Virtual Library user guide

Basic interface elements

Picture 1. User interface on a wide screen device

The new user interface has the following key elements:

1. The main menu.
2. The search bar.
3. The link to QR code.
4. The link to Favorites.
5. The link to Search Tips.
6. The Sign In link.
7. The link to additional user services (currently selected UI language is shown as an icon).
8. Links to other library services.
9. Static information fields.
10. The Give us feedback link.

Picture 2. Interface on a narrow screen (mobile) device

How to Change the Language of User interface?

To change the user interface language:

1. Open user's main menu (E in picture 1; A, D, E in picture 2) or click on your name displayed.

Picture 3. The main menu

2. Select „Language/Kalba: English“ from the pop-up menu that opens:

Picture 4. Language selection function in the main menu

3. Choose the required language from the pop-up menu.

Picture 5. Select the user interface language from the list

Basic Search

You can search very easily in Primo:

1. Type one or more search words. To enter an incomplete word, see "Using Wildcard Characters in Search" section.
2. Click the "Search" button (a magnifying glass image on the right from search words).
3. If you enter multiple words, Primo will return results that contain all of the specified terms. When searching by entering ISBN and ISSN, values are searched with or without hyphens. If you are not getting expected results with hyphens, please try your search again without hyphens.

Searching for an Exact Phrase

To search for an exact phrase (words next to each other and in exact order), type quotation marks around the phrase. For example, to search for "service management" as one term, type the following in the search box:

Picture 6. Basic search for an exact phrase

You can combine both words and phrases in your search. For example "service management" marketing will perform a combined search:

Picture 7. Combined Basic search

Using Logical Operators in Search

Searching for Any Specified Words

If you want to find resources that contain at least one search word entered in the search box, you must use the Boolean (logical) operator OR. Logical operators should be written in all capital letters - otherwise Primo treats it as a simple word search.

For example, to search for items with the word Lithuanian or the word English, type the following in the search box:

Picture 8. Basic Search with logical OR operator

Refining Search Results by Excluding Words or Phrases

Search results may be refined by typing in the search box condition NOT and then type the word to exclude.

For example, to search for items with the word Lithuanian but not the word English, type the following in the search box:

Picture 9. Basic Search with logical NOT operator

You can combine OR, AND, NOT logical search operators. Such searches can be grouped with parentheses. If the parentheses are not used, the NOT operator must be used last. For example: Lithuanian AND English NOT Russian. If it is necessary to place the NOT operator elsewhere, make sure that you enclose the operation with parentheses. For example: (Lithuanian NOT Russian) AND English.

Grouping Search Terms

You can use parentheses to group terms to clarify the order when searching for more than one type of logical operator.

For example, when searching for records that contain Shakespeare and either tragedy or sonnet the search query should be written as Shakespeare AND (tragedy OR sonnet). If no parentheses are specified in the above query, Primo will instead group the words as follows: (Shakespeare AND tragedy) OR sonnet and will search for Shakespeare tragedies and any sonnet.

Using Wildcard Characters in Search

In the middle or at the end of search words Wildcard characters ? and * can be used. The Wildcard character entered at the beginning of the search word will be ignored.

? – enter a question mark to perform a single character wildcard search. For example, type wom?n to search for records that contain the strings woman, women, and so forth.

* – enter an asterisk to perform a multiple character wildcard search. For example, type cultur* to search for records that contain strings, such as culture, cultural and culturally.

Searching in the Selected Search Scope

The search scope defines where the system should perform the search. The default search scope is called “Library Resources” and consists of all local catalogues, subscribed and freely available resources from Vilnius university library. The search scope can be changed by selecting a search scope from the drop-down list in the search box:

Picture 10. A search scope selection

Tips for selecting a search scope:

• When searching for physical documents – books, newspapers, manuscripts, graphics cabinet works, rare prints, maps - it is recommended to choose the resource "Books, Journals, Manuscripts". Then there will be fewer results, no e-documents and it will be easier to find the book or other publication you want to order.
• To search only for electronic resources – e-books, articles, magazines, encyclopaedias, manuals, dictionaries – it is recommended to choose the resource “e-Books and Articles”.
• If you are looking for bibliographic data on publications in the press and on Internet portals dedicated to the history or current activities of Vilnius University and Šiauliai University (up to year 2020) in various languages, it is recommended to choose the resources of “Bibliographic Database”.
• If you are looking for publications, final theses, doctoral dissertations and their summaries published by Vilnius University and Šiauliai University (up to year 2020) lecturers, researchers and students – it is recommended to choose the resource “Institutional Repository”.

