How to Use Destiny

• This presentation is designed to cover the basics of Destiny, the RUSD library and textbook management system. In order to use Destiny effectively, you will need to be logged into a computer that can access the internet.

• Find Destiny at http://library.redlandsusd.net• The student portion of the Destiny Tour takes

approximately 20 minutes. If you are looking for information on how to use a specific option or feature, click on the links in the Table of Contents, located on the next slide.

Table of Contents• The Destiny portal• Basics

– Guest use– “Breadcrumbs”– Logging in

• Using– Searches

• Basic• Visual• Power

– Managing• Reviews• My Info• Recommendations

• Holding Titles– at CVHS– at another RUSD school

• Creating & Using Lists– Wish Lists– Resource Lists

• Creating• Refining• Selecting titles• Working with lists

– Citations– Bibliographies

From CVHS’ School Fusion website, click “Library,” then “Find

Books,” then “Destiny: CVHS

Library.”

The Home tab displays popular books, basic use information, and

helpful links that can help you navigate

Destiny, as well as other educational sites

available for CVHS.

You can start searching for a book by entering what it is you want to find in the “Find” box and then clicking on the appropriate buttons:

Keyword--search the entire record for the word or phrase.

Title--search all or part of the title: e.g., “Potter.”

Author--search for books that an author has written: e.g., “Meyer.”

Subject--look for books in a particular field of study: e.g., “whales.”

Series--find all of the titles in a set: e.g., “Lord of the Rings.”

Click “Login” if you want to do more than search.

Note that clicking on the buttons on the left will change the program’s displayed languages to either French or Spanish, but WILL NOT change the language of the title information Destiny displays.

See “How do I . . .?” for more information or examples of “Power” or “Visual” searching.

A word about “Breadcrumbs” and website navigation.

Destiny is picky. If you want to get the most

from it, you have to play by ITS rules:

Do NOT use the “Back” button.

Instead, follow the “breadcrumbs.”

The advantage of doing so is that

Destiny will “remember” all of

the things you have done along the way. It may not remember if

you use the back button.

Using the menu bar on the left will take you all

the way back to step one.

Your user name and password are the same as the ones you use to login to the library computers and the School Fusion website.

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Once logged in, your name appears in the

upper right-hand corner of the window,

and your school’s name and logo appear

in the upper-left.

You also can access some links to other

websites, and can click on the tabs for

“Catalog,” to search, or on “My Info” to see

what you have checked out, overdue, or on

hold.

Finally, you can use the “Help” button in the

upper right-hand corner if you are

unsure of what to do or how to do it while using

Destiny.

Clicking on “My Info” shows your checkout

history.

This student has a library

book . . .

four textbooks, with one

overdue . . .

and a ready hold.

If you lose a book, check here, first. Library staff will

check in anything that comes to us, so if the book’s

title shows here, the book is still out there and you are still responsible for finding it or paying

for it.

Clicking on the “Catalog” tab brings up the search screen. Play around with the “Basic,” “Power,” and “Visual” searches to see other ways to search.

If you have questions about searching, such as how to use “wildcards” or punctuation, click on the question mark next to “How do I . . . “ For more information on an available function, click on the question mark icons.

Use “My Searches” if you want to go back to a search you did before.

Note that the results that the “My Searches” window displays are tied to the types of searches you have done. If you want to see what “Visual” searches you have done previously, for example, be sure to click the “Visual

Search” tab before you click “My Searches.”

Sometimes, you may not have a specific

book in mind.

When that happens, try doing a “Visual Search.”

Here are 9 fiction & non-fiction books on

“Antarctica” that are a good place to start.

Let’s find a book by Title. . . .In this example, entering part of a title with an asterisk (*) will find anything beginning with “Tokyo M”

Clicking on “Title” will get us the results we want.

The “Search Titles” screen shows:

The Cover

The Title

The Call Number, Author, Publisher and Year Published

How many copies are available

Clicking on “Details” will get you more information about a title.

You can sort by “Relevance” (i.e., how

closely the information in the book’s record matches your search terms), “Title,”

or many other criteria. Sorting by “Status” will list

books with available copies first.

Use the menu bar to get more

information about the book . . .

If there is more than one title, use the green arrows, above, to move to other titles before

or after this one in the previous list.

You can also see reviews of books . . .

get copy information . . .

and place a book on hold.

Clicking on “Find It” will get you lists of books by the same author or in the

same subject area.

Last, you can click on “Recommend” to send others a title that you think might interest them.

Let’s look at some of these. . . .

Say you read Odd Thomas and want

another book that is like it. Click on the “Find It”

button.

Here are 109 titles that also fit the

subject, “psychological

fiction.”

“Find It” is a great way to search for things when you have nothing in

mind; just start by searching for the last good book you read, and

then use “Find It” to get you started.

“Additional Info” often gives you information about the title, artwork, and other miscellaneous

information. It also may give you the reading level and interest level of a book.

“Publication Info” is where you can find the number of pages a

book has.

Clicking on the cover may get you more

information about the book.

When you click on a book’s cover in the “Search Results” window, you will be taken to another website. Another

tab (or maybe another window, depending on your browser) will open.

You can return to your previous Destiny window by clicking this tab or by closing the TitlePeek tab or window.

Use the tabs on the left to read a

summary, reviews, or an excerpt, if

available.

