Our sister site My Green Lake ran this story recently. The catalog is online as of yesterday according to the Seattle Public Library website.
The Seattle Public Library has a new online catalog that makes finding books, movies, and music easier and offers social networking options.
In the new catalog you can:
- Find what you want faster
- See what’s available for immediate checkout
- Track your borrowing history
- Rate and review books, music and movies
- Get reading, viewing, listening recommendations.
“Patrons are really excited to discover the new features,” City Librarian Susan Hildreth said in a press release. “The new system does so much more than list what’s on the shelves — now patrons can connect and share information about Library resources. It’s a new catalog in a social networking environment.”
Hildreth noted that the former catalog will continue to be available while patrons become more familiar with the new system. “Our goal is to get as many cardholders converted over to the new system as soon as possible,” she said. “About 1 percent of our cardholders are already using it.”
Patrons can search for items in the catalog without registering. But patrons must register and create a username to place, holds, renew books and materials and use the social networking tools.
“With a username, you can rate items in the collection, as well as follow users with similar reading or listening interests,” Hildreth said. “Patrons can even create and share their own reading lists and add content to them –such as Web links or YouTube videos.”
“Having a username also gets you quickly into the catalog. All you need is your username and Personal Identification Number (PIN). It’s easier than remembering your Library card number.” Because patrons’ usernames are published when they add content to the catalog, patrons cannot not use their Library card numbers as usernames.
For safety and privacy reasons, children 12 and under will be restricted to usernames that include animals or colors and will have limited access to the social features in the catalog.
A short video showing how to use the new catalog and other information is available by visiting www.spl.org and selecting “Using the Library” located at the top of the page in the horizontal blue bar. The Using the Library page features a section on using the catalog.