Searching in the Remote Resources

The subscribed and Open Access resources include the Central Discovery Index and EBSCOhost index records managed and distributed by Ex Libris. By default, only the results with full text access are provided from both of these two indexes. If you want to receive results from Central Discovery Index of items that do not contain full text, select the “Include hits with no full-text” check box in “Refine my results” section.

Attention: there is no such option for EBSCOhost items.

Picture 11. Option to show items without full text access

Search Limitations

The system will display a message and provide suggestions when the following limits are exceeded:

• The query contains more than 30 logical operators.
• The query contains more than 8 question marks.
• The query contains more than 8 asterisks and the word length is greater than 2 (such as abb* or ab*c).
• The query contains more than 4 asterisks and the word length is less than 3 (such as ab*).
• The entire query consists of a single letter and an asterisk (such as a*).

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search allows you to specify additional lines of criteria, specify filters prior to executing the query, combine queries with logical operators.

Picture 12. The Advanced Search page

The Advanced Search page contains the following components and options:

• Field selector – For each search line, this parameter allows you to narrow the search to all search fields or a particular field (such as title and subject).
• Search type – For each search line, this parameter indicates whether the phrases in your query are treated as phrases or exact phrases. The following values are valid: is (exact), contains, starts with.
• Operators – As with basic searches, you can include the following operators between words and phrases in each search line: AND, OR, and NOT. See "Using Logical Operators in Search" for more information.

Voice Search Assistant

This enhancement allows users to enter search terms using their device's microphone.

After selecting the Microphone icon, users can begin speaking search terms or select a different language for the system to detect.

If no input is detected for 10 seconds, the system will provide a message and then prompt the user to provide audio input two more times before timing out and exiting the voice search assistant.

If audio is detected, Primo will display the relevant search results.

Picture 13. Open Voice Search icon

Picture 14. Speech Recognition is listening

Note! This feature is available for all browsers that support the Speech Recognition interface of the Web Speech API (such as Chrome for Desktop and Android browsers and Samsung browsers). It will be progressively available in other browsers as they support the Web Speech API.

Using Browse

In order to use The Browse search, click “Browse” in the main menu. This search allows you to browse library local materials by author, title, subject and call numbers. To see related records, just click on results.

Picture 15. Browse search page

User Space

Why Everyone Should Sign In?

When you sign into Virtual Library, you are able to do the following:

• You can set your preferences so that they reflect the way you usually search, and save them for future sessions.
• You can save items and queries for future use.
• The institution offers licensed information resources to its users. Once you sign in, you can search and retrieve items from these additional resources.
• Use library services such as requesting or recalling items.

How to Sign In?

1. To Sign in, click the “Sign in” option at the top of any page.
2. Enter your user name and password used provided by Vilnius university library.

Picture 16. Sign in area in main menu

Picture 17. Additional menu with Language change (A), My Account (B) and other options

If the login fails, we recommend changing the password.

Please note:

• The system may not recognize the characters you selected if you use Lithuanian letters (ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū, ž) in the password.

• The password must consist of Latin (English) letters, numbers and special characters.

• The password should consist of less than 20 characters.

Members of the VU academic community can change their password by logging in to id.vu.lt. Other readers with library cards should contact the Information Desk staff for a password reset.

Why Everyone Should Log Out?

To keep your personal data safe, do not forget to log out:

1. To Log out, click the Sign-In area at the top with your name displayed.
2. Click “Sign out” button.
3. It’s recommended to close the browser window.

