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!