Searching from the Portal Page

If your library uses the Polaris PowerPAC portal page as the home page, you can search the library catalog directly from the portal page. With quick searching, you type a word or words and click Go (see "Do a quick search"). You may also be able to click a picture of a best-seller to launch a search for the title (see "Do a quick search").

Objective: Do a quick search

Follow these steps to do a quick search of the library system's catalog from the Polaris PowerPAC portal page.

1. Type a word or words in the Quick Library Search box.

Note:
If you type more than one word, your results may include materials with the words in any order. If you want to find the words in the exact order, enclose them in quotation marks. If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 2), your results will include all the materials that fit your Limit by selection.

2. If you want to find only a certain kind of material, click the arrow symbol in the Limit by box, and select an option from the list.

Example:
If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD in the Limit by list.

3. Click Go.
   • If the search is successful, information about titles is displayed in the search results list.
   • If no matches are found, Polaris displays a message. See "Search Tips" for actions you can take.
4. To work with the results, do any of the following actions:
   • Navigate the results list and view more information about the titles (see "Viewing Search Results").
   • Add a title to a title list (see "Working with Title Lists").
   • Place a request for a title, or purchase a title (see "Obtaining Materials").

Related Topics

• Additional search methods - For information about other search methods, see the following topics:
  • "Keyword Searching"
  • "Phrase and Exact Phrase Searching"
  • "Browse Searching"
  • "Search Tips"
  • "Advanced Searching"
  • "Boolean Searching"
• Searching sources outside the library - See "Selecting Search Databases".
• Focusing your search - See "Setting Search Options".

Objective: Search from a book jacket image

Your library may also display a picture of a book in the center pane of the portal page. You may have to scroll the page down past any weather information to see the picture. The pictured book is taken from current best-seller lists, and changes every time you return to or refresh the portal page. You can search for the pictured book in the library catalog, and if the title is not found, you can ask the library to purchase it. Follow these steps to search for a title from an image on the Polaris PowerPAC portal page.

1. Click the book jacket image to launch the search.

   If the search is successful, information about the title is displayed (see "Viewing Search Results"). If the title is in the catalog but currently unavailable, you can request or purchase it (see "Obtaining Materials").

   If no matches in the catalog are found, the purchase request form appears.

2. To ask the library to purchase the title, type a note in the box, if you wish, and click Send.

   The request is sent to the library by e-mail, and a confirmation message is displayed.

3. Click Back to return to the portal page.