Library System Integration – TDNet

Overview

TDNet Discover connects to your integrated library system (ILS) or library services platform (LSP) so that your print and physical collection sits alongside your electronic resources in one search, with live availability and with each logged-in reader's patron account information available to them.

Without the integration, a reader searching your site finds articles, journals, and databases, and then has to go somewhere else to find out whether the library holds the book on the shelf, whether it is on loan, and when it is due back.

With the integration in place, all of that is answered in the same result list, and the reader can act on it without leaving the page.

Supported ILS/LSPs

TDNet Discover integrates with a variety of ILS/LSP, including Koha, Sierra, FOLIO, and Symphony.
In this article, library system refers to either an ILS or an LSP.

The integration covers three distinct things, described in detail below.

Library catalogue ingestion: Your catalogue is indexed and becomes searchable inside TDNet Discover.
Real-time item availability: Whether a copy is on the shelf right now is read live from your library system.
User account and circulation integration: Each reader's account is linked to their library account, so loans, holds, and fines are shown and can be acted on.

The three build on each other.
Ingestion makes the catalogue findable, availability makes the result trustworthy, and the account link makes it actionable.
They are configured in the same place and are described here as one feature, because in practice a library switches all three on together.

Note: This article is written for whichever library management system your library runs. The admin section, the settings page, and the wording on screen carry the name of your own system, and a few of the optional features listed below exist only where your library system offers them.
Everything else works the same way.

What the Integration Covers

Library catalogue ingestion

The library catalogue managed in your library system is ingested and indexed in TDNet Discover, making full bibliographic and item-level holdings metadata discoverable through TDNet Discover, including call number, location, library ownership, link to the record, and other relevant information.

Changes made in your library system to the catalogue, including the addition or removal of records and edits to record metadata, are automatically synchronized and reflected in TDNet Discover.
You catalogue in one place only.
There is no separate export to prepare and no file to upload on a schedule.

Because the catalogue is indexed rather than searched live, your records stay findable and the full record detail stays readable even at moments when the live connection to your library system is unavailable.
Only the availability information described next depends on that connection.

Real-time item availability

TDNet Discover retrieves and displays the status availability information for catalogue items managed in your library system through the live API connection.

For example, when an item is checked out in your library system, its status is displayed as unavailable in TDNet Discover, and once the item is checked in, its availability indication is updated accordingly.
This ensures that users see accurate, up-to-date availability information at the point of discovery.

Availability is presented as a small table of the copies your library holds, one row per item.
Which columns appear is a setting you control, described under Availability Display in the Field Descriptions.

User account and circulation integration

A user's TDNet Discover account is securely linked to their library system account using an agreed identifier, such as an email address, a library card number, or another identifier mapped and configured during the onboarding process.
How that mapping is set up is described under Patron identification below.

Through the API connection, TDNet Discover can retrieve and display the user's circulation information from your library system, including items checked out by the user, holds, and more.

Users can also submit circulation requests directly through TDNet Discover, including placing or cancelling holds and renewing loans.
These requests are synchronized with your library system in real time, enabling efficient circulation workflows.

Each capability is optional and is switched on individually, so a library that wants readers to see their loans but not to renew them can have exactly that.

Where It Appears

In the Admin Center, once the integration is enabled, a new section appears in the side navigation named after your library system, containing a Settings page.
That page is where the whole integration is configured.
In search results and in the Library E-Resources area, as an action link on the records that come from your catalogue.
On the record details page and on the link resolver page, as a panel listing the copies your library holds with their availability, and a Place a hold button.
In the reader's own profile, as a page listing their loans, overdue items, charges, and holds.

How to Enable

The integration is switched on from the Marketplace.
Because it connects to a system that only your library can grant access to, and because your catalogue has to be loaded and indexed before anything is searchable, activation involves the Support Team rather than being immediate.

Go to Admin > Marketplace.
Find your library management system.
It is listed under the Library Tools category.
Open it and review the description.
Click Request. The Support Team will review the request and enable the integration for your institution.

Note: No credentials are entered in the Marketplace dialog. The connection details are entered afterwards on the Settings page of the new admin section, which is described below.

Note: Loading and indexing your catalogue is arranged by the Support Team as part of the same activation.

