What the OPAC offers me

What is OPAC, really? 

It is the Electronic Catalogue of the Eugenides Foundation Library and includes information about ALL the material available in our Library and more! 

On this webpage you will find useful information that will help you to easily get to know all the features and services of OPAC. 

A. Search for material from our collection. More specifically, you can find: 

- Bibliographic records for the Library's printed material (books, journals, articles), but also
- The full text of open access digital resources and all Eugenides Foundation publications, which you can also "download".
- And all this, through the Internet. So, no matter whether you're in our welcoming spaces or in the most remote part of the world, all you need is a computer, or a tablet or a mobile phone and access to the Internet.

Β. Search for material in additional authoritative and reliable sources through "Useful links", which appear on the left side of the first page.

C. Be informed about new acquisitions in our Library from the very first page.

D. Create your personal profile, with additional features for you.

More details can be found in the following sections: 

- Alternative ways to search for material in OPAC
- What you need to know once you locate the book you are interested in
- Creating a personal profile and its usefulness

Alternative ways to search for material in OPAC 

The Library's OPAC provides many options so that you can perform simple and more complex searches, depending on the complexity of your query. 

Τhe box you will find from its very first page, with the prompt "Insert a title, keyword or a word!", is available as a Simple Search option. 

But there are many additional features and options to enhance your searches such as: 

1. Advanced Search (and its additional menu, More Options).
2. The “Refine Your Search” menu, which appears after each search.
3. The hyperlink fields of each Analytical record, i.e. the detailed display of each record that appears after a search
4. The virtual Shelf Tour
5. The Search for Authority terms
6. The Useful Links, displayed on the left-hand side of the first page

Simple search

To search the OPAC, as a first step, you can easily choose to enter your search words in the box at the top of its first page, that is, one or multiple words that describe what you are interested in. 

You can also choose among the available search options (Title, Author, Subject, etc.) in the drop-down menu on the left side of the search box. 

More information, clarifications and examples for Simple Search can be found in this file and in this video (In Greek). 

Advanced search and additional search enhancement options

Select “Advanced search” for more targeted results. Advanced Search allows you to combine keywords with Subject Terms AND/OR Author, Publisher, etc. 

On the left side of the results page (from either a Simple or Advanced Search), the option to improve your search is provided, with the help of the menu “Refine your search”. This can be achieved by narrowing down the results through the various options provided. Thus, you can retrieve from your set of results, for example, the books by a particular author, a particular series, or even just the books available for loan. 

For a more detailed view of each result of your search, click on the title. The Detailed Record displays additional information for that result, such as its Subjects, Authors, Publishers, etc. There, you will also find the contents, various other relevant useful notes, as well as the impressive appearance of the virtual Shelf Tour. By selecting Shelf Tour you can see which other books are next to the book of your choice in the physical space of the Library. 

More information, clarification and examples of Advanced Search, the use of logical operators and Additional Search Enhancement Options can be found in this file and in this video (in Greek).

What you need to know once you locate the book you are interested in

Once you have identified the book you are interested in, your options are to read it online (where available), find it on the Library’s shelves to read it in its premises and/or borrow it. 

In this archive you can find answers to all of the above (in Greek).
 

Creating a personal profile and its usefulness 

A member of the Library that has chosen to use this feature of OPAC is provided with additional possibilities such as to:

Communicate with the Library (e.g. make suggestions for purchasing material to enrich its collection)

1. Receive updates and messages from the staff of the Library.
2. Inform about his/her contact details in case they change.
3. Check his/her current loans.
4. Renew the loan period of borrowed material in accordance with the Library's regulations.
5. View his/her borrowing history
6. Reserve borrowed books
7. Create lists of preferred material
8. Create tags and evaluate the material 

More information, clarifications and examples of the Personal Profile Creation and its features can be found in this file and in this video (in Greek).