Request Portion”? Anyway, despite what the label might suggest to the contrary, clicking this gives you the option to request that we scan and send a portion of this book to you:

Once you are logged in, you can fill in the relevant information in the form (you do not have to fill out everything, and not everything will be relevant, but the more information you give us, the more likely we are to get what you seek):

We will scan the portion of the book you have requested (within the limits of US Copyright Law and seminary policy, which typically allows about one chapter; if you ask for more than this, do not worry, we will let you know and see what other options might be available).

We will send you an email with a link to the article. You will be able to use the link for seven days, during which time you can download the file to your computer for your own research.

In the library catalog, you are in control of how long your checkout history is saved in the system. By default, information about the books you checked out will be deleted after a short period of time. If you'd like to have it saved forever so that you can refer to it, or if you'd like it to be deleted immediately, then you can edit the privacy settings on your account. 

First, you will log into your personal account at the top right corner of the screen. More information on logging in is available below. Once you are logged in, click on "Welcome, Your Name" and select "Your account":

On the menu on the left side of the screen, select "Privacy."

There are three options:

• Forever: keep my history without limit. This is the option for users who want to keep track of what they are reading or placed a hold on.
• Default: Retain my history for as long as my librarians think is best. [A short amount of time for administrative reasons]
• Never: Delete my history immediately. This will delete all record of the item that was checked-out upon check-in, and hold history upon fulfillment or cancellation.

Select the option that suits your needs and click "Save." If you elect to save your checkout history forever, you will be able to see it by clicking the Checkout History link on the left on your account page (right above the Privacy link). 

At the bottom of the page, you have the option to immediately delete your checkout history, hold history, or both checkout and hold history.

Finally, note that independently of this setting, our system will track the last patron to return an item for the management of items that were returned damaged.

Ever looked up a book only to forget the call number when you are halfway to the shelf?  Well, unless you're leveraging this time-honored library tradition to get your steps in, let us recommend the library catalog's "send to device" feature!  You can also use this to pull up links to ebooks on your phone or tablet.

Just click on the "Send to Device" link in the menu on the right side of the screen when you are in an item record, then point your camera at the QR code:

 

• Instructions to scan a QR code with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
• Instructions to scan a QR code with an android device.

 

Did you know we accept purchase suggestions?  Well it ain't no lie, so let's buy buy buy!

If the library doesn't own an item that would be helpful in your work or ministry, you can make a suggestion within our library catalog! If it fits within our collection development policy and budget we'll add it to the library collection. We'll even place it on hold for you when it arrives!

Log in and click on the "purchase suggestion" link on the left side of the Your Account page to begin. From there you can provide information about your request, and you can sometimes even get Google to fill it out for you.  The more information you provide, the more quickly library staff can process your suggestion.

We'll send you emails about the status of your suggestion, but you can also monitor the status from your account.

If we're able to purchase your suggestion, we'll let you know when it arrives and place it on hold for you.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

The library catalog has two features that can help you use the library collection: the Cart and Lists. Both features let you pull together groups of items from the catalog and perform actions on them. The Cart feature will let you do this without being logged in and has a smaller set of tools. It will also only be saved as long as you have your browser open. The Lists feature requires that you log into your library account and will let you save multiple lists over time and use additional tools. Let’s learn more!

Using Lists:

• First, log into your patron account. More information on how to do this is below.
• Search the catalog to find items you are interested in.
• Click the check box next to items in your search results that you’d like to add to your list and use the “Add to…” drop box at the top of the search results to select one of your existing lists or to create a new list.

• You can also add individual items to a list using the “Save to Lists” button under each item on the search results page, or through the “Save to your lists” button along the right side on the detailed record after you click on a title.
• You can create new lists from the Lists menu in your patron account, or on the fly when you select items from the catalog and save them to a list.

• Access your lists through the Lists button on the blue bar at the top left of the screen, or through your patron account.

• After selecting one of your lists, you can:
  • Select individual titles (or all titles) and place holds or remove them from the list.
  • Download the records for the items in the list in a format that you can import into a citation manager like Zotero or EndNote.
  • Send the records in the list as an email.
  • Format the list for printing.
  • Edit the title or delete the list.
  • Share the list with another library patron (for example, if you were working on a project with another student). This will email them a link to the list that will be good for two weeks. When they click on the link they will be prompted to log into their account and then the shared list will show up alongside their other lists.
  • Change how titles in your list are sorted.

Some notes on Lists:

• Lists are private unless you share them with another patron as described above. Only you will be able to see your lists while you are logged in.
• You can have multiple lists going at once and you can easily edit the names of your lists or delete them when you no longer need them.
• In some cases, the library staff may make public lists. When those are available, they will show up in the Lists menu for all patrons, and you won’t need to be logged in to see them. You can log in and add items from a public list to one of your private lists, if desired.

Using Carts:

• Unlike Lists, you do not need to be logged in to save items to a Cart
• Search the catalog to find items you are interested in.
• Click the check box next to items in your search results that you’d like to add to your cart and use the “Add to…” drop box at the top of the search results to add your selections to your cart.

• You can also add individual items to a cart using the “Add to Cart” button under each item on the search results page, or through the “Add to your cart” button along the right side on the detailed record after you click on a title.

• Access your cart through the Cart button on the blue bar at the top left of the screen.

• In your cart, you can:
  • Select individual titles (or all titles) and place holds or remove them from the cart.
  • Download the records for the items in the list in a format that you can import into a citation manager like Zotero or EndNote.
  • Send the records in the list as an email (you will need to log in to do this).
  • Format the list for printing.
  • Empty the entire cart and close it.

Notes on Carts:

• Carts are a good way to quickly put together a list of items to pull up on your phone, print, or email to yourself and make it easy to find the call numbers when you are browsing in the stacks.
• Your cart will not be saved after you close your browser. If you want to save a group of items for future reference, you should log in and create a list.
• If you decide you want to convert the items in your cart to a list, log in and go to your Cart. Select the items you want to move to a list and click “Add to a list.”