How to Configure

After the Support Team enables the feature, a section named after your library system appears in the Admin Center's side navigation.

Step 1: Connect to your library system

Before you begin, obtain the connection details from the person who administers your library system.
You need the address of its interface and a set of credentials issued for this purpose, with permission to read the catalogue and to act on behalf of readers.

Go to Admin > [Your library system] > Settings.
In the authentication section at the top of the page, enter the Base URL of your library system.
This field is required. It takes the form https://library.example.com/.
Enter the Client ID and the Secret Key issued to you.
Where a Test button is offered, click it before saving.
It contacts your library system straight away and tells you whether the details work, which saves a great deal of guessing later.

Step 2: Confirm the catalogue is being ingested

The Catalog section reports whether your catalogue has been loaded and indexed.
Catalog ingestion shows a green tick once ingestion is in place and a red one while it is not.
Ingestion is arranged for you during activation, so if the mark is red and you expected otherwise, reach out to the Support Team rather than looking for a setting to change.

Step 3: Decide how readers are matched to library accounts

The Patron identification section pairs one property from your library system with one property on the TDNet Discover account.
When a reader signs in, the two are matched, and their library account is found.

Choose the property in your library system to match on, from the list under Field Descriptions.
Choose the TDNet Discover property that holds the same value.
The list offers the properties already on your accounts, including any Extra Property you have defined.
If no existing property holds the value, create one first.
Go to Admin > Security > User Management > Extra Properties, add a field to hold the identifier, and return here to select it.
The Settings page links straight to that editor.
Click Save, then check the result on a real account before announcing the feature.

Note: Matching on email address needs no extra work but only holds while the two systems agree on the address. Matching on a library card number is more stable, and usually means storing the card number as an Extra Property, which you can populate through the bulk import in User Management > Create.

Step 4: Choose which features readers get

In the Options section, tick My Library / Patron features to switch on the reader-facing side of the integration. Everything else in this section depends on it, and the individual checkboxes stay inactive until it is ticked.
Tick the individual features you want. They are listed under Field Descriptions.
Where an Availability Display section is offered, tick the columns you want readers to see in the availability table.

Note: Clearing My Library / Patron features also clears every feature underneath it. Readers then keep search, availability, and the catalogue records, and lose only the personal circulation pages.

Step 5: Choose where the action links appear

Return to Admin > Marketplace, open the integration, and click Features to choose which areas of the product show its action links.
The areas are listed under Marketplace Information below.

Field Descriptions

Authentication

The heading of this section carries the name of your library system.

Base URL: The address of your library system, for example https://library.example.com/.
Required, and the one field the integration cannot work without.
Client ID: The identifier of the credentials issued to TDNet Discover by your library system.
Secret Key: The secret that goes with that identifier.
Treat it as a password and obtain it through a secure channel.
Test: Contacts your library system with the details on screen and reports whether they work.
Offered where your library system supports a connection check.

Patron identification

Library system property: Which field on the library account is matched.
The section label carries the name of your library system. See the value list below.
TDNet property: Which field on the TDNet Discover account holds the same value.
The list contains the properties already present on your accounts, including every Extra Property you have defined and any information supplied by your institutional sign-in system.
A hint underneath links to the Extra Properties editor so you can create a field to store the patron identifier, such as the library card number.

Library system property values:

CardNumber: The library card number. The most stable choice, because it is issued by the library and does not change when somebody changes their name or mailbox.
UserID: The account identifier used inside your library system.
Mobile: The mobile telephone number recorded on the library account.
Email: The primary email address on the library account.
The quickest to set up, because TDNet Discover accounts already carry an email address.
SecondaryEmail: The alternative email address on the library account.
Useful where the library holds a personal address and your accounts use an institutional one, or the reverse.

Options

These are the reader-facing capabilities.
Which of them appear depends on what your library system offers, so your page may show a subset of this list.

My Library / Patron features: The master switch for everything a reader can see or do with their own library account. Turning it off disables all the features listed below it.
Manage Holds: Lets readers see their loans, their overdue items, and their existing holds, and act on them by renewing a loan or cancelling a hold.
Place a hold: Adds the Place a hold button to the availability panel, so a reader can request an item from the record itself.
Change PIN: Lets readers change the PIN on their library account.
Offered where your library system supports it.
View fines: Shows readers what they owe, as a list of charges with a total.
Pay fines: Lets readers settle charges online. A payment provider has to be set up first, so contact the Support Team before ticking it. Offered where your library system supports it.

