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Finding Course Reserves

If your library holds items reserved for courses at a school or college, you may be able to search for course reserve information and materials. You can search for course records, which list all the items on reserve for a course, and you can search for specific items on reserve. From your search results, you can locate a reserve item in the library and view its circulation status. You may be able to ask the library to hold a reserved item for you to check out.

This unit covers the following topics:

Objective: Find a course record

Follow these steps to find course reserve records, which store general information about courses that have items on reserve and provide links to all the items on reserve for the course.

  1. Click Search on the menu bar, and click Course Reserves in the Search submenu.
  2. Type the text to search for in the Course Reserve search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
    • Polaris PowerPAC ignores letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation entered in the search for box. Omit hyphens in numbers.
    • You can type part of a word and use a wildcard character, such as * (refer to "Wildcard Characters").

Note:
You can type more than one word in the search for box. The results have all the words in the specified field, in the same order you typed them. However, you cannot do a complex search which uses logical operators (And, Or, Not).

Example:
To find a course named The Middle Ages, you can type the middle ages, *middle ages, or *middle. If you type middle ages, the search does not find the course.

  1. Click the Search by arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list. You have the following options:
    • Course Name
    • Course Number/Section
    • Course Abbreviation
    • School/Division Name
    • Department Name
    • Instructor Name - Primary instructor or alternate instructor (Last name, first name)
  2. Click Go.

    When the search is finished, the results are displayed in the center area of the page.

  3. To see more information about a course, click the course name.

    Detailed information about the course is displayed.

    • The Availability tabs list each item associated with the course, including the item location, reserve status, and circulation status.
    • Click the Detailed Information tab to display more information about the course itself.
Related Topics

Objective: Find an item on reserve

When you search for items on reserve, the search results include titles that match your search criteria and have at least one associated item on reserve for a course. Detailed information about any title in the search results shows the course for which an item is reserved. You can link to course information from the search results. Follow these steps to find items on reserve.

  1. Click Search on the menu bar, and select any search method except Browse in the Search submenu. (Refer to "Basic Searching".)
  2. Select (check) Course reserve items only on the search bar.

Note:
You can set search limits and "course reserve items only" at the same time. Click Open Search Options, and select Course Reserve Mode under Miscellaneous Options. For more information about specifying search limits, see "Setting Search Options".

  1. If you want to find only a certain kind of course reserve 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.

  1. Type the text to search for in the search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
    • Polaris PowerPAC ignores letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation entered in the search for box. Omit hyphens in numbers.
    • You can type part of a word and use a wildcard character, such as * (refer to "Wildcard Characters").

Note:
If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 3), your results will include all the course reserve materials that fit your Limit by selection

  1. Click the Search by arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list.
  2. Click Go.

    When the search is finished, the results are displayed in the center area of the page.

  3. To see more information about a title, click the title in the search results list.

    Detailed information about the title is displayed.

  4. To see more information about a course for which the item is reserved, click the Detailed Information tab, and click the course name in the Details display.

    The course record is displayed.

Important:
The Course reserve items only setting, like other search options, remains active throughout your search session unless you reset it. The link Change Search Options on the search bar indicates that search options are set to values different from the default values. To reset the course reserve only option, clear the Course reserve items only check box, or click Change Search Options and click RESET to reset all the search options.

Related Topics

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