When you see search results, you may see a title with a star-rating.

From the “Details” window, you can read any student

reviews.

Remember, all reviews have to be approved by

a library staff member . . .

and don’t forget that YOUR

name will be on the review.

You may only review a book ONCE . . .so think your reviews through,

and make them count.

Let’s add a simple review in the “Reviews” window.

“Mouse-over” the stars to set

a rating.

Destiny has “spell-check”; the squiggly

red line tells you Destiny needs you to be sure the word is spelled correctly.

Write your review. Remember, your review will have your

name on it AND it will have to be approved by a library staff member before it will post.

Check your postings BEFORE you click

“Save.”

When you review a book, the only way others can see your review is if they first look for the book. If

you want to force the issue, “Recommend”

a title to friends, directly.

First, find the book; then click the “Recommend”

button.

Search for a CVHS student or staff member, here.

Enter the name of the person to whom you want to recommend the title, and click the “Go” button.

Click on the person’s name

Enter your comments and click the “Save” button. That’s it, but remember: Your comments will be screened by library staff and we will have to approve them. If we cannot , we will

have to bother you to explain why we could not.

Check the My Info tab often, as library staff will sometimes

use “Recommend” to

send you a message.

Let’s put a book on “Hold.”

We do not have enough staff to guarantee that we will be able to

gather books for you that are on the library shelves. If you place a “Hold” on a book that is not checked out to another student, the “Hold” may be ignored. You should come into the library and find books like these,

yourself.

When you put an item on hold, you will see a message that tells you what your “Hold”

status is. In this case, the book is on the shelf . . . so go get it!

But what if a book isn’t AT the CVHS library?

Most of the time you can start by searching . . .

in the CVHS library.

When this screen appears, it means CVHS’s library does not have the

book. To look outside our school, click “Refine your search.”

Try your search again, but this

time look at other sites in RUSD.

Let’s see what we get if we search

for a Title in “Redlands USD.”

MUCH better results, with forty titles. Let’s

get the second one by clicking on “Details.”

This screen shows you there are no

titles at CVHS. . . but there are two at

other schools, with one available.

Clicking on “Hold It!” will send your

request to the CVHS library staff. Once we approve it, the request will

go to another school and your

book could soon be here.

We will not notify you when your book

arrives, but you can check the status of

your hold by clicking on the “My Info” tab.

When you see “Ready” next to the title, your book is

waiting for you at the CVHS library

circulation desk.

If you believe a title that we do not have is one

we should have, click “Add to Wish List.”

Clicking on “Resource Lists” in

the “My Info” window will allow you to view and create your own

lists.

“My Personal List” is the default.

Clicking “Add List” will let you create specific lists for specific classes, subjects, or other

things.

Click “View” to see what is in the list . . . or the pencil-and-paper

icon to edit the list’s name and description.

Items in “My Personal List” are PRIVATE. “Public” lists are

available for anyone to see. For example, your teacher may set up a list of historical fiction for classes

to use.

Before you create a list, have a plan.

Suppose you are writing a paper for

English class about the Holocaust.

A “Power Search” will make setting up this list a lot faster.

Let’s look for titles with similar

themes by using a combination of search terms:

historical fiction

german*

holocaust

In the first search line, we set the

limiters to “Subject” (because we only

want to search that part of the record),

and “This exact phrase” (because

we want only records that contain

the subject, “Historical Fiction.”)

In the second and third search lines,

the limiters are set to “Keyword” and “Any of these words”—If the terms appear anywhere in an historical fiction

book’s record, you want to look at that book. We also set “Material Type” to “Book” to limit our

search just to books.

Note that AND is set below the first search term, but

that OR is set under the second. Do you understand

what difference using “And” or “Or” makes when you

search?

Finally, you may want to use NOT to

further limit your search. For example,

“Historical Fiction” AND “Holocaust”

NOT “german*” will narrow the search to

historical fiction books about the

holocaust that do not include references to

Germany or Germans.

When you click on “Search,” here is

what Destiny finds:

There are 127 books that meet our requirements.

Clicking “Add to this list” will add the book

to “My Personal List.”

If the screen shows “In This List” rather than

“Add to this List’ it means you have added the title.You can also click “Add

Page” to add all 25 copies listed on the

screen. Clicking “Show All” will load all pages;

“Add Page will then add all 127 titles to your list.

Let’s jump ahead a bit. . . .

How did we get here? Remember the “breadcrumbs”?

Now that you are back in “My Personal List,” you

can work with all the books you have selected.

Clicking on “Remove” will remove the title from your

list, only (NOT from Destiny).

Clicking on “Citation,” will let you see the MLA

information for the book. If some is missing, you can add to it. It will only add to the list, not to the actual

record in Destiny.

One more thing about using citations . . .

At the bottom of any resource list, click

“Citation List” or “Bibliography” and then

”Go.”

Choosing “Citation List” produces an

MLA formatted list of books in another tab or

window.

Selecting “Bibliography” will

give you other results.

(These options should make your teachers happy, too.)

Finally, should you have further questions, remember that you can always click on the “Help” button in the upper-right corner of almost any page in

Destiny. Their help is FAR more detailed than this presentation would even try to be.

You may need Acrobat Reader to access some of the help pages. If you do not already have it on your computer, you can download the free version at

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html