FAQs

Q: When I search for an author, do I have to type the last name first?

A: No. You can type stephen king, or king, stephen. It doesn’t matter.

Q: I don’t know the exact spelling of an author name. What should I do?

A: When you begin your search, select Author as your search criteria. Type the first few letters of the author’s last name, and then pause for a second. You’ll see a list of authors. If you see the one you want, click the name to run the search. If not, try additional spellings.

In addition, if you do a search and get 0 results, the system may offer suggestions for you to try. For example, if you type hemmingway, you won’t get any search results for Ernest Hemingway. However, you’ll see Did you mean hemingway? Click the name to search using that spelling.

Q: Can I search by format? I want the Harry Potter movies, not the books.

A: Yes, there are two ways to do this. The fastest way is to just type harry potter dvd in the search box. If you prefer, you can use the advanced search options. In the Includes box, type what you want to find, then select DVD from the Format options at the bottom of the page.

Q: I got 0 results for my search. What should I do?

A: Here are a few things you can try if your first search isn’t successful:

• Check your spelling. On your results page, you may see a “Did you mean?” link with a suggestion. If not, review what you typed. If you’re searching by author or subject and are not sure how to spell something, type a few letters and pause. You’ll see a list of suggestions.
• If you searched by author, title or tag, trying searching by keyword.
• Don’t worry about typing an author’s name with the last name first. You don’t need to typekinsella, sophie. Just type sophie kinsella.
• If you know the ISBN of a title, you can use that as your search keyword.

Q: What does “broaden your search” do?

A: When you type a phrase in the search box, the search will attempt to find a title that includes all of the words. For a keyword search, if there are no titles that include all of the words, you’ll  see the option to broaden your search. This repeats the search using the same group of words, but the results displayed will include as many of the terms as can be found. The items with the most matching words will be first.

Q: Why do I get different results using the advanced and basic searches using the same keywords?

A: The advanced version searches more information in the library catalog than the basic search. As a result, the results may vary slightly.

Q: When filtering search results by language, what does “Include translations” do?

A: The language facet shows you the primary language of each of the titles in your results, and allows you to filter your results by one or more languages. The number following each language indicates the total number of titles in that language. Some titles may be in more than one language. For example, a movie originally filmed in English may have been dubbed into Spanish or Chinese, or may have subtitles in those languages. If you would like to see those titles included in the language counts, click Include translations; when you apply a language filter, the results will include both translations and titles originally produced in the selected language.

Q: A title I want says “Unavailable”, but I know the library has a copy.

A: Unavailable indicates that all copies of the title are checked out, in transit, being repaired, or otherwise not circulating. You can still place a hold on an item shown as Unavailable.

Other tips:

Caps, spaces and punctuation are ignored, so searching for J.K. Rowling is the same as searching for j k rowling.

If you know the exact ISBN number of a book, you can enter it in the search box.

In your search results, you can click an author or artist’s name to do a new search for items by that author or artist.

You can search by call number if you put the entire call number in quotes. For example, “J FIC Rowli”.

You can restrict your search to exclude certain results. To leave out certain results, enter the word NOT (in caps) followed by the words to exclude. For example …

potter NOT harry

… will display titles by or about Beatrix Potter, but not titles about Harry Potter.

You can also search for titles only in a certain format or language. For example, if you are looking for the movie version of Black Beauty only, you could search using …

black beauty DVD

Or you could search for titles in a foreign language. For example, for any Harry Potter titles in French in any format by entering …

harry potter french

See more tips for searching and filtering in the catalog.

Visit the New & On Order page to see what we have. You can also filter and sort titles. Use the drop-down menus to hone in on what you want.

Other ways to find new titles

You can also see what's new in multiple ways around the site. On the homepage, you’ll see newly added titles.

OR

Use the Browse drop-down at the top of the page to see the different formats - Audiobooks, Books, eBooks, and Movies. These pages show you what's new.

OR use the catalog search to create your own custom list:

• Start with Advanced Search
• Scroll down a bit to the heading Limit my search results by and Choose at least one limiter. For example, use the Content box to limit by fiction or non-fiction, use the check boxes to limit by format (Do not input Date Published.)
• Click Search
• When the results of your search have been returned, look to the left column and click the dropdown arrow beside New at the Library…
• Click on the time period listed that you would like to see results for.
• Optional: Click the Save Search link to save this search in your Account. See more on Saved Searches, opens a new window.

The Search box found at the top of every page should provide excellent results for most of your searches. It has a default keyword search plus five additional options, each of which has been tuned to get complete results for most search types.

For those occasions where you have a particular kind of search in mind, you can use Advanced Search. It has tools that enable you to describe precisely where and how you want to search.

Find out more about Advanced Search.

Blogposts on advanced searching (with screenshots!)

Website and Catalog Tip of the Week: The Search Bar

Website and Catalog Tip of the Week: Faceted Searching

Look up any book by searching in the search bar at the top of the screen. In the list of results, click on a book title or cover. On the book's record, you will see reviews from places like Booklist and Kirkus. If the book is part of a series, it will be listed on this page as well.

