“Polaris is a great solution in the small and mid-sized academic market.”
- Jessame Ferguson, Director of Hoover Library, McDaniel College
Polaris® for Academic Libraries
In the Polaris ILS, you will find the power, flexibility, and efficiency you need to meet the unique requirements of academic institutions and the demands of busy students, faculty, and staff.
Serving Your Users with PAC
Students and faculty alike benefit from Polaris PAC search features that range from simple searches, complete with search suggestions, to multi-term, focused searches that zero in on specific results. One click will display or hide detailed bibliographic, serials holding, and availability information for a title, without losing sight of the results list. Faceted results links let you narrow and re-direct the search with ease. Users can limit their searches to items on reserve for a course, or search the collections by course name, instructor name or course number. In addition, saved searches automatically deliver new results by e-mail at specified intervals, and users can take advantage of built-in RSS feeds of new materials. Using PAC title list features, your users can save titles from multiple search results, and print, save, e-mail, or export their title lists in several formats to support their research and writing projects.
Hold requests and ILL requests are seamless for logged in-users, who can place requests as they search, and suspend or reactivate their requests from the patron account. This secure area also offers the opportunity to renew items, update account information, and read messages posted by the library. Faculty members can also e-mail reports on their course reserve items from their patron accounts.
Consortium member organizations can tailor the Polaris PAC to suit the needs of their students and faculty, from the available features to the look and feel of each page. Academic libraries will find this freedom and flexibility to be outstanding Polaris advantages.
Behind the Scenes
The same consortial flexibility distinguishes the Polaris administrator and staff interface. Polaris administrators specify the features, functions, limits, and permissions that control staff operations, and staff can quickly access the features they need to do their jobs. Circulation operations are seamless, with ready links to pertinent patron, bibliographic, and item records. For catalogers, integrated importing, authority control, and MARC validation ensure high-quality consistent records that accurately reflect your collections.
Of special note are extensive Polaris course reserve features that allow libraries to manage reserve collections for multiple courses in one location. Staff can quickly and efficiently process reserve materials from the regular collection, instructor materials, and disposable materials such as photocopies. Temporary loan periods and fines can be applied for the reserve period of any item, separate from the regular collection. Complementing course reserve functionality, flexible Polaris end-of-term due dates automate shortened loan periods to accommodate your academic schedule.
Features such as hourly and overnight loan policies, overdue renewal blocks, and batch loading and editing of patron records help streamline tasks and allow you more time to do what you do best - serving your users. And our robust Polarisâ ExpressCheckä self-check product, integration with smart card vendors, and e-commerce support make it quick and easy for students to use the library.
You can track library usage and collection statistics through ad hoc and formal reports available directly from the Polaris staff interface. Over 100 ready-to-go reports provide a detailed picture of operations. Polaris also offers SimplyReports, a powerful tool for building custom reports exactly tailored to your needs.
Both independent and consortial academic libraries are finding that flexible, efficient Polaris is the integrated solution they need to support their missions and meet their special challenges.