Melissa Barnes Library Media Specialist Western Union Elementary School

• Melissa BarnesMelissa Barnes• Library Media SpecialistLibrary Media Specialist• Western Union Elementary SchoolWestern Union Elementary School• [email protected]@ucps.k12.nc.us

What is OPAC? OPAC stands for Online Public

Access Catalog. It is the place to go to find out what books and resources we have in our library. Here’s a bonus! Our new Destiny program allows you to access it from any computer with Internet access!

OPAC Home PageThis Is Our Homepage. Click on the Catalog

Tab to Search for Books..

Click here to search

our catalogType a

title here

How to navigate OPAC

Destiny is a browser based program. For this reason you should not use the back button to return to a previously viewed page. Instead, use the bread crumbs. This is the trail created when you view pages and is located in the green bar at the top of the page.

Use these breadcrum

bs to return to previous

pages

CatalogThis is what the default search page looks like. I’ve pointed out some of the key features. We’ll take a closer

look at some of them later.

Click to view a

list you’ve created

These features allow you to search other schools or

reading programs

Searching with OPAC

Basic Library Search - This page allows you to search by Keyword, Title, Author, Subject, or Series. When you do a title search, leave off beginning words like A, And, or The. For author, type in the last name then a comma and the first name.

If you ever need help

with a search, just click here.

Power SearchThe Power search is great for narrowing your search. It allows you to link multiple search terms using Boolean logic.

Click here to do a power

search

Visual Search

Great for Kids, just click on a picture to narrow your search.

This is a category I created. We can

also create Teacher reading

lists or CurriculumRelated

categories.

Search ResultsThe search results for all searches (for our school) look like this page. You can click on the Details icon next to each title to find out more information about that book.

In this area you will find the call number, a details icon for more info on the book,

and the Lexile/AR level.

This let’s you know how

many copies we have and

if they are in..

Title DetailsTitle details provides more information on the book and you can also click on the book cover to read a summary or excerpt from the book. Explore gives you related subjects , series, or titles by that author.

Explore related topics

My listCreating a list is simple. Click “Add to My List” for every title you would like to add. When your done, click “View my list” on the left, this will retrieve your list.

Click

here to

view your list

You can create a

bibliography in MLA

format

Click here to add a

title to your list

This has been a quick introduction to some of the features our new OPAC offers.

Please take some time to explore it further and let me know what you think.

Remember, you can access it from anywhere! Add the Icon to your desk top

(open the homepage and right click on the page, Choose create shortcut) or save

the URL to your favorites.

http://destiny.ucps.k12.nc.us/common/servlet/presenthomeform.do?

l2m=Home&tm=Home