The “Novelist Content” is actually some pretty good stuff, even if its current placement is a little inconvenient. We’ll explain a little bit more about it further down the page. First, let’s show you how to get rid of it so you can just find out if the book is checked in.
Let’s say we’re looking to see if Larchmont has a copy of Daniel Silva’s newest thriller, The English Spy. We’ve done our search and clicked on the title in the usual way. Instead of a listing of which libraries own the book and the book’s status, there are all these pictures of other books and stuff. These are great if you want to learn more about the Gabriel Allon series, but not so great if all you want to do is find the newest book. All this stuff is provided by a database called Novelist. It’s a pretty good product, but it’s in the way so click the little arrow next to “Novelist Content.”
Once it shrinks up the Novelist Content box, you’ll be left with something that looks like this:
Just click on the tiny arrow nest to “Available,” and you’ll get to the page that shows where things are located. In this instance you are out of luck.
Q – So what exactly is this Novelist Content? Why should I care?
A – If you were a librarian, you’d day Novelist is a readers advisory database. If you are a human, you’d say Novelist is a tool to help you find out about the book you’ve looked up and to help you find books like it either by the same author or by others. We’ve had Novelist as one of our Online Resources for a while, but now it is integrated within the catalog.
Q -Sweet! It’s integrated within the catalog! You librarians must be thrilled, but what good is that to me?
A – Let’s say a friend says you’ve got to read “those English Spy novels, by Silver or whatever.” You want to read the first book in the series. Look up “English Spy” in the catalog and you’ll see the list of the Gabriel Allon novels by Silva and find out The Kill Artist is the first book in the series. What if you really enjoyed The English Spy and were depressed that you’ve read all 15 books in the series and don’t know what to read next? Just scroll down and Novelist will give you similar series. Scroll a little further and Novelist will give you similar titles. Of course, if you’re really stuck, don’t forget to ask a reference librarian. They will be glad to help you find something to read.