Picture 18. Addition menu for signed user

My Account

With the “My Account” feature, you can:

• Extend the deadlines for loan items
• Read messages the library staff posted you
• Change your personal settings.

“My Account” is accessible by clicking the Sign-In area in the upper right corner of the screen and choosing “My Account” in the expanded menu.

Picture 19. User information in the menu

Logged in users in “My Account” will find:

• Loans – active and historical loans.
• Requests – on hold requests.
• Fine + fees – penalties and fees for non-returns.
• Personal details – user data validity, option to change default interface language.

Picture 20. Users “My Account” Overview section

QR code

Use a QR code for better sharing of your search outcomes with others. After performing the search in the virtual library and applying the necessary filters, you may share your search outcomes with other users:

1. Click the QR Code icon at the top of the page.

2. Save the QR Code or copy a link to your search outcomes page by selecting “Copy Link”.

3. By scanning the QR Code with your mobile device or by opening the copied link you’ll get the same search outcomes with the previously applied filters.

If you want to share some specific records with other users, open a detailed bibliographic record and in a section “Send to” select an QR Code icon.

A QR code might be useful in the following situations:

• Lecturers can make a list of search outcomes for a specific course and include the QR code of the list in the presentation.
• After receiving queries from users, librarians can perform the search and instantly share the received outcomes by letting users scan QR codes with their mobile phones.

Using My Favorites

The My Favorites page, which is accessed by clicking the My Favorites button (Pin) at the top of each page, contains the following:

• Saved Records – displays all of your saved records and allows you to manage your saved records.
• Saved Searches – displays all of your saved searches and allows you to manage your saved searches. Lets you set up alerts and RSS feeds, which let you know when results have changed for saved searches.
• Search History – displays all of your searches for the current session and allows you to manage your current session's searches.

Picture 21. Go to Favorites button

Saving and Managing Records

Signed-in users are able to save found records for subsequent sessions. After a record has been saved, the “My Favorites > Saved Records” page allows users to perform the following operations on saved records: view, delete, and label. Labels allow you to group and manage similar records.

Picture 22. Functional buttons for adding item to the My Favorites page

To save a single record:

1. Perform a search.
2. Click the “Add this item” button (A) next to the item that you want to save in the search results.
3. The item added to the My Favorites will be highlighted and will have different “Remove this item” button.

To save multiple records:

1. Perform a search.
2. Select needed records by clicking the selection fields (C) next to the items or select all items by clicking selection field D.
3. Click the “Add this item” button (E) to save in the result list.
4. The item added to the My Favorites will be highlighted and will have different “Remove this item” button.

Note! The number of selections is limited to a maximum of 50 items at a time. If this limit is reached, users are prompted to edit their selections.

Picture 23. Items added to My Favorites are highlighted and has “Remove this item” buttons

To remove an individual item from the list you can:

• Click the “Remove this item” button next to the item either in the search results or on the “My Favorites > Saved Records” tab.
• For removing multiple items at the same time you can select needed items on the “My Favorites > Saved Records” tab and click “Remove selected items”.

Adding Labels to a Record

By adding labels to your records, you can then group them into the private lists. One record can have multiple labels if you want to include that record in multiple lists.

To assign labels to a record:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Records tab.
3. Click the “Add Label” button.
4. Enter the name of the label in the Add new label field.
5. Confirm by pressing [Enter].

Picture 24. Add Labels button

Picture 25. Example of label

To remove a label:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Records tab.
3. Click the record’s Label Action Menu button.
4. Click the Delete Label button [X] to remove the unwanted label.

To view records grouped by a label:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Records tab.
3. In the Labels section, click the label's link to view the records that have been assigned that label.

Picture 26. The label selection link

Picture 27. Example of saved records grouped by label

Sorting the list of Saved Records:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Records tab.
3. The Sort by options allow users to sort their list of saved records by Title, Author and Date added.

Picture 28. Sort options for Saved Records

Saving Searches and Managing Saved Searches

Signed-in users are allowed to save searches between sessions and receive email alerts when there is an update to the saved search query.

