WELCOME TO THE NEW BCLS WEBSITE

• Checked Out displays all titles you currently have on loan from BCLS. You can use this page to view due dates and contribute ratings. Titles listed on the Checked Out page are displayed in order of due date, so overdue items are listed first, with the due date in red.
  • To view your checked out items:
    1. Log in to your account.
    2. Look for My Borrowing in in the drop down.
    3. Click On Hold or Checked Out.
• On Hold keeps track of the titles you’ve requested, where they are and when they’re available for pickup. By default, items on the page are sorted by status, with items ready for pickup first.
• Borrowing History is a feature in the catalog that keeps a record of all the physical items you have borrowed from us. Borrowing History is not automatically turned on, so you will need to log in to your BCLS Account and enable it. Once enabled, the catalog will start recording what you check out from that point forward.
• Fees show including fines and fees from BCLS. Since we are Fine Free, you’ll only see fees or fines here for specific items or if an item is marked as lost.

My Profile shows your Username, your Credits (from interacting in the community), and how many people you’re following.

Click View and Edit to see your profile and make changes. You can add a short bio in the About section, add your Areas of Interest (fiction genres, hobbies, non-fiction topics, etc.) and adjust My Rating Scale so people know what your ratings mean.

Beneath your profile information, there are links to your Shelves, Lists, My Activity, Community and links to your Community Credits received from interacting with the catalog.

If your Shelves, Lists and My Activity are public people who visit your profile will be able to see what you've read and curated. See "Privacy Settings" above for more information.

Your My Shelves pages enable you to keep track of items you’ve borrowed, or plan to borrow in the future.

• The Completed shelf is where you can store everything you’ve read, watched or listened to.
• In Progress is the place for what you are reading, watching or listening to right now.
• For Later is like a wish list, a place to keep track of the books, movies and music you’d like to borrow in the future.

You can add to your shelves from just about anywhere, including:

• search results
• a title’s details page
• your On Hold, Checked Out and Borrowing History pages
• another patron’s Completed, In Progress or For Later shelf
• awards and bestsellers pages
• a list
• the shelf itself.

Items that you star-rate, comment on, tag, or summarize that are not already on your Completed shelf will be added to it.

To add a title to your shelves

1. Log in to your account.
2. From an item’s details page, search results, awards and bestseller lists, click the For Later button, or click the arrow next to the button and select another shelf.

Once you’ve borrowed a title that was on your For Later shelf, you’ll want to move it to your In Progress shelf. Similarly, once you’ve finished a book that was on your For Later shelf, you can move it to your Completed shelf.

To move a title to a different shelf

1. Log in to your account.
2. Go to the shelf that contains the item you want to move.
3. Find the item.
4. Click the Manage item button next to it.
5. From the dropdown menu, click the appropriate shelf.

You can also remove a title from your shelves if you no longer want it to appear there.

For more information on shelves, check out the For Later article and My Shelves article. Check the “Privacy Settings” section above to learn how to adjust the privacy setting of your shelves.

My Activity tracks your interactions, such as comments, ratings and likes. This feature is public by default, meaning others can see your activity unless you change this privacy setting to private. When you follow other people, you'll see their recent activity (if it's public) in your dashboard's Newsfeed.

• Note: If your Shelves are set to private, that information will NOT appear on your Activity Feed, unless you have chosen to make individual items public.

A list is a collection of titles related to a specific topic or idea of your choosing. For example: Knitting Books for Beginners or The 10 Best Movies about Baseball would be suitable subjects for lists. Although lists are meant for sharing, you can decide who gets to see your list when you publish it.

This is different from your For Later shelf where you would put items for future check out.

You will see lists in several locations on the site:

• When you browse the details of a title, you’ll see links to everyone’s lists that contain that title under the Listed heading.
• The lists you create are also shared with other users when they view your collection. (The exception is lists you have chosen to keep private.)
• Users’ lists are also featured at the bottom of the Recent Activity page.

