Table of Contents

Click on these links to jump directly to the section you're looking for.

Searching the Catalogue

• Basic Search
• Advanced Search
• Search Tips
• Search Methodology
• Search Results
  

My Account

• Logging Into Your Account
• Account Summary
• Items Checked Out
• Items on Hold
• Fines
• Account Preferences
• My Bookbags
  

SEARCHING THE CATALOGUE

The Evergreen catalogue can be accessed through the computers at your local library or online from any location.

For online access, visit your library's website and follow the link to their online catalogue, or go to http://catalogue.bclibraries.ca for the BC Libraries portal to the catalogue.

Basic Search

The home page for the Evergreen catalogue allows you to search for books and other items at your library or libraries.

The home page contains a single search box for you to enter search terms. You can get to the home page at any time by selecting the Home link from the left-hand sidebar in Evergreen, or you can enter a search anywhere you see a search box in Evergreen.


You can select to search by:

• Keyword—finds the terms you enter anywhere in the entire record for an item, including title, author, subject, and other information.
• Title—finds the terms you enter in the title of an item.
• Author—finds the terms you enter in the author of an item.
• Subject—finds the terms you enter in the subject of an item. Subjects are categories assigned to items according to a system such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
• Series—finds the terms you enter in the title of a multi-part series.
  

Formats

You can limit your search by format:

• Books
• Large Print
• Audiobooks (books read aloud on CDs or other media)
• Video (VHS tapes, DVDs, and other media)
• Music (music on CD or other media)
• Electronic Resources (databases or other resources available electronically in the library or online)
  

Libraries

If you are using a catalogue in a library or accessing a library’s online catalogue from its homepage, the search will return items for your local library. If your library has multiple branches, the result will display items available at your branch and all branches of your library system separately.

If you access the catalogue from http://catalogue.bclibraries.ca, you may scope your search result to Sitka, a library federation, a library system or a library branch. Correspondingly, you will be able to see how many copies of a title are available in all libraries currently using Evergreen across British Columbia, within the library federation, the library system and the branch.

Advanced Search

You may use one or many of the search options simultaneously.

• Keyword—finds the terms you enter anywhere in the entire record for an item, including title, author, subject, and other information.
• Title—finds the terms you enter in the title of an item.
• Author—finds the terms you enter in the author of an item.
• Subject—finds the terms you enter in the subject of an item. Subjects are categories assigned to items according to a system such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
• Series—finds the terms you enter in the title of a multi-part series.
  

Sort Criteria

By default, the search results are in order of greatest to least relevance. In the sort criteria box you may select to order the search results by relevance, title, author, or publication date.

Search Library

By default, the search returns results for your local library. If your library system has multiple branches, use the search library box to select different branches or the whole library system. If you access the catalogue from http://catalogue.bclibraries.ca, you may select a library federation, or Sitka Evergreen, as well.

Limit to Available

Select Limit to Available to limit by item’s current circulation status. Items currently checked-out by other patrons will not be displayed.

Group Formats and Editions

When the box is checked in the bottom centre of the Advanced Search page, the results are grouped together so that all formats and editions of the same title are grouped as one result. For example, the DVD and the first and second print editions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will appear together.

Search Filter

You can filter your search by Item Form, Item Type, Literary Form, Language, and audience. The Advanced button below the filter name creates a more detailed menu to choose from. For each filter type, you may select multiple criteria by holding down the CTRL key as you click on the options. If nothing is selected for a filter, the search will return results as though all options are selected.

Quick Search

If you have details on the exact item you wish to search for, use the quick search option on the left of the screen. Use the drop-down menu to select whether to search by ISBN, ISSN, Call Number, LCCN, TCN, or Item Barcode. Enter the information and click submit.

MARC Expert Search

If you are familiar with the MARC system, you may search by tag in the MARC Expert Search option on the left of the screen. Enter the three-digit tag number, the subfield if relevant, and the value or text that corresponds to the tag. For example, to search by publisher name, enter 260 b Random House. To search several tags simultaneously, use the Add Row option. Click Submit to run the search.

Search Tips

You do not need to enter authors last name first, nor do you need an exact title or subject heading. Evergreen is also forgiving about plurals and alternate verb endings, so if you enter dogs, Evergreen will also find items with dog.

• Do not use an AND operator to join search terms.
• An AND operator is automatically used to join all search terms. So, a search for golden compass will search for entries that contain both golden and compass.
• Boolean operators such as and, or, not are not considered special and are searched for like any other word. So, a search for golden and compass will not return the title golden compass. Putting it another way, there are no stop words that are automatically ignored by the search engine. So, a title search for the and or not of (and in any order) yields a list of titles with those words.
  

• Don’t worry about white space, exact punctuation, or capitalization.
• White spaces before or after a word are ignored. So, search for golden compass gives the same results as a search for golden compass.
• A double dash or a colon between words is reduced to a blank space. So, a title search for golden:compass or golden -- compass is equivalent to golden compass.
• Punctuation marks occurring within a word are removed; the exception is _. So, a title search for gol_den com_pass gives no result.
• Diacritical marks, &, or | located anywhere in the search term are removed. Words or letters linked together by . (dot) are joined together without the dot. So, a search for go|l|den & comp.ass is equivalent to golden compass.
• Upper and lower case letters are equivalent. So, Golden Compass is the same as golden compass.
  

