Transcript Cybercat Tutorial - Farnell Middle School

Cybercat Tutorial
This is the basic search
screen in Cybercat. By
clicking on the arrow you
can specify the type of
search you want to do.
Enter your search terms here. By
typing the search terms “american
revolution,” Cybercat will look for all
materials available on that
particular topic.
Notice that we’ve changed
the search type to “subject.”
Here’s a list of the results from our
subject search for “american
revolution.”
The call number can be a
little difficult to find, but
it’s there, right under the
author’s name. This will
tell you where the items is
located in the Media
Center. When you want to
go find a book, you’ll need
to write down the TITLE,
AUTHOR, and CALL
NUMBER on a scrap piece
of paper to help you find
the book.
The bottom line of each title
entry tells us the availability
of the item, as long as the
estimated wait time for this
item to be available.
Notice that Cybercat gives
us a brief summary of each
title. This is very helpful
for patrons to get an idea
of the contents of the book
before actually going to
look for it on the shelves.
The links on the
left of the screen
in blue allow you
to explore even
more.
When you click on a title, you get a screen that
displays more detailed information about the
title, including page numbers and item type.
A Power Search can be
helpful in narrowing a search.
From the Basic Search screen,
we can select Power Search.
Here’s a look at the Power Search
screen. Notice that you can search by
several different terms at once. You can
also change the conjunctions from
“and” to “or” and “not” for a much
more targeted search.
Here’s an example of when a
Power Search comes in handy.
A student comes in looking for a
book a friend of hers told her
about. She can’t remember the
exact title but she remembers
that the word “face” was in the
title and that it was about a girl
who gets badly burned in a car
accident. We can enter “face”
in the TITLE field and “burns” in
the SUBJECT field.
And here are the results. By
searching by as much information as
possible in a Power Search, we can
more quickly and easily pinpoint the
exact title we are looking for than if
we had simply done a SUBJECT or
TITLE search.
Here’s another example of when a
Power Search comes in handy: a
student is doing a research
assignment on the Civil War and
would like some books on the topic.
With the Power Search we can enter
“civil war” in the SUBJECT field, then
we can go down to the ITEM TYPE
field and change that to “nonfiction.”
And here are the results. We can
see from the call numbers that
the only items in our results list is
non-fiction titles.
Another useful tool is MARKED
TITLES. By clicking in the MARK box,
you can add titles to create a list of
books that you would like to look at.
By selecting MARKED TITLES, you
can see a list of all books you’ve
marked.
Managing your Library Record
using Cybercat
Now let’s take a look at how you can
manage your library account using
Cybercat. In the BORROWER ID field, type
in your student number then click LOGIN
TO CYBERCAT.
N
Once you’ve logged in, you’ll notice that
the BORROWER ID box disappears. To
view your account information, click on
MY ACCOUNT.
Once you click on MY ACCOUNT, you
have two options. You can select
REVIEW MY ACCOUNT or RENEW
MY MATERIALS.
If you click on REVIEW MY ACCOUNT,
you’ll see a summary of your account.
When you check on CHECKOUTS, you
can see a detailed list of what you
have checked out.
After clicking on the CHECKOUTS
you will see details about what
materials are on your record. It
includes the title, due date, and
whether the item is overdue.
By clicking on RENEW MY MATERIALS,
you can renew any items that are not
overdue. Cybercat only allows you to
renew books that are not overdue or
on hold.
For any items you want to renew,
just check the box to the left then
click RENEW SELECTED ITEMS
Placing Items on Hold
Placing a hold on an item is easy
with Cybercat. Only books that
are currently checked out can
be placed on hold. Look at the
two entries to the left. The top
entry is not checked out. We
can’t place a hold on that book
because it should be available
for checkout.
The last book is currently checke
out, so we can place a hold on
that book. By clicking PLACE
HOLD, you’ll be able to place
items on hold.
After clicking the PLACE HOLD
button for a title, you’ll be
brought to this screen where you
will have to click PLACE HOLD
again. Clicking the blue button
will create the hold request.
Cybercat Tutorial