Scout is a fast and intuitive smart search tool designed with kids in mind. It's kind of like our KidPAC. Younger patrons

Search with Scout

Scout is a super simple, supplementary search interface, engineered to return more relevant results, and conceptualized to stand out both in design and functionality. Scout was also created with touch interfaces in mind, which makes it a perfect interface for tablets such as the iPad.

Younger students love Scout's streamlined layout and intuitive display. Children are , because they're able to find records in Scout that they may have struggled locating in the Search or Explore interface; if a child can type, they can search. In addition, Scout what they're looking for without being confused or distracted by more advanced functions. Scout even filters out mediums that are irrelevant to children.Although initially designed for younger, the K-4 crowd, such as equipment, websites, dioramas, regalia, etc.

Students, teachers, and librarians alike patrons, people of all ages benefit from and enjoy using Scout. Having very few features and controls—librarians and teachers can appreciate how uncomplicated Scout is to use.

Scout is a fast, powerful, and intuitive “smart search” that returns real results in real time! However, don't let it's simplicity fool you!

Searching with Scout is different than searching with other Alexandria interfaces; there isn’t even a “search” button—just enter some text There isn't even a search button! Just enter a word or phrase into the search field, and Scout will start looking. Search for "dino" to get results for "dino", "dinosaur", and everything in between!

Highlights

Scout performs a relevancy-based search with the most likely candidates returned first. There is no “sorting” of results, the items are returned as they are located; sorting any data would defeat the relevancy of the most likely results first. With Scout, an “exact match” takes priority over “begins with” matches and bias is shown towards titles, authors, series, and subjects before all other keywords. In fact, results with exact title and author matches are always displayed first, so the results retrieved are more relevant than those found using a pure keyword search.is a fun, interactive search interface that gets the job done.

• Log in to place an item on hold.

• Search for a word or phrase, and Scout will return the most relevant results.

• Scroll through your results, or click Image Added to load more.

• Shrink or Grow your items for optimal viewing.
  

• View an item's details by clicking on the book cover.

Mobile and Desktop Friendly

Typing “Harry Potter” will show books in the series first rather than titles that include the individual words “Harry” and/or “Potter” in the item record's Notes or other fields. Although Scout can't read minds, it comes fairly close. Unfortunately, some words aren’t as useful as others when searching; for example, typing the word “brown” will retrieve titles about the color brown, authors with the name Brown, followed by other, more superfluous “brown” results found in the item record's Notes or other fields.

Toolbar

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Scout's topmost header bar, which stretches across the top of the window, serves a few different purposes:

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Search Bar

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As you begin typing in the Search bar, Scout will start to perform an immediate and automatic smart search (using the methods documented above). The <enter> key does not need to be pressed in order for the search to occur. If you type the letter “A” into the search bar, results will start to appear, showing the most relevant results that begin with the letter “A”. These results will continue to be refined as you enter more information into the Search bar.

As you enter text, a Clear (“”) icon will appear in the right-hand section of the Search bar; clicking it will clear out any text entered into the field.

Item Details

When you select (click on) an item from the results list, a details box—simplified item details—will appear. If you click on other items in the results list while the details section is still active, the details box will slide to accommodate and the orange “up” arrow will transition to indicate the item being viewed. If you click on the large, blue arrows to the right or left of the results list, the details section will disappear.

The Scout details include the Title, Author, Series and Series Volume, Call Number, Lexile, Publication Year, Study Program and Reading Level, Reading Points, and Summary; if the item is an eBook, a Link to the e-resource is included.

Alexandria allows you to associate maps of your library with item call numbers; thus, if a map is available for an item in that call number range, a Show Map button appears at the bottom of the Scout details. When clicked, the associated library map appears in a roll-down; press OK to dismiss it.

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Select a Site

Do you want to search your local collection, or do you want to search all of the libraries in your district? Click the library name at the top of the window to make your selection.

• All Sites. Search all of the sites in your union.

• Select a Site. Opens the Select a Site window so you can choose which library Scout will search. The sites you can choose from depend on your permissions. In some cases, your local collection is the only option.

Help!

Click the Image Added icon for on-board information about Scout.