• Enter your search words in any order. So, a search for compass golden gives the same results as a search for golden compass. Adding more search words gives fewer and more specific results.
• This is also true for author searches. Both David Suzuki and Suzuki, David will return results for the same author.
  

• Use specific search terms. Evergreen will search for the words you specify, not the meanings, so choose search terms that are likely to appear in an item description. For example, the search luxury hotels will produce more relevant results than nice places to stay.
• Search for an exact phase using double-quotes. For example “golden compass”.
• The order of words is important for an exact phrase search. “golden compass” is different than “compass golden”.
• White space, punctuation and capitalization are removed from exact phrases as described above. So a phrase retains its search terms and its relative order, but not special characters and not case.
• Two phrases are joined by and, so a search for “golden compass” “dark materials” is equivalent to “golden compass” and “dark materials”. 
• To prevent stemming, use double quotes around a single word or a phrase. So, a search for parenting will also return results for parental but a search for “parenting” will not.
  

• Do not use wildcards. Truncation using wildcards is not supported in Evergreen. So, searching for comp* will not return results for compass.

• Exclude a term from the search, using - (minus) or ! (exclamation point). For example, vacations –britain or vacations !britain will search for materials on vacations that do not make reference to Britain.
• Two excluded words are joined by and. So, a search for !harry !potter is equivalent to !harry and !potter.
• A + (plus) leading a term has no role and is removed. So, +golden +compass is equivalent to golden compass.
  

You can form more complex searches using the Advanced Search features.

Improving a Search With Few Results

If Few hits were returned for your search is displayed, you may see some suggestions for expanding or altering your search at the bottom of the search results list. These alternate search terms are words that are similar to your search terms in spelling or sound. Selecting one of the links performs a search with the new search terms.

Search Methodology

Stemming

A search for dogs will also return hits with the word dog and a search for parenting will return results with the words parent and parental. This is because the search uses stemming to help return the most relevant results. That is, words are reduced to their stem (or root word) before the search is performed.

The stemming algorithm relies on common English language patterns - like verbs ending in ing - to find the stems. This is more efficient that looking up each search term in a dictionary and usually produces desirable results. However, it also means the search will sometimes reduce a word to an incorrect stem and cause unexpected results. To prevent a word or phrase from stemming, put it in double-quotes.

Understanding how stemming works can help you to create more relevant searches, but it is usually best not to anticipate how a search term will be stemmed. For example, searching for gold compass does not return golden compass because the search does not recognize gold as a stem of golden.

Truncation

Truncation is not currently supported in Evergreen.

Order of Results

The search results are a list of relevant works from the catalogue. By default, the results in Evergreen are listed in order or relevance, similar to a search engine like Google. The relevance is determined using a number of factors, including how often and where the search terms appear in the item description, and whether the search terms are part of the title, subject, author, or series. The results which best match your search are returned first rather than results appearing in alphabetical or chronological order.

In the advanced search screen, you may select to order the search results by relevance, title, author, or publication date.

Search Results

The search results are a list of relevant works from the catalogue. If there are many results, they’re divided into several pages. At the top of the list, you can see the total number of results and go back and forth between the pages of results. Here’s an example:

Editions and Formats

These results show groups of related titles, which may include several editions and formats. For example, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is available as a book, as a nonmusical sound recording, as a video, and as a musical sound recording. All of these are grouped together under in a single title group. You can see a list of the separate formats and editions by clicking on the title.

The icons under the title and author indicate formats such as books, audiobooks, videorecordings, and other formats. You can click on one of the icons to see only those formats.

If there are many results, they’re divided into several pages. At the top of the list, you can see the total number of results and go back and forth between the pages of results.

Related Subjects, Authors, and Series

At the left, you may see a list of related subjects, authors, and series. Selecting one of these links searches the catalogue again using that subject, author, or series to find additional items. This begins a new search rather than further refining the current search.

Availability

The number of available copies and total copies are displayed in the right-hand columns. If you are using a catalogue inside a library or accessing a library’s online catalogue from its homepage, you will see how many copies are available in the library under the library’s name. If the library belongs to a multi-branch library system you will see an extra column under the library system’s name showing how many copies are available in all branches.

If you access the catalogue from http://catalogue.bclibraries.ca, you may see up to four columns of Available Copies/Total Copies, depending on your search scope.

The column for This Branch shows how many copies are available in the branch you’re searching, and the column for This System in all branches of the library system, Regional Libraries in all libraries using Sitka Evergreen in the library federation, Across BC in all libraries using Sitka Evergreen in the province.

Viewing a record

Click on a title to view a detailed record of the title, including descriptive information, location and availability, and options for placing holds.

Details

The record shows details such as the cover image, title, author, publication information, and an abstract or summary, if available.

At the bottom of the record, the Copy Summary shows how many copies are at the library or libraries you’ve selected, and whether they’re available or checked out. It also displays the call number for locating the item on the shelves. You can select Shelf Browser to view items appearing near the current item on the library shelves. Often this is a good way to browse for similar items. You can select Table of Contents to see the book’s table of contents online (if available). You can select MARC Record to display the record in MARC format.

