What is Enhanced OPAC?

The Enhanced OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) is a one-stop search across multiple sources such as OPAC, online databases, websites etc. It seamlessly launches full text from e-books, e-journals and e-databases. Highlights of some of the key features are:

• Spell checks which prompts for the right spelling
• Results are presented in facets. Users may zero-in to the most relevant results and discover other related resources
• RSS feeds for automatic updates on areas of interest
• Check reviews from Amazon.com & table of contents of titles
• Users can add ratings and personal reviews for titles in the catalogue
• Select records for shopping carts and view them in personal e-shelf
• Retrieve e-books from IT & Engineering E-books database and view chapters within the e-book

Why should I sign in?

• Add items you found and queries you have done in your e-shelf
  You can save the items from your results list to your folder in e-shelf.
  Go to the eShelf help



• Set alerts for your queries
  You can set your search strategy (e.g. business and China) to become an alert. The system will send e-mail notification once there are new titles that meet your search strategy.
  Go to Saved queries help



• Access Library’s subscribed databases
  Once you have signed in, you can search the online resources using the Articles tab and also access e-books from IT & Engineering E-books database remotely.
  Go to Enhanced OPAC help



• Add reviews & rate the title
  You can add your reviews and add ratings to the title. You may request for these reviews to be reflected in Enhanced OPAC.
  Go to Add reviews & ratings help

Why should I sign out?

My Account

• Check your loans and fines
• Renew the titles that you have borrowed
• Update your e-mail address
• Change your Personal Identification Number (PIN)
• See your loan history
• Check if the titles that you have reserved is registered in the system

1. Click on My Account. A log-in page will be prompted.
   
   



2. Log into the system to view your account. Login with the appropriate userid name and password by following the instructions.
   
   



3. My Account displays your loans information. It also enables you to perform a number of online activities. Below are some of the features:
   
   
   
   

   Categories	Details
   a) Messages	This will reflect any messages sent by the Library to the patron.
   b) Remarks	This will reflect any blocks imposed by the Library to the patron.
   c) Alert Profiles	This will reflect any alert profiles set by the patron in Classic OPAC.
   d) Change PIN	You may change your PIN by clicking here. This is a requirement before you can borrow any titles using the self-service issue terminals. Click on this tab to find out information on your initial PIN.
   e) Update E-mail Address	You may update your address here. All correspondences between the Library and you will be directed to your e-mail address.

   
   

   Note:

   
   In order to protect your personal information, the system does not allow the use of the browser's Back button from most of My Account pages. To go back to previous page, click on My Library Account button if you are still signed in. Remember to click on the Sign out button to log-off from your library account.




4. Features of My Account and the interpretation of each field is shown below.
   
   

Change PIN

1. Why do you need to change your Personal Identification Number (PIN)?



• Allow you to borrow titles using the self-service terminal.
• Security reasons. Others may use your default PIN to log-in your library account to borrow library materials. Please note that you are responsible for all library items charged to your account.


2. What is the default PIN?


The initial Borrower's PIN assigned to all new members of the Library is indicated below.



Borrower category	Initial PIN
Students	Student Number ( e.g. 00501234) as printed on the front of your Card. Do not key in the alphabet(s)
Others	NRIC / Passport Number. Do not key in the alphabet(s)




3. What number should I change to?
   
   Change the initial PIN to any number between 6 to 8 digits (e.g. 123456 or 12345678).

1. Go to OPAC (http://libenhancedopac.np.edu.sg)
   
   



2. Click on My Account found on the top right corner of the page.
   
   



3. You will be prompted with another screen that shows the e-Shelf, Queries and My Account. Click on My Account tab.
   
   



4. Log into the system to view your account. Login with the appropriate userid name and password by following the instructions.
   
   



5. Click on Change PIN button found on the top menu bar.
   
   



6. Change the PIN following the instructions given on the page. This step is necessary as you need to key in your PIN before you can check out any titles using the self-service terminal.
   
