I Need Material
Sometimes materials that you need are not immediately available because others have them checked out, or the library does not include the item in its holdings. iBistro includes several ways of communicating your needs to the library.
Placing a hold online for an item that is checked out to another patron
Patrons are placed on the hold list on a first come basis based on your user category.
Here is the order of categories:
1. City
2. County
3. State
4. TLC
5. Out of State
So a city patron will have priority over a County user.
Anyone can use ibistro, but some features do require that you be a patron of either Coffee County Manchester Library or Coffee County Lannom Public Library.
If you are a patron of our libraries then your username is the barcode located on the back of your library card. The PIN number was given to you at the time that your card was issued to you. If you have forgotten your number just ask at the circulation desk for help the next time you are in the library.
Some features of iBistro will not work with AOL. The problem is with the way that AOL does its caching in such a way that is not in keeping with the industry standards for iBistro; the AOL caching does not handle the session identifiers correctly.
Unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do on our side as iBistro is standards compliant, but AOL has decided to not render the site using these standards.
We recommend that you try using Internet Explorer or Firefox with your AOL acct.
iBistro’s Power Search can be used to combine search elements to refine a search, to limit a search based on criteria configured by your library, produce a browse list of specified items, or perform a call number search.
Combining Search Elements
Use Power Search to combine search elements separated by boolean operators. You can combine word or phrase, author, title, subject, series, and periodical title searches. iBistro will search for any records containing the combined information. Use the Boolean operator pull-down menu to further refine your search.
Type a word or phrase for words or phrase and iBistro will search for any catalog records containing the word or phrase.
Type an author’s name for author and iBistro will search for any catalog records containing the author’s name. Although you can search for an author by the first name, last name, or initials, searching by an author’s last name produces a more complete list of search results, or if your search reverts to the browse list, places you in a more focused portion of the browse list.
Type a title for title and iBistro will search for any catalog records with the title. iBistro ignores articles as well as other stopwords.
Type a subject for subject and iBistro will search for any catalog records with the search term in the subject index.
Type a series title for series and iBistro will search for any catalog records with the search term with that series title.
Type a periodical or journal title for periodical title and iBistro will search for any records containing the search term in the periodical keyword index.
A search expression can consist of a single term or a set of terms, as well as operators and special punctuation. Refer to Searching Tips for more information on search terms in iBistro.
After you have entered the search criteria, select the Search button to perform the power search. Select the Reset button if you want to clear the fields and enter different search criteria.
Limiting the Search
Use Power Search to limit your search based on criteria configured by your library. Your library may have the following options for limiting a search.
In a multilibrary system, you can limit your search by choosing a specific branch from the library pull-down menu.
If your library has holdings in a variety of languages, you can choose a specific language to search under from the language pull-down menu.
If your library has holdings in a variety of formats (such as printed music, maps, and equipment) you can choose a specific format to search under from the format pull-down menu.
If you are familiar with your library’s catalog record item types, you can choose a specific item type to search under from the item type pull-down menu.
You can limit your search by the area of the library that the item is located from the location pull-down menu.
You can have your search match on a particular part of a catalog record (such as keywords only) by using the match on pull-down menu.
You can limit your search to a specific publication year from the pub year pull-down menu.
You can sort your power search results by specified criteria from the sort by pull-down menu.
Browsing
From the Power Search page, switch to Browse to produce of browse list of items. The browse list may be produced based on a search of an author, a title, a subject, a series, or a periodical or journal title. In a multilibrary system, the browse list may be produced from a search of a single library or all libraries.
Call Number Search
If you know the call number of the item you are searching for, you can use the Call Number Search option. Your library may have the following options for limiting a search.
In a multilibrary system, you can select which library catalog to search in by choosing one from the library pull-down menu.
If you are familiar with your library’s catalog record item types, you can choose a specific item type to search under from the item type pull-down menu.
You can choose the library shelving location to search in by selecting one from the location pull-down menu.
When you select Kids’ Search a two-tiered, predefined keyword search of the library catalog is launched. Results of the initial predefined keyword search appear alphabetically by description, at which time the secondary predefined keyword search can be launched.
Children can launch predefined searches by clicking on the search phrase or by clicking on the photo above the phrase.
A search in Kids’ Library retrieves only items in the library’s children’s collection, and is updated automatically as new materials are added.