Placing Holds

You can select the Place Hold link in the upper right corner of the record to reserve the item. If the item is available, it will be pulled from the shelf and held for you. If all copies at your local library are checked out, you’ll be placed on a waiting list and you will be notified when items become available. See My Accounts below for more information about the items you place on hold and check out.

If you’re logged in to Evergreen, you’ll see an additional menu labeled More Actions... next to the Place Hold link. You can use this menu to add items to your bookbags. See My Accounts below for more information about how to log in and use bookbags.

Going back

When you’re viewing a specific record, you can always go back to a higher level to view all editions and formats, or back to the original search results. At the left of the page, you’ll see links to the title groups and search results like these:

You can select the link to My Titles Results to go back to the listing of editions and formats. You can select the link to My Search Results to go back to the list of all the results returned for your search.

You can start a new search at any time by entering new search terms in the search box at the top of the page, or by selecting the Home or Advanced Search links in the left-hand sidebar.

MY ACCOUNT

You can access information about your account from any page in Evergreen by selecting the My Account link in the left-hand sidebar (or on the bottom of the home page). Your account information includes contact information, items you have checked out or on hold, your fines, preferences for Evergreen, and bookbags, a place for you to keep reading lists or other lists of items. Each of the sections in the My Account area is described below.

Logging Into Your Account

Click on the My Account link

Enter Your Username

• If this is your first time logging in, your username will be your library card number. You have the option to change your username on the Account Summary screen.
  

Enter Your Password

• You should have been given a password when you received your library card. If this is your first time logging into your account you will be asked to reset your initial password.
• If you do not have or cannot recall your password please contact your local librarian to have the password reset.
• Click on the Login button
  

Account Summary

If you select the Account Summary link at the top of the My Account area, you see your contact and other account information. You can change the username and password that you use to log in to Evergreen as well as the email address the library uses to contact you by clicking the Change link next to the item.

If you need to make a change to other information, such as your address, please see the library staff.

Items Checked Out

Select the Items Checked Out link at the top of the My Account area to display all of the items you currently have checked out, their due dates, and the number of times you can renew them. You can simply select the renew link to renew the materials and extend the due date.

Items on Hold

Items on Hold shows the materials you currently have on hold (reserve). The title, author, format, pickup location, and status are displayed. You may cancel a hold or edit how you’d like to be contacted when the item is ready or where you’d like to pick it up.

Fines

The Fines area displays any fines or fees that you have accrued. You can pay your fines at the library.

Account Preferences

In the Account Preferences area, you can set several options for using the catalogue. These preferences are used when you are logged into your library account and searching the catalogue from within your library account.

• Search Hits Per Page: You can increase or decrease the number of results that appear by default when searching the library catalogue.
• Default Font Size: The catalogue offers a large font and regular font for display.
• Default Hold Notification Method: You may elect to be notified of available holds by email, phone, or both.
  

My Bookbags

The My Bookbags section allows you to create, edit, share, and remove bookbags.



Bookbags are lists of items that can be used for any number of purposes. For example, to keep track of what books you have read, books you would like to read, to maintain a class reading list, to maintain a reading list for a book club, to keep a list of books you would like for your birthday. There are an unlimited number of uses.
Due to privacy requirements, Evergreen does not keep a history of the books you have checked out, but you may create a list for yourself using a bookbag.

You can see the bookbags you’ve created in the My Bookbags section of the My Account area.

How do I create a bookbag?

There are two ways to create a bookbag.

• First, in the My Account area, click on My Bookbags. In the Create a new Bookbag section, enter a name for your bookbag into the text box. Decide if you would like to share the contents of the bookbag with other users, and click the Submit button.
• If you are already logged in, on any item detail page, select the drop-down menu labeled More Actions in the upper-left. The last option in the drop-down is Create a new bookbag. Clicking it will prompt for a bookbag name and create a new bookbag.
  

What does "Share this bookbag" mean?

Bookbags can either be private, and only viewable by you; or public, and viewable by anyone who knows where the bookbag resides. By default, all bookbags are private, and you must explicitly instruct the system to allow others to view the contents of a bookbag. You can elect to share a bookbag from the My Account area, My Bookbags section.

You can give the address of your bookbag to anyone you want to share it with. In the My Bookbags section, in the list of your bookbags, there is a View link for every shared bookbag. Bookmark this link in your browser or copy and paste the address to share your bookbag.

How do I add items to a bookbag?

First, you need to be logged in to the online catalogue by clicking the My Account link. Search the catalogue normally for the item you would like to add to your bookbag. In the item record detail you’ll see a drop-down menu in the upper right labeled More Actions. From that dropdown, select the bookbag you would like to place this title in. Alternatively, you can create a new bookbag from this dropdown.

How do I remove items from a bookbag?

In the My Account area, select the My Bookbags tab. Click on the name of the bookbag you would like to remove the item from. The items in the bookbag will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click the remove link next to the item you would like to remove from the bookbag. You’ll be prompted to confirm the removal.