Getting to Know ISearch

Learning Objectives
  • Learn what ISearch is, its role in the library, and how to access.
  • Explore the ISearch interface and understand which content collections are available.

 

Download the ISearch Guided Notes from the exercise files at the bottom of this page to help you with these lessons. You will continue to use the ISearch Guided Notes in other lessons throughout this class.

Find the following documents in the Patron Access section of the Library Services Handbook:

  • ISearch Basic Searching
  • ISearch My Account
  • ISearch My Lists

You can download the documents and refer to them as you work through this class. However, documents in the Library Services Handbook are frequently updated, so recycling any printed documents after you have completed the class is recommended. 

What is ISearch?

ISearch is your school library catalog + INFOhio. It is your online catalog and the INFOhio discovery interface. INFOhio uses SirsiDynix's Enterprise and EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to give you easy access to your catalog and INFOhio's database collections from a single search box. Read the first paragraph of this blog post by former OhioLINK Director, Gwen Evans, to learn more about what a discovery layer is. Use the ISearch Guided Notes as you read.

ISearch lets you and your users explore the contents of your school library along with multiple collections of magazines and journals, newspapers, reports, primary sources, encyclopedias, videos, and eBooks—reliable content that isn't available on the open web—from a single search box.

ISearch makes it easy for students to find materials in your school library and saves students time on research projects because they can search multiple kinds of high-quality, trustworthy resources from a single search box. ISearch makes it easy for educators to find materials in your school library and saves educators time by helping them differentiate content and build or supplement curriculum. Teachers can search multiple trusted resources and easily limit to results at the right reading levels for their students. Read the section "Why is a discovery layer needed for Libraries?" in this blog post by former OhioLINK Director, Gwen Evans, to learn why, in the last 10 years, many libraries have started using discovery layers. Use the ISearch Guided Notes as you read.

What is the SirsiDynix Discovery Tool for BLUEcloud?

ISearch is BLUEcloud's discovery interface! The BLUEcloud suite of products features ISearch as the online catalog where you will find not only your own library's materials but INFOhio resources as well. ISearch is the web interface that your students, their parents, and your colleagues can use to explore the contents of your school library from anywhere they have an internet connection. ISearch does not include administrative functions (like cataloging or circulation) for library staff. To catalog or circulate items, please log into BLUEcloud Central and proceed from there.

ISearch Interface Basics

The ISearch landing page or homepage

If you access ISearch by clicking a link to it, you'll land on your ISearch landing page or homepage.

These are the main components of the ISearch landing page:

  1. School or district name displays in the top banner
  2. User functions including access to log in, view your personal account, and view any saved lists
  3. Drop-downs to limit before conducting a search
  4. Link to Advanced Search
  5. Book River (click the link for an example; requires library staff setup) or image slider

The ISearch results screen

If you access ISearch by searching from a widget or if you search from the ISearch landing page, you'll land on an ISearch results screen.

These are the main components of the ISearch results screen:

  1. Tabs for different kinds of results at different reading levels
  2. Limiters/filters/facets
  3. Display settings for results. Defaults to thumbnail view. Click the list icon to switch to list view
  4. Page over for additional results
  5. Brief information about the item
  6. Book cover image or generic icon; click to see detail view
  7. Checkbox for user functions
  8. User item functions including placing holds (if allowed), adding items to saved lists, emailing, or printing
What are the tabs across the top of the ISearch results screen?

To make it easier for you and your users to find the items they need among the thousands of results in ISearch, INFOhio displays results on different tabs.

The active tab has a light blue background. The My Library tab is bigger than the other tabs.

