Our Catalyst brochure is available as a pdf download.  It explains the top 5 things to know about Catalyst:

1. Using filters to target in on the best results.
2. The difference between an “Everything” and a “Local” search.  NOTE: “Local” was recently renamed “Carl/Ole Catalog”
3. Signing in to your account
4. Changes that we’re expecting in the coming months as the system continues to improve
5. Ask Us! If you have any questions or concerns!

If you’ve been using Catalyst, the libraries’ catalog this summer, you’ll have noticed that the interface changed dramatically mid-August.  The new interface should be easier to use, more intuitive, and work well on mobile-devices.

With that interface upgrade, we’ve revised our

Top 5 things to know about Catalyst…

5. Use filters on the results screen to target in on the best results

Let’s say you’re interested in scholarly articles about birds.  One of the quickest ways to do that is to simply search for the word “birds.”

This gives us more than 17,000 results that include books, articles, films, and more.  The filters along the left-hand side of the results page let you narrow down the results.  For instance, clicking on “Scholarly Articles” will show you only the 1500 scholarly articles in the results.  If you click the small red checkmark with the slash through it, that will instead exclude the scholarly articles from your results.  You can click on multiple filters to further refine your results.

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4. Local Catalog vs Everything vs Course Reserves…

Just as before, the new interface lets you choose at the beginning of your search which set of materials you want to search.

• Everything: includes articles, books, movies, images, and more.  This gives you the broadest search with the most results.
• Local Catalog: records of items in the Carleton and St. Olaf libraries. Close to a traditional library catalog, it includes the items the libraries have selected for the collection: books, e-books, movies, journal titles, and government documents.  It will not find articles or other content from databases that we subscribe to.
• Course Reserves: exactly what you’d think! Use this to search for course materials that faculty have put on reserve for a specific course.
  Carleton e-Reserves note! At Carleton and looking for e-Reserves? Click here to get to our e-Reserves, or use the Reserves tab on our website.

Read more about the differences between Everything and Local Catalog.

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3. Log in to renew books, see your account, and request books from the other library

In the upper right corner of the Catalyst screen, you should see the word Guest (if you see your name, you’re already logged in!).

If you hold your cursor over the word “Guest” the words will change, and you can click on “Sign In” to log in to the system using your Carleton or St. Olaf username and password.  Now you should see your name where it used to say “Guest.”  You can hover there again and click on “My Library Account”.  This will show you what you have checked out (so you can renew), what you’ve requested, and any messages or fines on your account.

Once you’re logged in, you can also requests books from the other Bridge libraries.  Click the title of the item you want to request and scroll to the “Physical Copies” section.  Click “Request” and enter your preferences about where you want to pick it up.

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2. The interface will continue to change

We are continuing to make improvements to the interface, and the vendor is upgrading the system as well, so you can expect the interface to change a bit.  In particular, watch for a new logo for Catalyst, and possibly a new color scheme.

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1. We are here to help!

The big day has arrived and we’ve gone live with our new online catalog and discovery tool, Catalyst!  You can access the new system from either library’s website (Carleton Library | St. Olaf Libraries). You may notice a few quirks or hiccups as we work through issues related to the roll-out.  Please let us know if you see something that doesn’t seem right.

Known Issues We are posting a list of known issues that we have run into post go-live. We’ll include workarounds when possible and updates as needed. Please bear with us as we work through these issues.

We’re excited to have our new system in place. The basic functionality, however has not changed: you can still search for all of our materials and find the best way to access them using Catalyst.

Top 5 things to know about Catalyst:

5. Results of a search are combined into one list.

This may be the first and most obvious change that you’ll notice. Previously, we’d split the results of a search to have “Books and more” results in one list on the left and “Articles and more” on the right. We now give you all the results in one list. You can narrow your results in many different ways using the options on the left side of the results page.

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4. “Everything” vs “Local Catalog” vs “Course Reserves”

At the beginning of your search, you can choose to search “Everything”, “Local Catalog” or “Course Reserves”

• Everything: includes articles, books, movies, images, and more.  This gives you the broadest search with the most results.
• Local Catalog: records of items in the Carleton and St. Olaf libraries. Close to a traditional library catalog, it includes the items the libraries have selected for the collection: books, e-books, movies, journal titles, and government documents.  It will not find articles or other content from databases that we subscribe to.
• Course Reserves: exactly what you’d think! Use this to search for course materials that faculty have put on reserve for a specific course.

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3. Find books at your library

1. Start by clicking on “Local Catalog” to search for books, dvds, journal titles, and other items at the library.
2. Enter your search terms
   

   [Screen shot of the Catalyst search form with “Local Catalog” selected]

3. From the results screen, click “Library” along the left side of the screen to choose your preferred library.
   

   [screen shot of Catalyst filter to narrow results to those at a particular library]

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2. The interface will change throughout the summer

There will be a major upgrade happening in August which will change how the interface looks. We’ll also be working throughout the summer on ways to make Catalyst work better for you, so that it’s at its best for Fall term.  If you see anything that looks wrong, please let us know.

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1. We are here to help! 

If you have any questions or run in to any problems at all, please don’t hesitate to contact us (Carleton/St. Olaf or use the form on the right side of this page).

Dear Carleton and St. Olaf faculty and staff,

We are pleased to announce that at the end of June the libraries will complete our migration to a new library management system that will replace our current software, Millennium, which is used to run the Bridge library catalog. Millennium is no longer being developed by the company that owns it.  After extensively researching alternatives, we have contracted with Ex Libris to run the Alma library management system. Alma has been adopted by many academic libraries, including the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin.  We are confident that Alma and its library catalog/search interface, which may look different than our current interface, will meet your needs and expectations, give us the ability to move forward as libraries and a consortium, and build upon the strong collaboration that characterizes Bridge.

Later this spring we will share more information about Alma, particularly the public features that you will be using for research, course reserves, and requesting materials.  In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either one of us.

Roberta Lembke                                                        Brad Schaffner
Director of IT and Libraries                                        College Librarian
St. Olaf College                                                          Carleton College
lembke@stolaf.edu                                                     bschaffner@carleton.edu