Help Center

Freezing and Un-freezing Holds

Freezing a hold means that your position in the hold queue is skipped over until the hold is un-frozen.

This allows you to stay in the hold queue while holds are filled for others further down in the hold queue.

The available status of items determine which holds can be frozen, so you will not always be given the option to freeze a hold.

  • Check the box in the Freeze column to freeze a hold, followed by selecting the Update List box.
  • Un-check the box in the Freeze column to un-freeze a hold, followed by selecting the Update List box.

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My Lists

MY LISTS lets you keep track of titles of future interest, like titles in a series, titles mentioned by friends, Oscar-nominated movies not yet watched, titles with the same subject, or new eAudiobook titles you want to listen to.

To view and manage the records saved to MY LISTS, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in to your My Library Account.
  2. Select "My Lists" icon.
  3. Select LIST NAME, DESCRIPTION, or DATE UPDATED to sort by those groups.
  4. To view the titles in a list, select the name of a list.

Select the following for more instruction on the use of lists.

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My PIN

A PIN (Personal Identification Number) is a little like a password. You choose it, enter it, and can change it. But the difference is that library staff can not remind you what it is because it is encrypted. They can see that one exists but can not read it.

PINs can be up to 30 characters long and can consist of any characters you choose.

However, your PIN must satisfy certain requirements in order to be accepted.

The PIN must not contain common trivial patterns like:

  • A character that is consecutively repeated three or more times(for example, aaaa, ababa, bbbb).
  • A set, of up to four characters, that is consecutively repeated two or more times (for example, abab, abcabc, abcdabcd).

To Get a PIN

  1. At http://ils.larl.org, click on My Account.
  2. Enter your 14-digit library card number.
  3. And click the Submit button.
  4. Enter Your PIN in the first empty box. Your PIN can consist of letters and numbers, and must contain at least 4 digits.
  5. Reenter your PIN in the next empty box, and click Submit.

NOTE: Remember your PIN! Library staff are unable to access it, due to privacy issues. It is up to YOU to remember this number.

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Preferred Searches

If you have a favorite author or subject you often search when using the catalog, you can save the search with the click of a button. This will prevent you from having to key in the search each time and let you place reserves on new materials quicker.

  1. Log in to your My Millennium Account.
  2. Click on the "New Search" button.
  3. Search for your favorite author, subject, title, etc. or create an advanced keyword search including limits to material type, language, publication year, etc..
  4. When your results are displayed, click the button marked "Save as preferred search".
  5. The next time that you log in to your My Millennium Account, you can click the "Preferred Searches" button to see a list of your saved searches.
  6. Click on the search link associated with any of the preferred search terms in the list to quickly execute your search.
  7. You can be alerted to new materials which match your searches. Just check the "Mark for Email" box and be sure that your patron record information includes your current email address.

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My Reading History

MY READING HISTORY lets you view the history of borrowed titles, remove titles from your history, opt-out at any time.

Select the following for more instruction on the use of MY READING HISTORY

    To Subscribe:

    1. Log into library account and click on MY READING HISTORY.
    2. The first time you select MY READING HISTORY, you will be asked to OPT IN. This means that you have read the description of the Reading History function and acknowledge that you accept these details. Select OPT IN if you agree to the description.
    3. Once you have opted in, items you borrow will be listed in your reading history.

    To Unsubscribe:

    1. Delete all entries from your reading history
    2. Select OPT OUT

Privacy Statement: By subscribing to My Reading History, I acknowledge that the Web Catalog will retain my checkout activity for my personal use. I may unsubscribe from this service or remove any or all titles from My Reading History at any time. My Reading History data will not be divulged to outside parties unless required to do so by law.

  • After you subscribe to My Reading History, the system will begin collecting a list of items as you check them out. Items already checked out at the time you subscribe are not added to your history. Only items borrowed AFTER opting in.
  • You can sort the list by selecting the column headings, TITLE, AUTHOR, DETAILS.
  • You can delete individual titles from the list by checking the "MARK" box to the left of each title.
  • If you decide that you no longer want your reading history recorded select "Delete All", then select OPT OUT.
  • Library staff will not have access to your reading history, since it can only be viewed through your account through the web catalog. Someone would need your library card number and PIN to view your reading history.
  • You will not lose your reading history if you lose your card.
  • Inter Library loaned materials will appear in your lists with a title similar to this:
      • LARL ILL 2011 06 JUNE
      NWRL ILL 2011 07 JULY
  • If we remove a title from the catalog, you will see the message "Information no longer available" instead of the title.
  • You can export your titles to a word processing or spreadsheet software.