If you periodically search for titles by the same author, or on the same subject, you can save your search and run it again later. That saves you time, especially if the search you’re doing is complex.

► To save a search

1. Log in. You must be logged in to save a search.
2. Run your search. See Using Advanced Search for information on creating complex searches.
3. If required, narrow your results by applying facets on the left side of the page.
4. When you have refined your search, click the Save Search icon above the search results.
5. Give the saved search a name that will allow you to easily identify it later. If you already have a search by that name, you’ll have the option to choose a new name or overwrite your existing saved search.
6. Click Save.

► To edit a saved search

1. Log in.
2. Click My Settings, and then click Saved Searches.
3. Find the search you want to modify. The criteria you used for each search is listed next to its name.
4. Click Edit Search.
5. Do one of the following:
   • If you created your search starting with the search box at the top of the page, apply or remove search options, as appropriate.
   • If you created your original search criteria on the advanced search page, add or remove the criteria you want to change, and then click Search.
6. Click the Save icon.
7. If you would prefer to save the search with a new name, type the name.
8. Click Save.

► To delete a saved search

1. Log in.
2. Click My Settings, and then click Saved Searches.
3. Find the search you want to delete. The criteria you used for each search is listed next to its name.
4. Click the check box next to the search name. You can select more than one if required.
5. Click Delete.

Want to take it up a notch and get notifications when you have new search results (e.g., the new James Patterson book gets added to our catalog)? Read more here!

View in full screen

If you are viewing a long list of search results, you can filter the view to help you find what you really want.

For example, you may want to see only DVDs, or only books by a specific author.

On the left side of the screen is a series of pull-down menus and clickable headings to help you do this. For search results, you can:

• select a specific format (book, eBook, audiobook, DVD, dtc.)
• limit to a specific author
• view only new items (New at the library...)
• view currently available items (Titles I can...)
• see only those items available at a specific library (handy if you want to pick up something immediately)
• restrict your results by topic, content (fiction/nonfiction), form/genre, language, published date, or geographical region 
• or, if users added tags to any of the titles, you can filter by these too

After each heading, the number of titles in the search result or shelf is shown, with the highest number of matches first.

Read more about filtering.

To find books in the catalog

Option #1: Type a search term in the the search box at the top of any page of the website. Note that you can change options for your search by using the drop-down menus. 

Option #2: Click on Catalog in the blue bar at top of any page of our site. This will display a search box where you can type your search.

For both options:

• Refine your search by using the filter categories that show up on the left to hone in on exactly what you’re looking for.
  • Want to limit to fiction? Click on Content and then click Fiction.
  • Want to see only kids’ materials? Click on Audience, then check Children.

If you need more information, the Help screens for searching are terrific and cover everything you need to know.

To find events

• Click on Events at the top of the page.
• Use the filters on the left to select the library or libraries you go to.
• Use the Event Types and Audiences filters to get more specific.

The Search bar is also a great way to find events. Use it at the top of the page to find events. Just select Events from the left-hand drop-down menu.

To search the website or FAQs

Use the Search bar as pictured above, to select Website or FAQs. You can also search the FAQs from the Help menu at the top of any page.

View in full screen

You can customize how titles are displayed in search results.

To change how the titles are displayed, click a different icon at the top of the page: Cover View or List View.

• Cover view shows the book covers.
• List view just shows you the text.

You can create Saved Searches in the catalog.

If you like to search for titles by the same author, or on the same subject, you can save your search and run it again later. That saves you time, especially if the search you’re doing is complex.

See instructions for saving a search.

You can edit your saved searches after you’ve saved them. See Using and Managing Saved Searches for details.

Here is a list of our hours and locations.

The link to the Hours & Locations of all of our libraries is located at the top of all the pages on this website, near where you log in to your account. 

• Use the Find by address or ZIP code, search box, or
• Use the Find by location name dropdown menu to select a specific location, or
• Click the All Locations link to see a list of all our locations.

On the Library's app, look for the map pin icon. 

View in full screen

The search on our website is pretty smart. You can put the format you want right into your search, and the results will limit to the format you want. For example, give these searches a try:

• new mystery books
• kids books
• vampire romance ebooks
• large print mysteries
• Spanish DVDs

If you use words like "new," the search will know you want items recently added to the catalog.

If you use any word that indicates format (DVD, large print, audiobook, book, ebook, music), it will limit the results to that kind of item. This is by far the easiest way to limit to format.

The next easiest way is to limit using the filters in the results list. Read about filters here.

You can also use Advanced Search to limit to formats, but you have to remember to go to Advanced Search at the outset. You indicate which format you want by checking the boxes at the bottom of the form.

If you'd like to learn more, read more tips on doing searches in this FAQ.

View in full screen

When you do a keyword search using more than one term, the items that contain all or most of your search terms appear at the top of the results.

The more words in your search, the fewer the results.

At the top of the page, you’ll see a Broaden search link. Click the link to re-run the search for items that include any of your search terms. Items that include all or most of the terms will appear first.

For example, suppose you search for electrical appliance repair and get 0 results. If you use the Broaden search link, you would see a number of titles, including many that deal with appliance repair.