Learning Objectives

• Learn how to create customized access to ISearch to fit the needs of students, teachers, and parents.
• Create a book river to highlight collections in your library.
• Consider methods for sharing ISearch with teachers, tech coordinators, administrators, and parents.

Customizations

You have several options for customizing ISearch:

• Name of school or library that appears in the banner
• Color of name that appears in the banner (default is orange)
• Choice of Book River or standard slider (default is standard slider)
• Patron features
• ChiliFresh and Novelist integration, if you subscribe

Your INFOhio Provider at your ITC is your primary contact for ISearch customization. If you have recently adopted the INFOhio Library Services Platform (LSP), your INFOhio Provider at your ITC may provide you with a questionnaire to determine your customizations and preferences. However, existing INFOhio LSP users may make changes to preferences as well.

School/Library Name and Color

A School or Library name can be customized with your preferred name. Background colors can be changed to a particular color. Contact your INFOhio Provider to make these changes.  

• To do so, you must supply the HEX code. For information about HEX codes, see https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_hexadecimal.asp.

Book River

A Book River is a library-specific list of librarian-selected "Featured Titles" to display on your ISearch landing page. A Book River lets you showcase materials in your library on your ISearch landing page. A Book River requires that library staff run a report to periodically maintain a list of "Featured Titles."

These are two libraries that maintain Book Rivers:

• Defiance Middle School's ISearch
• Lakewood High School's ISearch

Please keep in mind, if you implement a Book River, library staff will need to run a report to populate your river selections. Library Staff can choose from the following displays:

• Subject Items
• Selected Items
• New Items

Library Staff will run one of these reports every time the book river list should be updated. Be sure to contact your INFOhio Provider and let them know of your desire to implement a book river before attempting to run one of the reports above. If policies are not in place, you will not see any results.

Holds

When enabling holds within ISearch, patrons have the ability to place, suspend, or cancel holds using My Account. Users could also have the option to choose a pickup location for holds.

• If enabling holds, you must have hold policies in place for your library. See your INFOhio Provider for more details.

Email Titles and Lists

Users can also email titles and lists if turned on in ISearch. Another option is to allow the customization of the subject line when emailing.

Renew Items

Another customization allows users to renew materials from ISearch.

Book Review Option (additional cost)

Another option, for an additional cost, allows users to see added information including book reviews for the items in your library or recommended reading based on a selected title. To incorporate this option, a subscription to Chilifresh (reviews) will be necessary.

• Chilifresh allows students and teachers to add book reviews to the local library catalog. Below you will find a sample review that was added to ISearch.For more information, contact your INFOhio Provider and/or visit the Chilifresh website at https://home.chilifresh.com/en.

How to Request Customizations

To request customizations, contact the INFOhio Provider at your ITC. Once you have requested any customization and it has been completed, review all of the following in ISearch:

• Verify that your school's name appears as you wish.
• Verify that the results on the My Library tab are actually from your library (along with the INFOhio Digital Video Collection and INFOhio eBook collection).
• Verify that the Book River or sliders are working as expected.
• Verify that patron features such as holds and notifications are working as you wish.
• Visit the INFOhio website and make sure you are logged in as your school or district. Try the ISearch search box on the homepage. Verify that it is searching your own version of ISearch. If you do not land on the My Library tab, let your INFOhio Provider know.