Online help is always available in the catalog by clicking on the Help button in the upper right corner of all the catalog screens. If you get stuck using the catalog try using Help.

The Login page lets you log in to your individual user account (called "My Library Card"). Your user account is a record of your personal information, any items you have currently checked out, any holds you have requested, blocks on your account, and any lists you have created or saved. You can also renew items after you login. You need a valid library card to use this.

My List is a feature that lets you create a temporary list of items from your search results. You can view the list, sort the list, add or remove items from the list, or e-mail the list. If you have a valid library card, you can also save a list of items for future reference. From a saved list, you can move items to another list, rename the list, or delete it. Saved lists are retained for 90 days and then are automatically deleted. Use the 'Email this list' link to send a copy of your list(s) to your email account.

This adds an item to My List. My List is a feature that lets you create a temporary list of items from your search results. Each time you add an item to My List, the catalog displays the number of items in the current list next to the My List icon. You may add as many items as you want to My List.

After doing a search, you may want to see if a particular item is available for checkout. You can do this by requesting the item. If the item is available, the catalog directs you to check the shelves. If the item is not available, you can make a hold request. The library will then hold the item for you when it becomes available.

I am having problems viewing or using the catalog with my web browser.

Web accelerators or cache setting may cause problems with the catalog, for example, only being able to place one request. A solution to this problem is to use Internet Explorer (IE) or Netscape while you are using the catalog. If you still prefer to use a different browser some steps are listed below that may correct the problem.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later
• Netscape Navigator 6.1 or later
• Netscape Communicator 4.7 or later
• AOL browser works if TopSpeed accelerator is disabled
• Earthlink browser works if the accelerator is disabled
• Walmart browser does not work
• Safari works on a Mac if caching is disabled (or you can use IE or Netscape on Mac OS X)
• Opera works with specific settings
• Mozilla works with specific cache setting
• Firefox works with specific cache setting
• WebTV works with basic catalog features but not all features are available

AOL

• Most AOL users are able to use the catalog successfully with their AOL browser.
• Some AOL users cannot place more than one hold on the catalog without logging out and logging back in.
• A solution to this problem is to use Internet Explorer (IE) or Netscape while you are using the catalog. If you prefer, you can change back to your AOL browser when you are not using the catalog.
• Check on the Start menu on your computer under Programs for Internet Explorer or check your desktop for an IE icon. (If you are using AOL dialup, after you start up your connection with AOL, minimize the AOL browser and open IE.)
  • If you can't find IE, try the following:
    • Click on the Start menu.
    • Click on the Run command.
    • Enter iexplore.exe in the text box and click OK
• AOL 9.0 and Topspeed: AOL 9.0 has a feature called TopSpeed which uses web page caching to speed up Web surfing. (This means that the AOL browser stores a copy of web pages on your local PC and uses those pages instead of going back over the Internet to get a new page display. This speeds up or accelerates your Internet connection because it reduces traffic.) We believe it is TopSpeed that is causing the problem with placing holds.
• If you don't want to use IE, we recommend that you turn off TopSpeed and clear the AOL browser cache. The following instructions are from the AOL help screens on TopSpeed.
  • To turn off TopSpeed:
    • Click Settings on the AOL Toolbar.
    • Click Internet (Web) Options on the Essentials tab.
    • Then clear the TopSpeed check box.
  • To clear the AOL browser cache:
    • Click on either the AOL icon or the Dialer icon on the right of the system tray.
    • Click System Information.
    • Click the Utilities tab.
    • Click Clear Browser Cache.
    • This procedure clears both the TopSpeed cache and the Internet Explorer cache. However, clearing the Internet Explorer cache using the normal Internet Explorer method will not clear the TopSpeed cache.

Earthlink

• We have found that if you turn off the Accelerator on the Earthlink browser, the holds problem is solved. Or, after you start up your connection with Earthlink, minimize the Earthlink browser and look for Internet Explorer on your computer.

Walmart

• It appears that the accelerator is built into the Walmart browser and can't be turned off. After you start up your connection with Walmart, minimize the Walmart browser and look for Internet Explorer on your computer.

Safari on a Mac

• We have reports that IE and Netscape work with the catalog on a Mac. You might want to try one of these browsers first.
• You can permanently disable the cache in Safari by doing the following:
  1. Go to Go/Applications on the Mac OS X toolbar.
  2. From within the Applications window, double click on the Utilities icon.
  3. Double click on the Terminal icon to open a Terminal window.
  4. At the prompt type: rm -r ~/Library/caches/safari/
  5. Then type: touch ~/Library/caches/safari
  This creates and empty file where Safari expects its cache to be and prevents it from caching any pages.

Opera

• We are aware of significant problems with some versions of Opera, for example not being able to login to the catalog. We have done tests using version 7.51 of Opera.
• Make the following change:
  1. Go to the Tools/Preferences menu
  2. Click on Network and Identification
  3. Then select "Identify as Mozilla 3.0", "Identify as Mozilla 4.78", or "Identify as Mozilla 5.0".

Mozilla

• You need to change the cache setting in Mozilla by doing following:
  1. Go to Edit/Preferences on the Mozilla toolbar
  2. Click on Advanced, then Cache
  3. Change the setting to "Compare the page every time"

Firefox

• You need to change the cache settings in Firefox by doing the following
  1. In the Location bar type: about:config
  2. Press Enter. Firefox will display a list of configuration settings.
  3. In the Filter box, type: cache
  4. You will see the configuration settings relating to the browser cache.
  5. Double-click on Browser.cache.doc_check_frequency
  6. Change the setting from 3 to 1.
  7. Click OK.

WebTV

• We have reports that generally WebTV works with the catalog. The My List feature doesn't work. Show Details may not work.

How do I Renew an item that I have already checked out?

• To renew all the items in the list, mark the box to the left of the Title column.
• Mark the box next to the item(s) you want to renew.