Finding a Book at Tyndale Library

I'm going to give myself the easiest task possible. Simply log into the Tyndale library site and look up a book. Here goes.

Select Tyndale Library Services. 

Select OnTRAC.

Paste in Standing in the Shadow of Giants : Plagiarists, Authors, Collaborators.

Go.

"Could not retrieve search results." Does this mean "not found"? My first failure.

It booted me into "Advanced Search". Why? And why is the Search button so far over to the bottom right -- I have to scroll down to even see it.

For the search on Howard Rebecca Moore ALL OF THESE within AUTHOR NAME

the system returned Things for boys to make and do / Emily Bone, Rebecca Gilpin and Leonie Prat

So, the search doesn't even work properly.

How do I get back to where I was? Click "Search". 

Takes me to a new screen.

I'll try entering "plagiarists" within... what does "Title Keyword" mean? Same as word in "Title"?

"Search resulted in no hits."

Well, that's different from "Could not retrieve search results." I wonder if these two phrases are supposed to mean the same thing? Who knows?

"Your session will end in two minutes".

I'll try a simple search on Plagiarism. Bingo. I'll select 8 books. Add to List. I tried this. It asked for my Patron Code. I guess a patron is a hoity-toity user. I'll try emailing to see what it emails. Seemed to work. OK, I've emailed it; how do I get back to where I was? I have no idea. Search? No, got a blank search screen. Why is this interface so unintuitive, so difficult to use? Am I being punished for clicking Send EMail, and now I can't get back to where I was? Maybe it kept my search. Click My Searches. Nope. Click My List? OK, at least my list is intact -- but my search is, apparently, "gone". Now, what do I do if I want to get one of these books -- there's no Tyndale "Call No.".  I'll try clicking on one. Ah. There's the call number. This site would be so much better if the list included the call numbers. Then, you could just call it up and go down the list and get your books.

Checking my email of search results. Huge amounts of white space and not well-formatted. Oh well, at least the data is there. "Holdings Education Stacks". Hmm. That probably means they're over at the other building.

"Your session will end in two minutes".

OK. I got MyList in OnTRAC. I wonder if this list is only in OnTRAC, or if it is for all searches? MyAccount certainly seems more general than OnTRAC. If it's an OnTRAC List, it would be clearer if it said so.

* * *

Searching for books was pretty hit-and-miss. I think I'll search for journal articles. Search for "plagiarism instrument" within Education within 360.

"No clustered results are available. Please select another tab above or refine your search."

What is a clustered result??!! Same as "nothing found"? Same as "no hits"? 

Please select another tab -- what does this mean? Ah, the search defaulted to search within Titles. I'll go back and make it broader. Hmm. I got some "clustered results". Now I know what a cluster is.

OK, I've found some articles. I've clicked on their boxes. Now what do I do? Add to list? There is no list option here. Is there no way to save these search results??!!  I'll try clicking on one. Gale Research. I can "Bookmark" this. Probably a bookmark within Gale Research only. What an incomprehensible process!!!!

Zotero seems to be on the job, though. If only I knew how to use it!

I see there's a download tab with a floppy disc symbol. That's reassuring. I click download.

"Note:While the data elements for the following citations have been formatted to meet the latest citation standards set forth by the respective agencies, these citations provide the available publication data for the document cited and should only serve as a guide and not as a replacement for the latest guidebooks -- or those required by your instructor. Please refer to the provided examples for proper formatting."

What does this 360 Link do?!