Availability Display

These tick boxes decide which columns appear in the availability table on the record.
Offered where your library system supplies the information.

Type: The item type, for example whether the copy is a book, a journal issue, or reference only.
Location: Where the copy sits, which for a multi-site library is usually the column readers look at first.
Call No.: The shelf mark, so a reader can walk to the shelf.
OPAC Msg: A free-text note held against the copy in your library system, used for anything that does not fit the other columns.
Status: Whether the copy is available right now.
This column is always shown and cannot be switched off, because it is the reason the panel exists.

The API Connection

Two of the three capabilities depend on a live connection to your library system, so it is worth being clear about what needs to be available and what happens when it is not.

What is required: Your library system must expose its programmable interface.
It must be reachable from the internet at the Base URL you entered, and the credentials you supply must be permitted to read catalogue and item information and to act on behalf of readers.
What uses it: Real-time availability, the loans, holds, overdue items and charges shown to readers, and every circulation request they submit.
What does not use it: Searching and reading catalogue records, because those are ingested and indexed rather than fetched live.
What happens when it is unavailable: Records stay searchable and readable, while the availability panel and the reader's personal pages stop reporting.
This is the pattern to recognise when readers say the catalogue works, but availability does not.
Permissions matter as much as reachability: Credentials that can read the catalogue but not act on behalf of readers produce a working availability panel and a personal page that never loads.
The Test button checks that the connection works, not that every permission has been granted.

End-User Behavior

Readers see catalogue records in the same result list as everything else, with an action link that opens the full record.
On the record details page and on the resolver page, they see a panel listing the copies your library holds, with the columns you chose and a status for each copy.
Where you enabled it, a Place a hold button sits underneath the table.
Once a reader has a hold on an item, the button tells them so rather than letting them request it twice.

Signed-in readers also get a page in their own profile listing their library account, arranged as tabs with a count on each:

Checked out: Their current loans, with the title, due date, barcode, call number, any fines on the item, and a Renew button.
Overdue: The loans that are late, in the same layout.
Charges: What they owe, itemised with a date, a type, a description, an amount, an amount outstanding, and a total due.
Holds: Their requests, with the title, when it was placed, when it expires, the pickup location, their position in the queue, any notes, the status, and a Cancel button.

Renewing and cancelling both ask the reader to confirm, and both take effect in your library system straight away. A reader whose account could not be matched, or for whom the features are switched off, sees a short message directing them to the library rather than an error.

Troubleshooting

The Test button reports that the connection failed: Check the Base URL for a missing or extra trailing slash, then check the Client ID and Secret Key for stray spaces picked up when copying and pasting.
If they are correct, ask the person who administers your library system to confirm that the credentials are still active and that the interface is reachable from outside your network.
Records are searchable, but availability is blank: The catalogue is indexed, and the live connection is not working. Use Test to confirm.
Availability works, but a reader sees no loans or holds: Their account could not be matched to a library account.
Check Patron identification, then check that the reader actually has a value in the TDNet Discover property you chose.
An Extra Property that nobody has filled in matches nobody.
Some readers are matched, and others are not: This is the usual signature of matching on email address. Readers whose library record carries a different address from their TDNet Discover account will never match.
Move to the library card number and populate it as an Extra Property.
The feature checkboxes cannot be ticked: They depend on My Library / Patron features. Tick that first and the rest become available.
Pay fines does nothing: A payment provider has to be set up before readers can settle charges.
Contact the Support Team.
A change in the catalogue has not appeared: Additions, removals, and edits are synchronized automatically, but not instantaneously.
Allow time for the next synchronization before investigating, and check that the record was actually published in your library system.
A reader placed a hold, and it did not reach the library system: Holds are submitted through the same live connection as availability.
If availability is also failing, treat it as one problem.
If availability works and holds do not, the credentials are probably permitted to read but not to act on behalf of readers.
If you have any other related questions, please reach out to the Support Team.