Koha:Circulation

Below are general instructions for circulating books at the TSAS Library. If you are unable to access your account, contact Stallings.

Log In

Log into Koha at libstaff.tsas.org using your student ID (only—no @tsas.org) and password.

Circulate Books

To check in a book means a student is returning the book to the library. To check out a book means they are taking it to read.

Checking in

1. Choose Check in under the search bar
2. Move the bar code underneath the scanner until it beeps
   • If there is a hold on the book, choose print slip and print to the receipt printer below the desk.
   • Place the slip inside the book and place the book on the back side of the shelf behind you
3. Place the book on the top shelf of the cart behind you if there is no hold

Checking out

1. Choose Check out under the search bar
2. Ask the student for their ID number
3. Enter it, then choose the correct name from the drop-down
4. Scan their books
5. Make sure you receive a confirmation message, especially when scanning multiple books
   • If there is an overdue message, let the student know and then choose OK to finish checking out
   • If there is a warning that too many are checked out, tell them they should return a few books but let them check out only one more book

Searching for a book

Choose Search the Catalog below the search bar and enter the name of the book. A few options to make the search faster:

• ti: before a search term will search only titles
• au: before a search term will search only author names

The search function will not correct spelling mistakes. If you misspell au: Neil Gaimain when searching for that author's books, it will not find them, so leave out any words you are unsure about. Searching just au: Neil will return his books.

The information on the right tells you that we should have one copy available on the shelf. A second copy has been long lost and charged to the student's account for replacement.

Finding a fiction book

Once you have found the book in the system and checked that we have a copy available, look at the catalog number (SciFi G141 2001 in the image above) to know where to look on the shelf.

Each fiction section has a colorful sign on top of the shelves indicating where it starts:

• Fiction is blue and is "Fic" in a catalog number
• Mystery and Suspense is yellow and is "Mys" in a catalog number
• Science fiction/fantasy is orange and is "SciFi" in a catalog number
• Graphic novels and comics are pink and are "GN" in a catalog number

All of the books above are in alphabetical order by author's last name except graphic novels. So, to find the book above you would go to the orange SciFi section and look under G for Gaiman. If it was a graphic novel, you would still look under G but this time for Graveyard, the title.

Finding a nonfiction book

Nonfiction titles like the one above do not have a section name. Instead, we use the Dewey Decimal system to place it near other books on the same topic. This one is 720. Look for the numbers on the shelves marking each section. Once you find the 700s, move along the shelves until you find the 720s. There might be a few, so you'll then look for the second number inside of the 720s: D391. This is the author's name encoded.

If you aren't able to spot it where it goes, always scan a few books to the right and left to make sure it wasn't mis-shelved.