Search by Partial Item Barcode

If you only have a portion of the item barcode, you may still be able to find the item in Horzion. This might happen more often with a DVD or CD that has been separated from its case and only has the last 4 digits of the barcode written on the disk. The following steps assume this scenario. You can adapt them as needed for your situation.

• Open an item barcode search window in Horizon.
• The asterisk (*) serves as a wildcard symbol in the search. For example, if the last 4 digits are 7743, enter the search as *7743. This will return any items that end in 7743 regardless of whether they are 10 or 14 digit barcodes.
• If the search returns too many items, click the Limit button.
• Hightlight the field Medium (gmd).*
• With "contains" selected, enter text into the Limit Text field. Typically DVD or CD narrows it down to just that format. Since the title is usually included on the disk itself, you can pinpoint the record from there.

*gmd is a cataloging acronym for "general material designation" or a fancy way of saying "format".

Searching for ILLs in Horizon

Effective April 12, 2010, all interlibrary loans (ILL) that are filled will utilize Horizon’s patron request and notification system to make the process easier for patrons and staff. You can search for an ILL using the following methods:

Customer's Request List

• The ILL will appear on the patron’s request list as soon as a copy has been located at another library. It can be viewed by staff from Horizon or by the patron through My Account access in ValleyCat. The date of the request is the date the item was requested from the owning library - not the date the patron completed their original ILL request form.

Horizon Search

• All ILL titles begin with “I L L/” followed by the title as one long word (i.e. I L L/10MinuteToughness).
• Seach by Title Browse: enter I L L/ to browse the list of all ILL titles in Horizon. If you know the title of the ILL, enter I L L/ followed by the title as a single word. For example, to find the ILL titled 10 Minute Toughness, do a Title Browse search for "I L L/10minute".
• The requested item is first given a barcode beginning with FILL followed by the OCLC request number (i.e. FILL61289480). This tells you it has been requested and we are waiting for the item to arrive. When the item actually arrives, it is given a standard item barcode.
• Search by barcode: To locate all of the ILLs that have been requested, but have not yet arrived, enter FILL********. After the item arrives, the ILL is given a standard item barcode.

ValleyCat Search

• ILL items will be difficult for customers to find in ValleyCat because both the bib record and the item record have been marked “staff only”. Customer cannot find ILL titles using any keyword search option. They might discover ILL titles by using Title Browse and enter ILL. If they do happen to discover an ILL title, there's a note included in the record that says: "This title is not available for general circulation". They could still place a request on the item. However, if this happens, staff should ignore any holds on the ILL to anyone else besides the original customer. The ILL should always be returned to Central Circulation's ILL Department when it's returned.

Limit Horizon Search to Certain Branch(es)

Horizon - BEFORE search is run

Press F2 – New Search. Before running the search, click the Restrict button at the bottom of the search window. Select the branch (or branches) you want to limit by. You can select more than one at a time. Click OK and complete the search. Items at that particular branch will appear in black. All other items will be grayed out.

Horizon - AFTER search is run

This only works for browse search options (i.e. title browse, author browse, series browse, etc.) Run a browse search. On the menu bar click File – Restrict and select the branch (or branches) you want to limit by. Items at that particular branch will appear in black. All other items will be grayed out.

The Horizon screen clearly indicates the restriction in effect. The restriction will remain in effect until it is reset either through the menu (File – Restrict) or the search window (click Restrict – Reset or Clear – OK and run another search).
If you often restrict by the same group of branches throughout the day (i.e. Caruthers, Laton and Riverdale), select Disable rather than Clear or Reset to turn the restriction off. The next time you want to restrict by those same branches, select Enable. This saves you from having to choose those branches from the list all over again.

rev. 1/2018

Limit ValleyCat Search to Specific Branch/Format/Language/Audience

ValleyCat - AFTER search is run - Limit By Option
After you run a search in ValleyCat and have a title list, click the Limit By box, scroll down and select the branch, format, language or audience from the list. Click Go. To select more than one limit, hold down the CTRL key as you click the limit. See the June 22, 2009, post for additional information on using the Limit By option.

ValleyCat - BEFORE search is run
From the "Keywords with Limits" search tab, enter the keyword search term(s), then scroll down to the "Refine your search" section. You can select one or more limits of the following limits: Branch, Format, Language and Other (child/teen materials, newer than 5 years). To select more than one item from a single list, hold down the CTRL key when you click your options.

rev. 1/2018

Search This Location Only Option for Borrowers

Here's the scenario: you search for a borrower, but their record doesn't appear. Yet when you try the same exact search on another PC their name comes up right away. What’s going on?

In the Horizon menu under Borrower, there is an option for “Search This Location Only”. Select this option only if you want to search through the list of borrower’s with Location = your branch code in their registration record.

It is easy to accidentally select this option when you really intended to select “Find Borrower” instead. The option will remain selected even when you change users. If you are having trouble finding a borrower, make sure the “Search This Location Only” option does not have a check mark next to it. If it does, just click the option to eliminate the check mark, then try your search again.

rev. 1/2018

Resume Search Option

When you perform any type of KEYWORD search in Horizon and there are more than 30 items returned, it only shows the first 30 items initially. The bottom of the screen will say “Retrieved 30 of 275” for example. If you want to see the additional items, you must click the RESUME button at the bottom of the search window. The next 300 items in the list will appear.
Related tip: do not Sort or Limit your results until you click RESUME and all items are displayed. If you do it before, the additional items revealed will not be included in the original sort/limit.

rev. 1/2018

Prev. Search Option

When searching for titles in Horizon, there's no "back button" to return to previous search results. However, the "Prev. Search" button on the Search window can serve the same purpose.

1. Press F2 for New Search.
2. Perform two or three different searches.
3. Press F2 again, and click the Prev. Search button at the bottom of the Search window. A list of all your previous searches appears. Select the one you want to re-run, click OK, make changes as appropriate and run the search again. While it’s not the same as a “back button”, this feature does make it easier to alter and re-run searches without starting from scratch.
4. The list of previous searches will remain until you log off Horizon.

rev. Jan 2018