How to Use the Mobile Version of the Catalog

While the MyMCLSNJ app has been great for checking for our items and verifying your information quickly, there are some more in-depth things that it cannot do — like search by Shelf Location or create a list of items. Our catalog website has these abilities, even when viewed on mobile devices. Here is a walk-through of how to navigate the website via a mobile device and how to save the website to the home screen of your device.

First, you will need to navigate to our catalog using a browser app on your phone: Safari, Chrome, Brave, Firefox, or whatever you normally use will work. The website link is https://merl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/mcl. Once the page, loads you will see the library’s logo in the top left and the menu in the top right. Please see the screenshot below.

Signing In and Checking Your Account

In order to sign in, tap on the “hamburger” menu icon in the top right (three horizontal lines). This will bring a menu up on your screen.

Tap “Log In” and enter your Barcode and PIN in the corresponding text boxes. Once done, tap “Log In”.

It will then go back to the home screen. To check your account, tap on the “hamburger” menu again (three horizontal lines). This time, tap on “My Account”.

On this page you can immediately see if you have any outstanding fines by “Your status” and the red exclamation point to the right of “Fines”. As a reminder, there are four statuses you could see here:

  1. OKAY: You have accrued no fines/fees.
  2. DELINQUENT: You have under $25 of fines/fees due.
  3. BLOCKED: You have over $25 of fines/fees and cannot take out any more items.
  4. BARRED: You have over $25 of fines, cannot take out any more items, and have to pay all fines/fees to be reinstated. After that, your account will return to OKAY.

Personal Information

Tap on “Personal Information” to access your Preferences. This will allow you to change which list items will automatically be added to (this will be covered later) and to change your “Preferred Pickup Library”. Changing your “Preferred Pickup Library” will change which library your holds are sent to, so please do not change this unless you need to.

Checkouts

Tap on “Checkouts” to see what you currently have checked out. These are separated by Digital and Physical Checkouts. On each checkout, you can see the date they are due under “Expiration Date”.

Holds

Tap on “Holds” to see what items you have on hold. These are separated by Digital and Physical Checkouts. On each hold, you can see your place in the queue as the last sentence.

Fines

Tap on “Fines” to see your current fines/blocks, accruing fees, and payment history. At the top, you can see the total amount you have due and how many individual fines/blocks you have. Each entry gives you the name of the item, its item number, the reason it has fines/fees, and the amount you have due for that item.

Searching the Catalog and Making Lists

Searching the mobile version of the catalog is very similar to searching the desktop version. You will need to type your search into the main search box on the front page and tap the magnifying glass to enter.

To change what you are searching or how you are searching, tap “Search Options”. This opens the two dropdowns that allows you to select specific collections and fields.

Sort

Tap Sort to reorder your search results. You can reorder them by:

  • Relevance — this is the default sort which lists from the most relevant to your search at the top to the least relevant at the bottom,
  • Publication Date — you can do ascending (lists from the year 0001 to year 2023) or descending (lists 2023 to the year 0001),
  • Title — lists from A to Z, and
  • Author — list from A to Z.

Filter

Tap “Filter” to bring up the filters you normally see on the left side of the search function. This allows you to limit your search results by Availability, Author, Format, Recommended Age, Subject, Language, Publication Date, Library, Collection, Material Type, and Shelf Location. Tapping “Only Show Available” will update the search to exclude books that are checked out or in transit from one branch to another.

From here, tap on the filter you want to limit by, and select your filter data. Once your done, tap either “Include” or “Exclude” on the bottom of the screen and your search will automatically reload with your new filter applied. You will need to do this for each filter you want to apply.

Detail View, Add to Lists, and Place a Hold

To see more details of the items that come up in the search, tap on the title of the item.

From here you can add books to your list by selecting the “kebab” menu icon in the top right (three dots stacked on each other) just under the “hamburger” menu icon. This brings up your Actions where you can add it to a list you have created, have the information of the item emailed or texted to you, use our citing widget to cite the item for a paper, or to place a hold. Just tap on the one you want to do.

Adding the Website to Your Device’s Home Screen

Adding the website to your home screen is different depending on which browser you are using. Please look for the browser you are using on your device in the section below and follow those instructions. You will need to make sure you navigate to the front page of the catalog before adding.

Chrome, Firefox, and Brave

Tap on the “kebab” menu icon in the top right of your screen, to the right of the website URL. On the menu that pops up, tap on “Add to Home screen” and then tap Add.

Safari

Tap the Share icon (the square with an arrow pointing out of it) at the bottom middle of the screen. Scroll down to the list of actions and tap Add to Home Screen.

- by Kim, Information Technology Department

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