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New DVDs

Use the following steps to find DVDs recently added to the collection.

  1. Click on Advanced Keyword Search.
  2. Type DVD to the right of the Any Field box.
  3. Type 2010 next to the Year After box to see all materials added in 2011. Or, leave this field blank if they want a complete list.
  4. Choose DVD from the Material Type list.
  5. Click Submit

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Ratings

Did you love it? Hate it? Did you feel it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good either? Now you can rate items you check out, keep a list of the items rated, and share your opinion anonymously with others who use the catalog.

Yellow your rating - Blue group rating - White needs to be rated

***** Excellent - Highly recommend
****_ Very Good - Exceeds expectations
***__ Good - Met expectations but did not exceed them
**___ Fairly low opinion - Recommend only with reservations
*____ Extremely low opinion of this item - Would not recommend
_____ Never been rated - No recommendation available

  1. Search the catalog by author, subject, title, etc.
  2. From the Details Screen of the item you're interested in, click on the Rating stars on the left side of the screen.
  3. If you are not logged in, you will be prompted to log into your record.
  4. To log in, enter your name and your 14-digit library card number, and click Submit.
  5. Click on the star rating that bests represents how you feel about the item, from one (poor) to five (excellent).
  6. All items you have rated can be seen by clicking the Return to Your Record link in the top right corner of the screen, then clicking the My Ratings button on the right side of the screen.
  7. Your ratings are yellow stars, group ratings are blue stars, and items not rated are white stars.

You can see your own ratings in "My Library Account". Just click on "My Ratings" after you log in. You can even change your rating at any time if you wish.

No one else can see how you personally rated an item, but the catalog will take all the ratings you and others have given each item and display them as an average.

If you hover your mouse pointer over the stars, you will see how many people have submitted ratings. (If no one has rated the item, the stars will be blank.)

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Relevance Ranking

Keyword search results are ranked to bring the best results to the very top and to subdivide the remaining results based on relevance, with relevancy based on where the search term(s) appear in the record. The results are most obvious if you are searching a phrase rather than a single keyword.

Most relevant Most relevant titles - Group 1

Highly relevant Highly relevant titles - Group 2

Very relevant Very relevant titles - Group 3

Relevant Relevant titles - Group 4

Other relevant Other relevant titles - Group 5

Search results appear in up to 5 groups, from Most Relevant to Least Relevant. Titles within each group are sorted by publication date, newest to oldest.

    Group 1 contains the MOST RELEVANT results; those items where the primary title contains the single keyword or the multiple keywords as a phrase (for example, searching the phrase "treasure island" results in all copies of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson being in this group, regardless of publication year).

    Group 2contains HIGHLY RELEVANT results based on where and how the term(s) appear in the record. The single keyword or phrase appears in a subtitle or other title information (for example, Robert Louis Stevenson : finding Treasure Island where the phrase is in the subtitle).

    Group 3 contains VERY RELEVANT results with single keywords found anywhere other than the main title fields (such as in a chapter title or subject heading) and multiple keywords still found as a phrase, but in fields deemed less relevant (for example, the record for the movie Treasure Planet has the phrase "treasure island" as part of a note field).

    Group 4 contains RELEVANT results; where it further subdivides multiple keyword searches. Keywords are combined with a boolean AND, and at least one of the words is in the main title or subtitle. (for example, The Treasure of Savage island has both words "treasure" and "island" in the contents, and "treasure" as part of the title).

    Group 5 contains OTHER RELEVANT results; where all the keywords appear in the record (for example, the film version of The Count of Monte Cristo has the words "treasure" and "island" separately within the summary).

To bypass the ranking you can use field limits (for example, select Author, Title, Subject or Note in the Advanced Keyword "Any Field" drop down menu or include a:twain in your query). This is interpreted as a power search and automatically bypasses relevance ranking to present the results in a single group, sorted by publication date.

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Renewals

Library cardholders may renew their own materials online.

All material may be renewed except for materials with reserves and materials on which you owe fines.

  1. Log into your account.
  2. Select the"Items currently checked out" link to view the materials you have checked out.
  3. Select the materials you want to renew by checking the boxes in the RENEW column and then click the Renew Selected button. If you want to renew everything, click the Renew ALL button.
  4. If you cannot renew items, a message will appear on the screen. If you are successful, a new due date will appear in the "STATUS" column. Always check the STATUS column for information on the success or failure of your renewal.

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