   
   
   

Renew a title

1. Click on My Account. A log-in page will be prompted.
   
   



2. Log into the system with the appropriate userid name and password to view your account.
   
   



3. This will bring you to a page that shows your loan information. Click on the Loans hyperlink under Activities.
   
   



4. Click on the Renew All button if you wish to renew all titles.
   
   



5. To renew selected titles, check off the box to select the titles that you want to reserve, then click on the Renew Selected Button.
   
   

Reserve a title

1. Do a search in Enhanced OPAC to retrieve the title that you want.
   
   



2. Click on the Holdings hyperlink to access the call number, location and status of the title.
   
   



3. Take note of the following before reserving the item:



1. Due date / Status - When the book is expected to be returned
2. No. of reservations - This shows the number of reservation(s) that have been placed for the title. Choose the title with the least reservations so that you will not be too way behind in the queue
   


4. The steps to reserve the title are as follows:



1. Click on the Reserve hyperlink to reserve the title. This will bring you to a page that states that your reservation has been reserved.
2. The default pick up location in NP Library at the Circulation Counter, Lifestyle Library. The default period of interest for collection is 6 months. You may change the dates. Click the Go button to activate the reservation.
3. Once you have reserved the title, the word “Reserved” will appear under the due date.
4. Your queue for the reservation will be reflected under No. of reservations.
   
   


5. The system will generate an email to you when the title that you have reserved is ready for collection.
6. Collect the title from the Circulation Counter at the Lifestyle Library. Your reservation will be cancelled if it is not collected within 7 working days.

Enhanced OPAC

1. The Enhanced OPAC tab is used to search for resources in the Library’s collection.
2. The search scope defines where the system should perform the search. You can change the scope of your search by selecting the appropriate search scope from the pull down menu. The scope and coverage are:

   

Article search

1. The Articles Tab is used to search for articles from PRIMO Central. It draws out articles from Library’s subscribed databases as well as other free databases on the Web.
2. Key in some keywords and click on the Search button.

Media search

1. The Media Tab is used to find titles in the Library in the selected media format.
2. The various media formats are listed in the pull down scope list.The search scope defines where the system should perform the search. You can change the scope of  your search by selecting the appropriate media format from the pull down menu. Select the media format first and then type the keywords that you want to search.





3. To locate the title, click on the Holdings hyperlink found below the brief results for the title to access the call number, location and status of the title.





4. You will be prompted with a holdings page. Take note of the holdings information.





5. The following are the steps to take before you go to the shelves to find the title.





• Copy the call number of the title which is like the address of the item.
• Click on the Location hyperlink to find out where the item is located in the Library. E.g. If you click on Entrance Level, Feature Films, a map will be displayed. You will notice that the title with the call number TRON is located on Level 2 of the Entrance Level, Feature Films.





• Check the due date / status column of the holdings information.
  Titles out on loan - Due date / status or due hour will be reflected
  Titles in the library - The statement “On Shelf” will be reflected


Titles out on loan



Titles in the Library



If the title is on loan, you may wish to reserve the title by clicking on the Reserve hyperlink. Go to the help guide for reservations for details.




• Item status information indicated the type of loans. See Results > Interpret holdings.

Location search

1. The Location Tab is used to find titles in the different locations of the Library.
2. The various locations are listed in the pull down scope list. The search scope defines where the system should perform the search. You can change the scope of your search by selecting the appropriate location from the pull down menu. Select the location first and then type the keywords that you want to search.

Keyword search

1. The default tab is Enhanced OPAC. Type one or more keywords that you are looking for. The default operator that combines the keywords that you have typed is AND. You do not need to type this word as the system will automatically combine all the keywords that you have typed.


