Using the catalogue

• Visit our online catalogue
• Enter your Borrower ID (this is the long number on the back of your library card)
• Enter your four digit PIN number.

Forgot your pin? You can reset it online.

If you’re browsing the online catalogue on a mobile device, the log in button is found at the bottom of the screen – click the third icon on the right-hand side to bring up the login portal.

Use a quick search for fast results or an advanced search for more specific queries.

Quick search:

• If you know the title/author the best search is by keyword and author surname
• Or alternatively just type in a subject, keyword or series title
• To search all of a complete collection, e.g. Large Print or Audiobooks, select from the drop down menu beside the search bar and click magnifying glass.
• To search within a collection, choose e.g. Junior nonfiction and enter a keyword in the search box.

Advanced search:

Use the drop down menu on the left to search for:

• Publisher, e.g. Barrington Stoke
• ISBN, if you’d like a specific edition
• You can also search by Collection, e.g. story sacks, community languages
• Category e.g. Picture books, graphic novels

Search filters:

• Keyword search – finds words anywhere in the selected field
• Phrase search – looks for an exact phrase in the selected field
• You can also filter by publication year, language, location, collection, and material type – fill in as much or as little as you need
• Results appear in alphabetical order by default, but you can reorder them using the Sort Set button. To narrow down the results, use the Refine Set feature to refine your current search further.

Once you’ve found what you want:

• Tick the box next to the title(s)
• Click the purple ‘Reserve Selections’ button
• If you’re not logged in, you’ll be prompted to enter your library card number, PIN, your preferred collection library, and a cut-off date for the reservation
• Click Submit.

To check your reservations, go to My Account and select either:

• Reservations available for pickup, or
• Reservations not yet available.

Reservation notifications:

When your reserved title is ready, we’ll notify you by email or text, depending on the contact information you provided during registration.

If we don’t have your contact details, you can check in person, call, or email your local library for assistance.

Reservations typically take around a week if no one else is waiting. If yours is delayed, email us at library.help@suffolk.gov.uk and we’ll check on it.

Whether you have reserved a title or found a title you wish to borrow on the library shelves, you can borrow it using one of our self-service machines or by seeing staff at the library desk.

You will need your library card to take out a book.

To renew books online:

• Log in to your library account
• Click ‘My Account’ in the top right-hand corner on desktop or select the account icon in the bottom right-hand corner on a mobile device
• Select ‘Current loans’ in the pane in the middle of the page
• Either check the checkboxes next to the loans you wish to renew and click the ‘Renew selections’ button, or click ‘Renew all’ if you would like to renew all your loans. We will automatically renew all loans that can be renewed.

Please note: if you are using a mobile device, you may not be able to see the whole ‘Current loans’ table. To see the rest of the table, simply scroll across using your thumb.

You can also call 0345 60 630 60 (available 24/7 with an out-of-hours answering service) or visit any Suffolk library.

You can renew a book up to six times unless it is reserved by someone else. Any overdue charges or new hire charges will be logged to your account up to a credit limit of £14.

You can pay your charges:

• online with a credit or debit card
• at any of our libraries
• by calling us on 0345 60 630 60.

View our borrowing periods and overdue charges.

You can return a title at any Suffolk library by using one of our self-service machines or handing it to staff at the library desk.

Many of our libraries have out-of-hours book returns. Visit your local library’s page to find out if they offer this service.

An alert profile allows you to create a profile that matches your preferences for materials you would like to use.

These profiles are scanned as part of the library’s overnight housekeeping and any new works that meet the profile’s criteria are added to the “profile set” for the particular profile.

If any new works are added to your profile set as part of the nightly scan, you will be sent an email containing brief bibliographic details for each work, as well as a hyperlink to the work.

When you receive this email, you can click on the hyperlink to go directly to the work and place a reservation against it if you wish.

Creating a new alert profile

• Login to My Library and access the New alert profile page.
• Enter your preferences in the search profile fields. You can select several options from the multi-choice lists.
• Click the Search button (or press the enter key) to test your search to see if it retrieves the number and type of records you are expecting. This will apply your search preferences to the Library Catalogue and will display the records retrieved. Return to your profile using the navigation breadcrumb displayed at the top of the result set.
• Make any necessary adjustments to your search profile and retest the search.
• Select an alert frequency to indicate how often you would like the library server to scan the database looking for any new works matching your search profile.
• Optionally enter an expiry date if you do not want alerts to be sent after a specific date.
• Provide a short description of your profile so that you can recognise it in your profile list. This is mandatory.
• Click the Save button to create your new profile. A message will be displayed to let you know your profile has been created and the form will be cleared to enable you to enter another profile if you want to.

Read the full guide on setting up alert profiles.

As you browse through the records in your result set after performing a search in the Library Catalogue, you will notice that some records are displayed with a number of stars.

This indicates that one or more reviews have been attached to the record displayed. The number of stars displayed is an average of the ratings given to this record by the reviewers.

To add your review to a record:

• Retrieve the record you want to add your review to and display in full display.
• Click on the link to Add a review. This will display a form for you to complete.
• Enter your borrower ID and password if you are not already logged in.
• Select the rating you would like to assign.
• Enter your comments. You can enter as much text as you like. Press Enter to start a new paragraph.
• Select the Continue button to submit your review. Your comments will be reviewed by library staff before being made available for general access to others.

You can also amend and delete existing reviews by accessing these records in My account. Please refer to the section on ratings and comments in the Using My Library help page for details.