Saving a Search query:

1. Perform a search that you want to save.
2. Click “Save Query” above the search results.

Picture 29. Save Query link

In addition, you will have an opportunity to set an alert for this query by clicking the notification link that appears after saving a query.

Picture 30. Set Alert Notification after saving a query

To save a query from the Search History:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Search History tab to display your current session's search history.
3. Click the “Add this item” button that appears next to the desired query.
4. Or select all desired queries (use B selectors) and click the “Add this item” button that appears in the main My Favorites menu.

Picture 31. Managing search queries from the Search History tab

To delete a saved query:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Searches tab to display all of your saved searches.
3. Click the “Remove this item” button that appears next to the saved query.

Picture 32. Saved Queries list

To delete a group of queries:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Searches tab to display all of your saved searches.
3. Select the check boxes (B) of the queries that you want to delete.
4. Click the “Remove this item” button that appears above the list (C).

Picture 33. Queries are selected to remove

Managing Alerts

Signed-in users are allowed to receive email alerts when there is an update to the saved search query. After an alert has been set, the “My Favorites > Saved Searches” page allows users to perform the following operations on alerts: set/clear an alert and update email addresses.

To set an alert:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Searches tab to display all of your saved searches.
3. Click the “Set an alert for this search” button (A) next to the query to set the alert.

Picture 34. Set Alert button

If necessary, update the email address to which the alert will be sent:

1. Click the “Change notification settings” link in the Alert notification area.
2. Type in new email.
3. If necessary, you can give an optional name for the notificaton and then click “Save”.

Picture 35. Change Email Address link

Picture 36. Notification settings box

Attention! Changing the email address to a different than provided by your institution does not guarantee successful delivery of the messages.

To clear an alert:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Searches tab to display all of your saved searches.
3. Click the “Unset an alert for this search” button next to the query to clear the alert.

Picture 37. Clear Alert button

Activating an RSS Feed

The Rich Site Summary (RSS) functionality allows signed-in users to be informed of changes to results in their saved searches.

Enabling RSS for a saved search:

1. Click the My Favorites button at the top of the page.
2. Select the Saved Searches tab to display all of your saved searches.
3. Click the “Set an RSS for this search” button for the saved search that you want to monitor.

Attention! Subscribe to the feed only if your browser or device has an RSS reader.

Picture 38. RSS selection buttons

The Brief Results

The Brief Results page display all the items that match your search query. For each item, the following information displays:

1. Resource Type – the format of the item, such as book, article, journal, and so forth.
2. Brief record – the brief record of the item shows main metadata such as the title, author and other information. By clicking it you'll navigate to the detailed record.
3. Access terms on the internet – known access terms and other data for the item. Link to access the item on the internet.
4. Availability status – the best in library location is calculated and shown. By clicking it you'll be able to request the item.
5. Send to actions – the Send To actions allow you to perform actions on the item (such as emailing the item, creating a citation for the item, and so forth).
6. Item number in the result's list and the Individual Selection box – select the check box that appears next to each item in the list. As records are added to the page, the number of selected records appears above the results. You can load more results to the page to allow the selection of more records.
7. Applying Actions in Bulk – after you have selected one or more items, select the Actions link that appears above the list of results to display the available export actions. Selecting an export action will apply that action to all selected records.
8. Refine my results – the facets on the right side of the page allow you to filter your results by categories (such resource type and date) and to specify a type of sort. The facets are generated from the top 10 000 records by using specialized record data. Next to the facet value you will see (if applicable) the count of records that can be filtered by using that facet value. Read more at Filtering the Results.
9. Save query – Click to save current search query to your favorites. Read more at Saving Searches and Managing Saved Searches.

Picture 39. Brief results page

Filtering the Results

The Refine my results section, which appear on the left side of the Brief Results page, contains a list of categories, which are referred to as facets. Each facet can be selected under both YES (including entries with selected attributes only) and NO (excluding entries with selected attributes).

Picture 40. Refine my results options          

To include/exclude facets:

1. Perform a search.
2. For each facet that you want to include or exclude – select the check box on the left side of the facet (A) and then select include/exclude type by clicking the button on the right side of the facet (B).
3. Click “Apply Filters” button to filter your results. The selected facets will appear in the Active filters section.