E.g. A search on internet marketing will search for resources with the occurrence of both the keywords “internet” and “marketing”


2. The default scope is All Resources. Select the scope that you want to search
3. Click on the Search button.

Narrow or broaden a search

Narrow a search

Broaden a search

1. You can use the OR operator to broaden a search by finding alternative terms e.g.
• spelling variants such as behaviour, behavior
• single and plural version of words
• synonyms ( words of same meaning)
• relevant abbreviations e.g. MOE or Ministry of Education


2. You can also use the OR operator to search for titles which have at least one of the keywords.

E.g. Titles with either occurrence of these words, “innovation” or “creativity” will be retrieved
( Note : Type the operator, OR in capital letter )

Phrase search

1. Do a phrase search if you want to find titles that contain only the exact phrase. To specify, use double quotes e.g. “digital animation”

NOTE: If you do not enclose the phrase with double quotes, the system will find items that contain the individual words in the phrase, regardless of whether these words are located next to each other in the order specified.

Variations of a word search

You can include the following wildcard characters in your searches tofind all variations of a root word:

1. * use an asterisk to perform a multiple character wildcard search. For example, type comput* to search for records that contain the string of characters requested for, such as computer, computers, computerisation etc. col*r will retrieve records containing the string color and colour.





2. ? use a question mark to perform a single character wildcard search. For example, type wom?n to search for records that contain the strings woman, women, and so forth.

Group words within a query (nesting)

In a search strategy, grouping similar terms together within parentheses will control the order in which a complex search is performed. Nesting allows the use of two or more Boolean operators within one search statement.

1. A search under education (online learning OR e-learning) will force the system to sort through the results of “online learning OR e-learning" first, then combine them with the keyword “education”
2. A search under education (online learning OR e-learning) NOT interactive will force the system to sort through the results of “online learning OR e-learning“ first, combine with the word “education” and sieve out titles with the keyword, “interactive”

Advanced search features

Choose one of the following fields: “Any” searches keyword(s) in any fields “Title” searches keyword(s) in the title field only “Author/Creator” searches keyword(s) in the author field only “Subject” searches keyword(s) in the subject field only The default field is “Any”.

Choose one of the following fields: “Contains” searches keyword(s) within the field e.g. Title, Author, Subject, or across the entire records. There is no specific order. “Is (exact)” searches the exact phrase e.g. “digital animation”. The two keywords will be retrieved together as one phrase. “Starts with” searches any keyword(s) that begins with the keyword(s) that you have typed.

Personal author

The search using “contains” will retrieve titles by any authors that have the names “Goh” and “Sin”. Use this search if you are uncertain of the author’s full name

Use the following conventions to type the personal name.

Note:

1. The asterisk (*) for wildcard searching can be used for uncommon surnames
2. Names can be inverted in any order
3. The option “starts with” does not work with Author/Creator search.

Chinese author

The search using “contains” searches titles by any authors that have the names “刘” and “白” in them. This search is used when you are not sure of the author’s name

Note: Titles with both traditional and simplified Chinese characters will be retrieved.

Corporate author

The search using “contains” searches any keywords of the corporate name. Use this search if you know only some keywords of the corporation name

Conference name

The search using “contains” searches any keywords of the conference name. Use this search if you do not know all the keywords of the conference name.

All titles

The search using “contains” searches any keywords of the title. Use this search if you do not know the full title.

Series title

The search using “contains” searches any keywords of the series title. Use this search if you do not know the full series title.

Chinese title

The search using “contains” searches any keywords of the Chinese title. Use this search if you do not know the full title

Subject search

The search using “contains” searches any keywords of the subject. Use this search if you do not know all the keywords of the subject

Publication Date search

You may limit your search by the range of publication dates. Choose the appropriate date range as shown below:

Material type

Language search

Search scopes

The search scope defines where the system should perform the search. You can change the scope of your search by selecting the appropriate search scope from the pull down menu. The scope and coverage are:

Article search

1. The Articles Tab is used to search for articles from PRIMO Central. It draws out articles from Library’s subscribed databases as well as other free databases on the Web.
2. Key in some keywords and click on the Search button.

Brief results

The brief results display all items that match your search query. For each item, the following information is displayed:

Check Holdings

Click on the Holdings tab to find information on where to locate the title. A holdings information page will be displayed. It provides information on where to locate the item and the status of the title.

