How to Use the Online Catalog

1. Click on the bright green box,  which you'll find on most pages of this site.  The catalog will open in a new tab or window.
2. Access your account, How Do I?  tips, or begin your search:

What do I enter in the Find box?

To start searching, you must enter either a complete word or a phrase (in quotes) and click a search button.
You can use uppercase or lowercase letters
Searches are not case sensitive. For example, searches for give yourself goosebumps, Give YourSelf GooseBumpS, and GIVE YOURSELF GOOSEBUMPS all return the same results.
You can use wildcards
If you do not know the complete word, or are not sure how to spell it, add an asterisk (*) to the end of what you do know. An asterisk can replace any number of letters at the end of a word. However, the * cannot be used as a word's first or second letter or have any letters after it.

Examples:

• You can enter croc* to find crocodiles.
• You can enter teach*, to find teach, teacher, teaches, and teaching.
• You could use a question mark (?) to replace a single letter. You can use more than one question mark in a word, but it cannot be the first or last letter.
  Example:
  If you are not sure whether it is allegators, allagators, or alligators, search for all?gators.
  A search for all* would also work, but the results list might be too long.
  You can also use a question mark to find multiple forms of a word. A search for wom?n finds both woman and women.
• If you want to find a certain phrase, put quotation marks around it. For example, type "children's poetry" or "magic school bus".

Be aware that Destiny treats some words differently

Destiny ignores certain words, called stop words, in search terms. If you need to include stop words in your search term, switch to the Power tab, enter the term with the stop words, and select Starts with.

Depending on your library's preference, Destiny also may ignore leading articles such as A, An, Los, The, and Un. You can leave them out of your search term.

If the title begins with an A that is not a leading article, such as A, my name is Ami or G is for Galaxy, put quotation marks around the title.

You can leave out the punctuation
Destiny ignores the punctuation in a search term.

If your search term includes words separated by a punctuation mark such as a dash, double-dash, hyphen, or slash, leave it out. When you leave it out, do not replace the punctuation mark with a space.
For example, if you are trying to find Camp Ghost-Away, enter camp ghostaway.
If you are trying to find Katie.com, enter katiecom.

Helpful tips to refine search

You can use Boolean operators

You can create a search phrase from several distinct words or terms with Boolean operators between them. These operators—AND, OR, NOT—define the relationship between the words or phrases in your search term. Make sure to enter those using uppercase letters:

• cats AND dogs gives you only the titles that mention both cats and dogs
• cats OR dogs gives you all the titles that mention cats or dogs or both
• cats NOT dogs gives you only the titles about cats that do not mention dogs

Keep in mind that AND narrows a search, giving you fewer results; OR expands a search, giving you more results.
Make sure, also, that you do not use OR if you mean NOT.
Example:
You want to find a nonfiction book by Isaac Asimov that is not about science. If you search for asimov NOT fiction OR science, your results will not include fiction but will contain science. You should search for asimov NOT fiction NOT science.

 

If you misspell a word

If you misspell a search word, or Destiny cannot find your word, Destiny asks you, Did you mean...?. If Destiny's word is correct—if it is the word you want—click the word to see the search results. If not, click Refine your search and try again.
Example:
If you type dinasors, Destiny asks you, Did you mean "dinosaurs"?. Click dinosaurs if that is the word you meant to enter.

For more information on using our catalog, click on How do I…? on the top right corner of the catalog screen.