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The library catalog contains records for all of the library’s print books and many audiobooks and e-books, too.
Skills with our library catalog help you…
- check your library account under “My Stuff” to see what titles you have currently “checked out” and the dates they are due. See image below.
- search for print books from the library’s collection.
- identify and check out e-books and audiobooks for pleasure reading… but not for much longer. Starting Fall, 2023, APS is moving most e-books and audiobooks that are used in pleasure reading to the SORA database. Access SORA via Canvas’s APS Library Resources or via the Rapid Identity list of apps.
- place a print book on hold so you will be in the queue to check it out (Search for the book, then click “hold.”)
- easily renew books before they are overdue.
- access the library’s book recommendations by using the “collections.” They are lists of book recommendations. Many are award winners in categories like favorite books for middle schoolers in certain genres and themes and topics of interest.
- Explore the “details” of a book’s catalog record to obtain a citation for your bibliography.
Study these visuals and How To’s:
Notice in your search results…
The title may be available in a variety of formats. Find hints about the format as pictured below .
(Thanks H-B alum Valaria for this visual!)
Which App to use to enjoy it after checkout? For digital content, use…
Destiny Discover App for materials from Follett.
Try the MackinVia App for materials from all other content; it’s probably from Mackin.
Where in our library…
To find a book in the right sublocation on our shelves, it helps to understand its “address” is in the “call number” which gets printed on the material’s spine label.
The beginning part of the call number hints at the sublocation— Fiction, Biography, E for “Everybody/ Picture Book” or if you see a Dewey Decimal number the book is in the Nonfiction section of our library.
The bottom part of a spine label might further clarify. If there is a GN on the end, it’s a graphic novel. A QP denotes “Quick Pick” section. DVD‘s are in their own section. If there’s an EB, it is an audiobook or e-book that your computer will help you access. Books in Spanish have a SPA at the end.
Other letters after the top row tell you where to look alphabetically in that subsection of the library. A variety of spine labels in white below help you to quiz yourself:
H-B’s library does not group books of the same genre together the way some APS elementary and middle School libraries have them for easy browsing among selected genres. Instead, find all of our different genres of novels mixed together and arranged alphabetically by author in one large Fiction section, shown in yellow on our library map.
(If the call number is in brackets like [Fic] or [###] it is a digital resource instead of something physical on our shelves)
Our library map below:
…teaches you where to find the sublocations of the library collection. The spine labels in each sections have features that help house the books in alphabetical or numerical order according to the call number. Our colored stripes (yellow for fictional novels, green, golden for biographies) across the tops of shelves help you identify each sublocation.
If you are looking for a fiction book by a particular author, go to that author’s last name in the yellow section for browsing. You’ll probably find it there, but use the catalog if you need to be sure.
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Review the Academic Vocabulary that you are gaining:
- librarian, “sublocation of the library,” circulation desk, due date, check out, renew, spine label, call number, shelf-marker, overdue notice.
- library catalog (it’s the “search engine” for most of our library materials), collections, call numbers, sublocations,
- formats of books: fiction, non-fiction, graphic novel, picture book, novel, quick pick, e-book, audiobook, electronic resources, databases, magazines.
- Terminology used in a library (advanced) – chart of English and Spanish