Interpret holdings

Holdings are the total stock of materials (print and non print) owned by the Library. The holdings window display consists of 3 sections:

The table below explains on how to interpret the holdings information

Categories	Information
	Shows where to locate the title in the Library. Click on the hyperlink to find the exact location. It will launch a floor plan highlighting the location.
	Shows the subject cluster for titles located in the Lifestyle Library.
	The call number is like the address of the title. Copy the call number and take note of the location to find the title on the shelves.
	The loan policy / item status indicates the availability of the copy/copies of a work. Check the status to confirm if the item is available for loan, or decide whether you wish to reserve the item(s) if it is on loan.
	The due date / status indicates the date that the item should be returned. It also indicates whether the title is reserved, put on hold for collection etc.
	The due hour indicates the specific time that the item should be returned. This applies to titles borrowed from the Recommended Book Collection and Feature Films Collection.
	Provides description of the title such as paperback edition (pbk.)
	The item barcode is a unique number assigned to each title to identify titles for inventory
	Provides information on the number of reservations made for the item
	Click on the hyperlink to make reservation for the item. Reservation can only be made for items which are out on loan, on order or in process.

Loan policy / Item Status

Due date / Status

Shelf Arrangement

1. Library Homepage > Help > Subject Classification
2. Library Homepage > Help > Bookmarks

Full details

1. The Details tab displays the item’s full record and other additional links. Click on the hyperlinks in blue to expand the search to all works by the same author or on the subject.
2. Click on the Table of Contents to view the Table of Contents and Summary, if these are available.
3. Click on “Review from Amazon.com” to check out any reviews of the book in Amazon.com

Add reviews & ratings

1. Click on the Reviews tab to post your review. Only students, staff and external members may post reviews. Click on the Sign in hyperlink which can be found on the top right hand corner for the system to confirm your membership status





2. A log-in page will be displayed. Key in your name and password before you can post any reviews





3. Go back to the same record and click on Post Your Review





1. Rate the item with 1 being the lowest and 10 as the highest score
2. Type in your review
3. Click on the relevant check boxes and click on the Submit button





4. The name of the reviewer will be reflected and the review will be displayed in the OPAC record. Click the “edit” hyperlink to make changes to the review OR “remove” hyperlink to remove the review. Every tick (✓) represents a rating of 2 and half tick ( / ) represents a rating of 1. (Example: If you choose a rating of 7, the number of ticks will be 3.5)

Request@NP Library

Click on Request@NP Library when the title is on loan. This will open up a menu page with information on the other possible links to obtain the book. Click on the “Open Source in a new window” hyperlink to see the full services offered on the menu page

View editions/parts/formats

1. Below shows an example of a title with different editions
   
   
   
   
   The brief record will show the latest edition of the title. Click on “View 2 editions/parts/formats” to view the latest edition together with other previous editions of the title as shown below.
   
   



2. Below shows a title with different parts
   
   
   
   
   The brief record shows the first volume of the title. Click on “View 2 editions/parts/formats” to view the first volume and other volumes of the title as shown below
   
   

Sort results

1. After doing a search and retrieving the results, you can set the display of the results by clicking on “Sorted By”. The default sort is by relevance ranking based on the number of occurrences of the keyword(s) that you have typed.



2. From the drop down list, you can change the display to the sequence that you want:
   
   Date-newest - Latest date of publication reflected on top
   Popularity     - According to number of loans
   Author          - Alphabetical sorting of titles by author's name
   Title              - Alphabetical sorting of titles

Spell check

Table of contents

1. Click on image of the book to access the details
2. Click on Details Tab. You will see the full details of the book. Under Links, there will be a hyperlink to the Table of Contents
   
   

Facets

Suggested new searches

Save search strategy

1. Type the keywords of your search
   
   



2. Click on Sign in. This is found on top of the page
   
   



3. Save the query by clicking on save query hyperlink found at the bottom of the page
   
   



4. A pop-up window will appear. Fill in the query name and save the alert. You may also save the search strategy as an alert. The system will automatically alert you through e-mail should any new titles matching your search strategy be encountered in future.
   
