SPYDUS

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Online Public Access Catalogue(OPAC)

A Self Learning Guide

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Hi, I am your library guide. Let me take you on a quick tour to show you how you can go about looking for library material.

The best way to look for your library material is to start with the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).

OPAC is available from any computer which has access to the Internet. You may access the library’s OPAC via your school’s homepage.

Approach your librarian for information on OPAC’s url if necessary.

Let me walk you through the use of OPAC.

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The upper box here shows you the various ways you can search for your library material. Often, you would use the Quick Search tab to search for any library material. All you need is to type in any relevant keywords.

The lower box here allows you to decide how many titles you want to display per page.

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You can also decide how you want the titles to be sorted before they are displayed.

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If you have a specific title in mind, you would want to use the Title search option here.

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If you are looking for titles written by a particular author, then the Author Search here would be useful.

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The Subject Search option here is very handy if you are working on a particular subject but do not know where to start.

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In time to come, I am sure you will become OPAC experts and you can use the Advanced Search option to enter your search criteria all at one go.

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If you need help on OPAC, try clicking on the Help tab here. Not to forget you could approach your librarian too!

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Let me start off by showing you a Quick Search.

Let’s say we are looking for a book which has the word “boy” in its title somewhere. All I need is to type in “boy” into the box here and click on the OK button.

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You can use the scroll bar to look at all the remaining titles on this page.

OPAC will show me the number of titles containing the word that I am searching for and automatically displays the titles for my selection.

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If the title interests you, check the status here to see if the item is available on the shelf. If so, you should take note of the collection and the call number before going to the shelf.Clicking on the title link will show you more details about the title.

OPAC will provide a brief display showing the title, author and other publication details of the book. You may also get a glimpse of the book cover for some titles.

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You can also click on any of the other hyperlinks (e.g. author or subject) to look at other titles by the same author or under the same subject.

If you see an image here, you can click on it to get additional information.

You can use the icons here to move forward or backward to view the other titles from the same list. The up arrow will bring you back up one level to the earlier brief display. Clicking on the home icon brings you back to the OPAC home page.

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Additional information provided can include summary, book reviews and even table of contents, etc

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These two titles look interesting, let’s select them and click on the “Save Selections” option below. I can build up my list this way as I browse along.

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We can take a look at all the selections that we have made so far by clicking on the “My SavedList” link here.

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Using the box here, I can choose to email the selected titles to myself or my friends or I can download them to my computer instead.

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Note that I can also return to the home page via the link here.

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Let’s now do a Title Search for books on Singapore.

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OPAC will return with a list of the titles containing the word “Singapore” in its title. We can select the titles of interest and view the titles as before using the “Display Selections” button below.

Let’s return to the home page.

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If I am a fan of J. K. Rowling, I can simply type the author’s name into the box using the Author Search option.

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OPAC will display all the authors with the name “Rowling” for my selection.

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Let’s return to the home page to start a new search. We can also click on Rowling,

J.K to look at the other titles by the same author.

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To look for library material on a particular subject area, e.g. fire, simply enter the keywords in the Subject Search option.

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A list of all the relevant subject areas relating to the topic of interest will be displayed if the library has any materials in that particular subject area.

We can display the titles for the relevant topics by ticking the checkboxes against those subject areas.

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Having borrowed some books from the library, I can use this box to check on my loan details by simply entering my EZLink ID and PIN number here.

If you have forgotten your PIN number, approach your Librarian for assistance.

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I can check on the titles that I have charged out of the library as well as any titles that may have become overdue.

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I can even renew my loans online by ticking against the titles that I wish to renew and choose the renew options at the bottom of the screen. This saved me the effort of having to bring the books physically to the library for renewal.

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When you are done, remember to logout of your account using the “Logout” button here.

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For our young friends, there is also a Kids’ Catalogue here.

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I can search for my books by clicking on these picture icons.

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Let’s see what the library has on jokes.

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I can click on the links to view the individual titles.

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As you can see, OPAC is very easy to use.

Not to forget that you can always approach your librarian for help if you encounter any problem.

So … what are you waiting for?

Start using your OPAC today.