This is where the results are coming from under each tab:

My Library

  • Your school library catalog
  • BookFlix
  • World Book Early Learning
  • INFOhio eBooks & Videos

Encyclopedias

  • EBSCO Research Starters (content pulled from a variety of high-quality sources, including Salem Press and Encyclopedia Britannica)
  • World Book Kids
  • World Book Student and Advanced

Basic Sources

You will find magazine and newspaper articles, usually at a lower reading level, on the Basic Sources tab. These are the databases that are searched on the Basic Sources tab:

  • Middle Search Plus
  • Newspaper Source
  • Primary Search
  • TOPICsearch

These are some of the publications that may appear in your results on the Basic Sources tab:

  • Cricket
  • Discover
  • Junior Scholastic
  • National Geographic
  • National Geographic Kids
  • Ranger Rick
  • Scholastic News
  • Scholastic Superscience
  • Skipping Stones
  • Smithsonian
  • Time for Kids
  • USA Today

Advanced Sources

You can find scholarly research articles that are more advanced on the Advanced Sources tab. These are the databases that are searched on the Advanced Sources tab:

  • Academic Search Premier
  • AHFS Consumer Medication Information
  • Alt HealthWatch
  • Business Source Premier
  • ERIC
  • Health Source - Consumer Edition 
  • Health Source - Nursing/Academic Edition
  • Home Improvement Source
  • Literary Reference Source
  • MAS Ultra
  • MEDLINE
  • Oxford Research Encyclopedias
  • Points of View Reference Source
  • Professional Development Collection
  • Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
  • Regional Business News
  • Religion and Philosophy Collection
  • Small Business Reference Center
  • Sociological Collection
  • Teacher Reference Center
  • Very Short Introductions
  • Vocational and Career Collection

These are some of the publications that may appear in your results on the Advanced Sources tab:

  • Adolescence
  • American Journal of Public Health
  • Chronicle of Higher Education
  • Harvard Law Review
  • Journal of Clinical Psychology
  • Journal of Mathematical Sciences
  • Library Journal
  • Modern Language Review
  • Nation
  • New Republic
  • PLOS One
  • Sewanee Review

STEAM

You can find resources related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math on the STEAM tab. These are the databases that are searched on the STEAM tab:

  • Computer Source
  • Hobbies & Crafts Source
  • Science Online
  • Science Reference Source

These are some of the publications that may appear in your results on the STEAM tab:

  • Computer Weekly
  • Electronics Weekly
  • Macworld
  • National Wildlife
  • Nature
  • New Scientist
  • PC Magazine
  • Science News

Open Access

You can find articles, government documents, and other resources that have good information and are freely available on some specialized websites on the Open Access tab. These are the content collections that are searched on the Open Access tab:

  • Cleveland Memory Project
  • OhioLINK ETD Center
  • AGRIS
  • Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals (AULIMP)
  • Archive of European Integration
  • arXiv
  • Churchill Archive
  • CogPrints
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH)
  • E-LIS (Eprints in Library & Information Science)
  • eScholarship
  • Government Publishing Office Catalog
  • GreenFILE
  • LUNA Commons
  • Minority Health Archive
  • NASA Technical Reports
  • Open Textbook Library
  • OpenDissertations
  • Oxfam Policy & Practice
  • RePEc
  • SciELO
  • SciELO Books
  • SciTech Connect
  • USPTO Patent Applications
  • USPTO Patent Grants

INFOhio adds subscription databases licensed for PreK-12 statewide use to ISearch as content providers build and release EDS connectors.

Currently, you cannot integrate subscription databases licensed only for your school or district's use with ISearch. However, INFOhio is exploring the software's ability to integrate additional electronic resources. If possible, adding additional electronic resources to ISearch will be a fee-based service.

 

Reflecting on Your Learning

Answer the following questions in the ISearch Users Open Space group Discussions. Find the Getting to Know ISearch reflection question in the Discussions tab. Reply to the thread and review other participants' responses.

  1. Based on what you've learned so far, name at least two features of ISearch that will most appeal to your students and teachers.
  2. What is one question you have about ISearch that you hope will be answered during the training?
  3. Think of a time when you used an online shopping site (e.g., Amazon, Kohl's, Target, Walmart, Zappos). Did you find what you were looking for? What features did that site have that made it easy or difficult to use? What are some ways that ISearch is similar to, or different from, the online shopping site you used?

 

Exercise files for this lesson

Use this document as you complete the lessons in the class.
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