Want to learn how to create great guides and reading lists? Check out these Frequently Asked Questions!

Creating Guides & Recommendations Lists

1. Log in to your account.
2. On the menu, click Lists.
3. Click the Create a New List button.
4. Click Guides and Recommendations.
5. Select the type of list you want to create.
6. Give the list a title. Others can search for your list by the words you use, so make the title informative
7. Add a description, if you wish, to elaborate on the title. A description is optional, but will help others find your list.
8. Click Add to List to add catalog titles or website URLs to your list. For details, see Adding Titles to Lists
9. When you’ve added all of your titles, click Finished Editing.
10. Choose who can see your list
    • Everyone.
    • People in a specific location. This is useful for lists of local interest, such as school projects.
    • Anyone with the link. Use this when you want to share a list with someone, but don’t want to make it available to everyone.
    • Only me. This makes the list private. No one but you can see this list.
11. Click Publish.

Each time you contribute information such as ratings, tags, comments or summaries, you receive community credits. Community credits are a way you can keep track of your contributions to the library’s catalog, and to the wider community of library users.

The simplest way to start earning community credits is to add titles to your shelves: each star rating, tag or other comment that you add earns one credit. When you create a list of at least five titles, you earn five credits.

To see your community credits

1. Log in to your account.
2. On the menu, click My Settings.
3. On the My Settings page, under the Profile heading, find your Community Credits setting.
4. Click View.

Your community credits total is shown on your profile page and is public. Your list of community credits is private. Please consult our Privacy Policy to learn more about how BCLS protects your private information.

Following others

When you follow someone, it means you’re interested in what they’re reading, watching or listening to. Following someone with similar tastes is one way to discover new items in the catalog you may want to borrow.

When people you follow contribute to the catalog, you’ll get a notification in your Newsfeed. Your newsfeed will show:

• items they added to their shelves
• lists they created
• comments and ratings they added to specific titles
• lists or comments by others that they liked

To follow someone

When you see a comment or list that you agree with or enjoy, do this:

1. Log in to your account.
2. Hover over the username.
3. In the pop-up that appears, click Follow.

Read Interacting with Other Users for more information on following or ignoring users in the community.

Ratings

Star ratings guide other library members to discover items of interest to them. Any title that you rate will be recommended to other users who are “following” you. Star ratings are averaged across all members who rate a specific title, and add value to our catalog by highlighting high-quality items.

You can add star ratings to a title from:

• the title’s details page
• your Checked Out page
• your Borrowing History page
• your Completed or In Progress shelves

On a title’s details page, the orange stars are the average rating of everyone who rated it.

To contribute a star rating

1. Log in to your account.
2. Find the title you want to rate.
3. Click the number of stars you think a title deserves. You can use-half star increments to be more precise.
4. To change the rating, click a different number of stars.
5. To remove your rating, move your pointer to the right of the last star, and then click the x when it appears.

Comments / Reviews

A comment is like a review. Use comments to provide your general impression of a title, and elaborate on your star ratings. Your comments will be visible to other users when they view information on this title.

To add a comment from a title’s details page

1. Log in to your account.
2. Find the title you want.
3. On the title’s details page, scroll down to the Opinion section.
4. Under From the community, type or paste your thoughts in the text box. You can add up to 4000 characters, or about 700 words.
5. If you wish, you can also add a star rating for the item from the dropdown below the text box.
6. When you are finished, click Post comment to add your comment to the title’s catalog record.

To add a comment from a shelf

1. Log in to your account.
2. Go to the shelf containing the title you want.
3. On the toolbar below the item, click Comment.
4. In the Add comment pop-up, type or paste your thoughts in the text box. You can add up to 4,000 characters, or about 700 words.
5. When you are finished, click Save to add your comment to the title’s catalog record.

You’ll see the comment below your star rating. Click the pencil icon to edit it or the trash can icon to delete it.

Find out other ways to interact with the community at Ratings, Comments and Other Content.