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Frequently asked questions and help

No you don't need to login to search the library catalogue. You will however need to identify yourself if you want to place a reservation, booking, request, add a review or tag to items. If you login before searching the Library Catalogue, Spydus will remember your details for the duration of your login session and you will not need to enter your details again to use these services.

In order to place a reservation, you first need to perform a search using the Library Catalogue. As you browse through the records retrieved by your search, you can place a reservation for individual titles or for a set of titles. Please refer to the section on placing reservations in the How To help page for details.

Yes you can. Please refer to the section on renewing loans in the Using My Library help page for details.

As you browse through the records in your result set after performing a search in the Library Catalogue, you will notice that some records are displayed with a number of stars. This indicates that one or more reviews have been attached to the record displayed. The number of stars displayed is an average of the ratings given to this record by the reviewers.

Do the following to add your review to a record:

  1. Retrieve the record you want to add your review to and display in full display.
  2. Click on the link to Add a review. This will display a form for you to complete.
  3. Enter your borrower ID and password if you are not already logged in.
  4. Select the rating you would like to assign.
  5. Enter your comments. You can enter as much text as you like. Press Enter to start a new paragraph.
  6. Select the Continue button to submit your review. Your comments will be reviewed by library staff before being made available for general access to others.

You can also amend and delete existing reviews by accessing these records in My account. Please refer to the section on ratings and comments in the Using My Library help page for details.

An alert profile allows you to create a profile that matches your preferences for materials you would like to use. These profiles are scanned as part of the library's overnight housekeeping and any new works that meet the profile's criteria are added to the "profile set" for the particular profile. If any new works are added to your profile set as part of the nightly scan, you will be sent an email containing brief bibliographic details for each work, as well as a hyperlink to the work. When you receive this email, you can click on the hyperlink to go directly to the work and place a reservation against it if you wish.

If you are logged into the library catalogue, your Pick list will not be deleted. They will remain until you decide to remove them.

You can add items to a Pick list if you are not logged in, however this will normally be kept on the system for two days. It will be automatically cleared after this time.

Please refer to the My Picks help page for more information on how to use this facility.

If you have forgotten your password and we have a record of your email address, we can send you an email containing a link for resetting your password. Please contact us if you don't have an email address.

Do the following to reset your password if you have an email:

  1. Open the Login menu in the Navigation panel and select Forgot Your Password?
  2. Follow the prompts on screen.

An email with a link for resetting your password will be sent to your registered email address.

Reservations can be placed on an individual title or on a set of titles. When placing reservations on a set of titles, you can choose whether you want to reserve all titles in the set, or only some of them depending on which items become available first.To place a reservation on an individual item:Perform a search for the title you would like to reserve using any access point and view the record in full display.Select the Place Reservation button. This button will only appear if a reservation may be placed on this title. A form will be presented for you to complete.Enter your borrower ID and password if you are not already logged in.Select the location from which you would like collect the item.Select the item you would like to reserve. You can choose from the following: Any copy from any location.Any copy from a specific location and collection.A specific copy.Select an expiry period or enter a specific expiry date. Your reservation will be automatically cancelled if not satisfied by this date.Enter any notes you would like to include then select the Continue button.You will be advised if there are any charges or problems with your reservation. If the reservation is successful you will see the status of your reservation which includes your current rank in the waiting list for the title.To place a reservation on a set of items:Perform a search for titles you would like to reserve. If you retrieve a more than one record, your result set will be displayed in brief display.Browse through your page of retrieved records and mark the checkbox for titles you would like to reserve.Once you have selected all the titles you would like to reserve on the current page, select the Reserve Selectionsunder the options menu. If your search has retrieved less than 30 records, you may also select the Reserve All button if you would like to place a reservation for all the titles in your result set.The reservation form will be displayed. Any titles you are unable to reserve will be displayed at the top of the form, followed by the list of titles included in this reservation.Enter your borrower ID and password if you are not already logged in.Select the location from which you would like collect the item.Select the number of titles you would like to have allocated you to to satisfy this reservation. For example, you may have performed a search for titles on a particular subject and would like to borrower just one of the items retrieved but don't really care which one. You would just like to have the first one available. In this case, select 1 from number of titles required. You can however also place a reserve on all the titles by choosing the All titles option.Select an expiry period or enter a specific expiry date. Your reservation will be automatically cancelled if not satisfied by this date.Enter any notes you would like to include then select the Continue button.You will be advised if there are any charges or problems with your reservation. If the reservation is successful you will see the status of your reservation which includes your current rank in the waiting list for the title.If you decided to proceed, details of your reservations will be displayed. This includes your current rank in the waiting list for each title.
If you are unable to find the item you are looking for in the local catalogue and you think it would be appropriate for the Library to purchase the item for the local collection, you can place a request to ask the Library to consider the item for purchase.To suggest an item for purchase:Select Suggest a Purchase form the menu.If you are not currently logged on you will be prompted to log in.The request form will be displayed. Please enter as much information as you can about the item you require. You must enter the title of the item.You will also need to enter a date after which the item is not required and the location from which you would like to pickup the item. A confirmation page will be displayed. This will indicate if there are any charges associated with your request. It will also give you the option to return to your request form, to cancel the request or to continue with your request. Select the Continue button to proceed with your request. Your request record will be displayed including the request number. You will be advised by the Library when the item is ready to be picked up. You can also track the progress of your request or cancel your request by using the facilities in My account. Please refer to the section on cancelling reservations, bookings and requests in the Using My Library help page for details.