How to get a book out of the library
The library's current storage situation does not lend itself to folk browsing it. So with that in mind, we've come up with alternative means for being able to borrow books.Step 1 - Log on to the website
It's highly recommended that you login before you start. It opens up all kinds of extra features within the library section and you'll need to do it anyway if you want to borrow a book.
Step 2 - Find an interesting book
Finding a specific book that you already know about should be pretty easy. If you search for a book title it should list it if we have a copy.
The search facility works just like any search engine. You enter in words that you hope will find a match. Currently the words are matched against a book's title, series name or author. If there are any results, it'll list all the books that match and their authors. You can click on a book's title to get more information about the book or click on an author to get a list of all the books we have by that author.
There's also a checkbox next to each book entry. If you tick one of them and then hit "Go" it'll find any books that the system thinks are similiar. How it decides if a book is similiar to another is by you, the members of IFIS creating sets of similiar books. You can select several books at once and it'll find any that match all of them.
If you haven't really got any idea what you're looking for you can browse the library by author, by title or by series. The list by title is VERY long, so don't be surprised if it takes a while to download it all.
Step 3 - Borrowing books
As mentioned a short while earlier, clicking on a book's title will bring up more information about the book. This includes a description, book covers and reviews. It also has a "Reserve this book" link, which will do pretty much what you expect. Click it on and it'll register your interest in the book.
The librarians keep an eye on who has reserved what and will try and hand the book over to you at the earliest chance. More than likely this will happen on a Tuesday in Crosslands after whatever event has happened earlier in the evening. If you're not around to collect the book, we'll email you to find out when you'll next be attending an IFIS event so we can hand the book over then.
Step 4 - Read and return the book
Hopefully the reading part of this section doesn't need any explaining. Just open the book and starting at page 1, read the words. Out loud if you need to, but becareful of annoying others around you, if you do.
Returning the book isn't much more complicated than getting the book in the first place. Just show up to a society event and hand the book over to one of the committee or a librarian and they'll return the book back to it's cramped and dusty storage.
Step 5 - Review the book / Add it to a set
If after reading the book, you have a strong opinion on whether or not it was good or bad, then write a review. Again, this is done on the information page for the books you've read. You don't have to write a massive essay, just your thoughts will do.
You should also consider adding it to one or more "sets". Sets are collection of books that have some kind of common feature. For example, you could have a set of books you think are funny or that have strong female role models. There is more about sets on the sets page.