   

Save OPAC records

1. Click on the shopping cart. Once you have selected the record(s), the shopping cart will change from blue to yellow colour.
   
   



2. Click on e-Shelf to view the record(s) that you have selected
   
   



3. Items are temporarily held in your e-shelf. Sign in to your account to save the titles permanently to your e-shelf
   
   



4. Once you have signed in, the record will be stored permanently in the eShelf folder.
   
   

Save record and holdings

1. Click on holdings information tab. A page containing the brief results and holdings information will be retrieved.
   
   
   
   




2. Go to File > Save As and save the page. Change the file name and file type if you wish. Otherwise, keep to the same format.
   
   

Saving and removing items

View/E-mail/Print items

Record sent via e-mail

1. A pop-up menu box will appear. You may change the default subject and key-in your e-mail address.
   
   



2. You will receive a record with the title and publication information in your e-mail. Click on View details hyperlink to see the full record.
   
   

Records sent for printing

Manage folders

Button	Description
	Create Folder - Click this button to add a new folder under the selected folder.
	Rename Folder - Click this button to rename the selected folder.
	Copy Folder - Click this button to copy the selected folder into memory. The original folder will not be changed or deleted.
	Paste Folder - Click this button to paste the last folder placed into memory into the selected folder.
	Delete Folder - Click this button to delete the selected folder from Basket.

Manage items

Button	Description
	Cut Items - Click this button to cut the selected items and to place them into memory.
	Copy Items - Click this button to copy the selected items into memory.
	Paste Item - Click this button to paste the last items placed into memory into the current folder.
	Delete Items - Click this button to delete the selected items.
	E-Mail Items - Click this button to email the selected items.
	Print Items - Click this button to print the selected items.
	Add Note - Click this button to add a note to an item.
	Modify Note - Click this button to modify an item's note.

This session queries

1. Click on e-Shelf
   
   



2. Click on the Queries tab. You will be able to see all the session’s queries
   
   



3. Click on the search strategies hyperlinks to view the titles

Create OPAC alerts

1. Do a search in Enhanced OPAC
   
   



2. Sign in to save the query that you have done
   
   



3. A log-in page will be displayed. Key in your name and password
   
   



4. Save a query by clicking on the Save query link which appears below the facets in the brief results page
   
   



5. A menu page will be prompted. These are the steps:
1. Fill in your query name and click on the button for save and alert.
2. Fill in your e-mail address that you want the alerts to be sent to.
3. Click on the Save button.
4. A pop up window will be displayed stating that your query has been saved successfully.
   
   

1. Do a search in OPAC, sign in and click on e-Shelf (steps are the same as activate alerts from Save Query
2. Click on the Queries tab in e-shelf. You will see your saved queries & alerts. To configure an alert for a saved query, click on the Update hyperlink for that query
   
   

RSS Feeds

1. Really simple syndication or commonly known as RSS is a popular way to distribute information from websites. RSS in the Enhanced OPAC is used to notify you of new titles found by your query. RSS feeds can be activated from the following:




Function	Location
Search results
Saved queries & Alerts under e-Shelf




2. Steps to subscribe to RSS feeds



1. Do a search in Enhanced OPAC
   
   



2. If you want to be updated on new titles on a search strategy e.g. business and china, you can subscribe to the RSS feeds by clicking on the RSS button found on the bottom left of the page. You do not need to sign in.
   
   



3. Click on e-Shelf
   
   



4. Click on the Queries tab. You will see your saved queries & alerts. To subscribe to RSS feeds, click on the subscribe hyperlink
   
   



5. When you click on the link, you will be prompted with a page with records
   
   



6. Click on subscribe to this feed if you want regular feeds on the new titles
   
   



7. A menu page will be opened. Click on the subscribe button to activate the feeds
   
   



8. To view your feeds, go the following:
   
   



9. To change the feed properties, click on View feed properties
   
   



10. A menu box will appear as follows: