Overview
Your library catalogue is part of the search. Alongside articles, journals, and databases, your results include books and other physical items held by your library, so you do not have to search the catalogue separately.
These features are provided through TDNet Discover’s integration with your library’s integrated library system (ILS) or library services platform (LSP).
For those items you can also:
- See whether a copy is on the shelf right now, and where to find it.
- Request an item that is currently out.
- See what you have borrowed, what is due back, and what you owe, all in one place.
Seeing Whether an Item Is on the Shelf
Open a catalogue item from your results.
On the record, you will find a short table listing the copies your library holds, one row per copy.
The last column is the Status, which tells you whether that copy is available at this moment. The table is read from your library system as the page loads, so it reflects what is actually on the shelf rather than a figure from last night.
The other columns tell you where to go and what to look for. Depending on what your library chooses to show, these may include the item Type, the Location, and the Call No., which is the shelf mark you use to find the item once you are there.
Requesting an Item
- Sign in, then open the record for the item you want.
- Click Place a hold underneath the list of copies.
- The button confirms that your hold has been placed.
Your request reaches the library straight away, and it appears in My Library from that moment.
Note: The Place a hold button may not appear, depends on your library's integration setup.
Note: If you already have a hold on that item, the button tells you so rather than letting you request it twice.
My Library
My Library is your own borrowing page.
Open the menu under your name at the top of the site and choose My Library.
The page is arranged as tabs, each showing a count so you can see at a glance where your attention is needed.
- Your loans: What you currently have out, with the due date, the barcode, the call number, and any fines on the item. Each row has a Renew button.
- Your overdue items: The loans that are past their due date, shown the same way, so you can deal with them first.
- Your charges: What you owe, itemised with a description and an amount, and a total at the bottom.
- Your holds: The items you have requested, with the date you placed the request, the pickup location, your position in the queue, and the current status. Each row has a Cancel button.
Renew and Cancel both ask you to confirm first, and then take effect in the library system immediately. A short message confirms that the loan was renewed or the hold was cancelled. A tab with nothing in it says so plainly rather than showing an empty table.
Note: The My Library page and button may not be available, depends on your library's integration setup.
Note: Libraries choose which of these are offered, so you may see all of them or only some.
Where your library offers it, a Change PIN entry also appears in the same menu.
When Are These Features Available
- Catalogue items in your results and the list of copies with their status are available to everybody, whether or not you are signed in.
- Place a hold, My Library, and everything on it require you to be signed in, because they belong to your own library account.
- Your account on this site is matched to your library account using an identifier your library agreed in advance, such as your email address or your library card number. The match happens by itself when you sign in, and there is nothing for you to link up.
- If the page tells you that patron features are not available, or if you are signed in and your loans do not appear, your account could not be matched to a library account.
Contact your librarian, who can put it right.
Where Do They Appear
- In your search results: Catalogue items appear alongside everything else, with a link that opens the full record.
- On the record: The list of copies, their status, and the Place a hold button.
- Under your name: The My Library entry in the menu at the top of the site.