Alert profiles
An alert profile allows you to create a profile that matches and remembers your preferences and favourites. If a new item comes into stock that matches your preferences, you will be sent an email detailing the item(s) with a link to immediately place a reservation if you wish. For example, you could set up an alert profile for your favourite author and receive emails when new items by that author come into stock.
In order to use this facility you must have an email address included in your registration details.
Alert profiles consist of the following information:
- Search Profile
This contains all the information which defines your areas of interest for this profile. This can include authors, titles, subject areas and so on. You can also include preference for materials, collections and locations.
- Alert Frequency
This determines how often the system should scan stock for items that match your profile. You can choose from daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly.
- Profile Active Flag
This flag indicates whether the alert profile is currently active or not. If your profile is active the system will scan stock for items that match it (depending on the frequency above) and email alerts will be sent as new items are detected. If your profile is not active, it will be saved on the system but the stock will not be scanned and you will not receive emails about new items. Newly created profiles are automatically set as active. You can change this flag by updating your profile after it has been created.
- Expiry Date
This is an optional date after which your alert profile will expire and will no longer be used. Your alert profile will still be retained in the system and you can change this date at any time.
- Description
This is a short description used to identify each profile. You can setup as many alert profiles as you wish to scan for different topics and you can use this description to briefly describe each profile.
To add a new alert profile:
- Login to My Library and click the New alert profile button on the menu on the left of your dashboard.
- Enter your preferences in the search profile fields. You can select several options from the multi-choice lists.
- Click the Search button (or press the enter key) to test your search. This will apply your search preferences to the Library Catalogue and will display the records retrieved. Return to your profile by clicking 'Search Form' at the top of the page.
- Make any necessary changes to your search profile and retest the search.
- Select an alert frequency to indicate how often you would like the library server to scan the database looking for any new works matching your search profile.
- You can also enter an expiry date if you do not want alerts to be sent after a specific date.
- Provide a short description of your profile so that you can recognise it in your profile list. This is mandatory.
- Click the Save button to create your new profile. A message will be displayed to let you know your profile has been created and the form will be cleared to enable you to enter another profile if you want to.
- You can update your alert profile and access your new profile by clicking the History button on the menu on the left of your dashboard.
To update an alert profile:
- Login to My Library and click the History button on the menu on the left of your dashboard.
- Click the Alert profiles link. This will display a list of your existing profiles.
- Select the profile you would like to update by clicking on the description.
- Make any necessary changes to your search profile and retest the search. Remember to change your description if you change your search criteria to retrieve different items.
- Set the Profile Active Flag as required by checking or unchecking the Send alerts option.
- Make any necessary changes to the alert frequency and expiry date options.
- Click one of the buttons or select from the extra options menu as required. The actions performed by these buttons and options are described below.
Select from the following update actions:
- Save - saves any changes you have made to your profile. This will also update the records in the profile set to include all records matching your search criteria.
- Reset - this will undo any changes you have made to your profile since it was last saved.
- Delete - this will delete the profile from the system.
- Display new entries - this will display any records which match your search profile but which are not already in your profile set.
- Update profile set - this will reset the profile set to include all records matching your search criteria.
- Display profile set - this will display all records currently held in your profile set.
- Clear profile set - this will clear all records currently held in your profile set. The next time your profile is checked for new entries, all records matching the search criteria will be reported.
Once your alert profile has been setup it may be used in two ways to find new records matching your search criteria. You can then use these to place reservations on the new records detected.
- Email notification
Active alert profiles are used to scan the stock for any new items that match the profile's criteria. These items are then added to the profile set for that particular profile. If any new items are added to your profile set you will be sent an email containing brief details for each item, as well as a hyperlink to the item. If you want to see more information, or would like to place a reservation on the item, simply click on the hyperlink in the email to view the item on the system.
- Online scan
You can also access the records matching your search criteria online. Follow the steps above to access your existing alert profiles. Select the option to Display new entries to find new records matching your search critieria, or select the option to Display profile set to find all records matching your search criteria. Once the records are displayed you can add reservations as you require. You can also save the records to your SavedList if you wish.
When setting up your search profile, some of the search fields are presented as multi-select lists. If a blue asterisk is displayed this indicates options have been saved in this multi-choice list. You may need to scroll down to see the options selected.
To select or deselect more than one option from these lists, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the required option.
If you don't want to select any options from these lists, hold down the Ctrl while deselecting any already selected options.