Picture 41. Selected multipe facets and filter activation

Tips for better refining your search results:

• To find out which reading room or building (CB, MKIC, ŠAIC or faculties) contains the book or other document you need, select the "Reading rooms" filter.  Next to a specific reading room, you'll see in the results how many publications match your search result.
• With the “Availability” filter, you can filter only documents that are available online or available in the library.
• You can use the "Creation date" filter to set the time period for which documents are relevant to you.
• By applying the "Resource Type" filter, you will be able to filter search results by document types: books, articles, journals, dissertations, etc.
• You can use the "Sort by" feature to see more accurate and up-to-date search results at the top of the page.

Persistent Facets

When performing many similar types of searches, you may want to retain your filters for subsequent searches within a session.

To make a facet persistent, hover the cursor over the facet in the Active filters section and then click the facet's padlock button “Make this filter persistent”. To remove a filter's persistence, click the facet's padlock button  “Cancel persistence” or delete the facet.

Picture 42. Active filters with option to add or remove persistent filter           

Full Display Page

After selecting an item in the Brief Results, the record's Full Display opens to display additional information. Users can either scroll to a particular section or use the links shown on the left side of the page.

Picture 43. Full Display page

The item's information is organized by the following sections:

• Send To – This section allows users to perform the following actions on the selected item: email item details, create a citation, export to Excel, send to reference management service (such as RefWorks, Mendeley) and create a permalink.
• View Online – This section appears only if the item is available for online viewing.
• Get It – This section allows you to request physical items from Vilnius university library.
• Details – This section displays additional details to help the user decide whether to choose this item.
• Links – This section displays additional links, which may allow you to view cover art, the Table of Contents, and so forth.
• Additional Services – This section displays links to full text services for journals, such as provided by the SFX link resolver.
• Virtual Shelf – This section allows users to browse items based on the location of an item in the search results. The user will be able to navigate through items on the shelf, starting at the selected item’s browse/call number value.

Hold Requests

Note!  Not all publications can be requested via Virtual library. See more information about publication requests here.

To place a hold request:

1. Log in to your Virtual Library account.
2. Perform a search for a record.
3. Open the record's full display page.
4. In the Get It section choose desired item location or use filter function.

Picture 44. Locations of desired item

       4. Choose free item and click “Hold” button.

       5. Additionaly you can:

• Click item row to see more information about the item.
• Click „Expand all items“ to see more information about items.
• Click „Show more items“ to see all items at the location.

Picture 45. Desired items at chosen location

6. Confirm a hold request by clicking “Send Request” button. Short message to a librarian can be added if needed.

Picture 46. Hold Request Confirmation dialog box

Loans, Renewing Loans

Signed-in users can see their active loans, previous and historic loans and renew active loan. Loan list can be accessed from user space My Account section Loans.

Picture 49. Loans

In Loans list user can:

1. Click A to show detailed information for the all loans.
2. Click B to show detailed information for the selected loan.
3. Click C to renew all loans. The individual terms for renewal of each loan will be evaluated. If any loans were selected by function H, the button will change to Renew Selected.
4. Click D to choose loans list order method.
5. Click Renew (E) to renew the selected loan. Depending on the terms of renewal, the customer is allowed to renew the loan once for a maximum period of 1 month, if the loaned item has not been requested by other users.The items that cannot be renewed on the Loans tab will be marked Not Renewable icon.
6. Click F to switch between Active loans and Previous and historic loans.
7. Click G field to select all items in the Loans list.
8. Click the number field (H) to add loan to the selection list.

Note! Loans with near due time and overdue loans are marked with additional icons and text.

Search Issues

If you encounter broken links, search issues or other problems in the virtual library, you can report them to the library staff by leaving feedback.

Click on the button in the lower right corner, select the problem area and describe the problem. If you want to leave a non-anonymous feedback or would like to receive an answer to your question, do not forget to enter your email address in the corresponding field. After filling in all the required fields, click Send.

Picture 50. "Give us feedback" view