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Designed for Kids

Researcher > Scout

Scout is a fast and intuitive smart search tool designed with kids in mind. It's kind of like our KidPAC. Younger patrons love Scout's streamlined layout and intuitive display, because they're able to find what they're looking for without being confused or distracted by more advanced functions. Scout even filters out mediums that are irrelevant to the K-4 crowd, such as equipment, websites, dioramas, regalia, etc.

Students, teachers, and librarians alike appreciate how uncomplicated Scout is to use. 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 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 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

Open Scout on a patron-facing tablet or computer to allow kids to search on their own! If they can type, they can search.

Toolbar

Menu
  • Log In to place a hold on your patron account.

  • Status to view your patron account.
  • Show “Out” to show all items, or Hide “Out” to hide unavailable items.

  • Shrink your items to view more per row.

  • Grow your items to view fewer per row.

  • Language

    • English

    • Espanol

    • Francais

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 icon for on-board information about Scout.


Search


Type a word or phrase into the search bar and Scout will return the most relevant results once you pause or hit Enter. Scout will refine your results as you refine your query.

There's no need to sort your results—the most relevant items are returned first, and exact matches are given priority over other keywords. For example, a search for "Harry Potter" will return books in the series before titles that include the individual words "Harry" and/or "Potter" in the item record. Some search terms aren't as useful as others. Searching for "brown" will return results for titles that include the color brown, authors by the name of Brown, followed by more superfluous results.

We'll let you know if there aren't any items that match your query, or if we found something but it's unavailable. Enter new search terms to try again.

Want to search for something new? Click
  to clear your current search.


Shrink and Grow

The number of items you'll see in each row depend on your browser size and device. On a desktop, you'll see three-five items per row, but you might only see one on a smartphone. While viewing on a desktop or tablet, you can change the size of the book covers to view more or fewer items per row. Go to the menu and select Shrink to reduce the size of the book covers and view up to five items per row, or select Grow to increase the size of each book cover and view as few as three items per row. This option may not be available on a smaller device, such as a smartphone.


Details

Click the book cover to view the item's details, including the title, author, call number, series, and links. View an item's details by clicking on the book cover.


Want to include more in your result details? Update your Scout Preferences to include additional information, including copyright year, Lexile, study program, and reading level.


You can include additional information in your item details by updating your library’s Scout preferences. Additional information includes copyright year, Lexile, study program, and reading level.

Click on an item, and the bubble opens up in the row below, shoving the other bubbles down, to show all the details. Clicking the item cover art again (in either location) or clicking another item hides the details for this one.


Place an item on hold, but don't forget to log in first!

Locate the item on a map.