TALIS Plus help: FAQ

1. What is TALIS Plus?
2. How do I search?
3. What is My Library?
4. How do I place a hold?
5. How do I see where I am in the queue?
6. How do I place a hold on a magazine or journal?
7. How do I find items which are in my local library?
8. Searching for an author, subject, etc
9. Find everything for a particular author, subject or series
10. How can I find items for children?
11. How do I find foreign language items?
12. How do I find service manuals?
13. How do I find music scores?
14. Can I print a list?
15. Can I email results?
16. What do I do if I see incorrect picture or description information on an item?
17. What is LibraryThing?
18. Unable to access renewals, overdues or place/cancel holds

1. What is TALIS Plus?

TALIS Plus is the new State Library catalogue for searching, placing holds, checking your loans and making renewals.

2. How do I search?

See Search help.

3. What is My Library?

My Library lets you see what you have on hold, see your current loans, renew your loans, cancel holds or see any outstanding fees. It also:

• has a wish list for storing details of anything you want to put a hold on either now or sometime in the future. You can have up to 15 items at a time on your wish list. Unless you place a hold on them or remove them, things remain on your wish list even when you logout.
• lets you place several holds at once. (See Question 4)
• shows you where you are in the hold queue and estimates how long till you get the item.

4. How do I place a hold?

Placing a hold from the item in the catalogue

• Find an item you want to place a hold on
• Click on its Place hold now button
• You may be prompted to login if not already logged in
• Commit hold.

Placing holds from My Library

• Add the items to your wish list from the catalogue record. You may be prompted to login if not already logged in
• When you're ready to place holds on your wish list items, go to My Library. From the wish list in My Library click on a Place hold now button
• Commit hold
• Return to place another hold from your wish list or to see all holds.

5. How do I see where I am in the queue?

Click on the tab for My Library and login. Your queue position and estimated wait time are under the hold details in your holds list.

6. How do I place a hold on a magazine or journal?

Journal holds need to be placed by library staff. You can phone, email or visit your library to place a hold on a magazine or journal.

7. How do I find items which are in my local library?

• Click on Search either with or without a word in the search box
• Scroll down till you see the folder for Library location on the left
• Choose your library from that folder
• You can continue to refine your search by clicking on the links in the other folders.

8. Searching for an author, subject, etc

If you wish to search on specific fields like author, subject etc, there are several options that you can use:

1. Use the Refine options

The Refine options are the easiest and most powerful way to use TALIS Plus. Just enter any words from your chosen author, subject, and/or title into the search box. Once your search results have appeared, use the 'Refine your search' options in the left-hand menu to narrow your results down to the author, topic, etc that you want. For example, you can search for rowling, then click on Author in the left-hand refinement menu, and choose Rowling, J. K. If your author does not appear in the initial list, the 'More' button will let you move through all available options alphabetically.

2. Use the advanced syntax

If the Refine options do not meet your needs, the Searching Help page explains how you can use special syntax to perform advanced searches, including searching for words in particular fields, like author, title, subject, format and so on.

3. Use Classic TALIS

Classic TALIS allows searching by Author, Title and Subject. It also has an advanced search page.

4. Contact us

We are happy to offer assistance with any search problems. Use the TALIS Plus feedback form or Ask Us.

9. Find everything for a particular author, subject or series

1. In search results (for Authors and Series)

Find any item with your chosen author or series in your results list. The Author and Series are shown as links in the item - click on a link to get everything by that author or in that series.

2. In the Full Record

Find any item with your chosen author, subject or series. Go into the Full Record. The Authors, Subjects and Series for that item will be listed there as links. Click on a link to get everything for that author, subject or series.

3. Use the Remove buttons

As you search and use the Refine options in TALIS Plus you build up a breadcrumb trail of your pathway through the site. This appears in the upper left corner of the page as 'Your search so far'. You can use the Remove buttons (the red crosses) to take out any part of your search in any order, thus broadening your search out again. For example, you may have searched for 'wexford', then Refined by Author 'Rendell, Ruth, 1930-'. Removing 'wexford' from 'Your search so far' will give you everything by Ruth Rendell.

If you have a favourite author or subject that you will want to check again in future, you can bookmark your search results pages. Sorting your results by date will give you the latest additions to the catalogue.

10. How can I find items for children?

• Click on Search either with or without a word in the search box
• Scroll down till you see the folder for Audience on the left
• Choose Children or Youth from that folder
• You can continue to refine your search by clicking on the links in the other folders.

11. How do I find foreign language items?

• Click on Search either with or without a word in the search box
• Scroll down till you see the folder for Language on the left
• Choose a language from that folder
• You can continue to refine your search by clicking on the links in the other folders.

12. How do I find service manuals?

• Choose service manuals under the Research section
• Type the vehicle or machine name in the search box
• If there is a combination of numbers and letters in the model try searching with a space between the numbers and letters, e.g. yamaha v star 650
• If that doesn't work try excluding the year and/or model number when you first search and then refine your search.

13. How do I find music scores?

• Click on Search either with or without a word in the search box
• From the folder on the left for Format click on Text
• From that folder again click on Musical score
• You can continue to refine your search by clicking on the links in the other folders.

14. Can I print a list?

Use the Print command from the web browser to print one page at a time.

15. Can I email results?

Not directly from TALIS Plus but this has been noted as a possible future enhancement. You can bookmark the page or email the URL.

16. What do I do if I see incorrect picture or description information on an item?

Send details of the item via our feedback form or email state.library@education.tas.gov.au

17. What is LibraryThing?

LibraryThing (www.librarything.com) is an online service to help people catalogue their books easily and to add tags, reviews, and ratings to them. It has over 300,000 members, who have catalogued and tagged over 3 million titles. LibraryThing lets libraries access and use the tags that are contributed by their users. TALIS Plus shows these user-contributed tags etc in the Similar/Other/Tags tab on the Full Record screen for any titles that are available from LibraryThing.

Please note that the tags come from LibraryThing users and are NOT created or authorised by the State Library of Tasmania. If you would like to contribute to the tags you see in TALIS Plus, you might consider joining LibraryThing and adding your books and tags to it—membership is free for the first 200 items.

18. Unable to access renewals, overdues or place/cancel holds

"An error occurred"

These features rely on Classic TALIS to process the action. Occassionally TALIS Plus fails to communicate with Classic TALIS, due to too much load on the system at that moment or general network issues, resulting in an error. If you try the action again and the problem continues:

• Log out of TALIS Plus, log in and try again
• Try Classic TALIS
• Ask a staff member for help
• Come back at a later time

In some cases staff may be required to restart Classic TALIS for these features to work again.

"Page cannot be displayed"

Functions like loan renewals, overdues, and cancelling holds rely on Classic TALIS and require access through port 8000. If you get the error "Page cannot be displayed" then the port may be blocked.

Ports can be blocked through a number of means. Some firewalls automatically block ports and some Internet Service Providers automatically block ports. If you are unable to access Classic TALIS from a workplace it is likely that the IT staff have blocked port 8000.

If you are running a third-party firewall such as ZoneAlarm then you may need to add port 8000 as an exception.

If you are using an ADSL modem/router then you will need to check your users guide on how to open a port on your router.