Finding anything

Every library screen has a search box in the header. It is the fastest way to reach something you can already name — a patron, a title, a copy in your hand, a page you’d otherwise navigate to, or a filtered list you’d otherwise build by hand.

It searches Library level, so it finds what is in the library you’re working in, and the box shows that library’s name so you always know which one. It is a library-level tool: school and account screens have no search box.

Every staff role can use it, including limited circulation users.

Opening it

Select the search box in the header, or press key: ⌘+K on a Mac or key: Ctrl+K elsewhere. The same keys close it again, as does key: Esc.

Type, then move with key: ↑ and key: ↓ and press key: ↵ to go where the highlighted result points.

What it finds

Results arrive in groups, and each group is headed by what kind of thing it holds. You’ll see some of these, never all at once:

Pages. Any screen in the library, by name — navigation path: Circulation then Check In, navigation path: Catalog then Weeded, navigation path: Catalog then Inventory. Tabbed screens list their tabs separately, so tags finds navigation path: Catalog then Metadata already on its tab: Tags tab.
Filter values. A tag, a homeroom, a grade — see Jumping to a filtered list below.
Lists. An OPAC list, by name. Choosing one opens that list’s own page rather than filtering anything, so the highlighted row says Open where a filter value’s says Filter.
Patrons. By name (including a preferred name), or the start of a barcode or email address.
Items. By title, author, or the start of an ISBN.
Copies. By a scanned barcode, the start of a call number, or the title.

Patrons, items, and copies each show their five best matches. Filter values and lists share a tighter budget: at most three groups, three values in a group, and five values in all. Search is a way to jump to something you can name, not a way to browse — when you want to work through a set rather than land on one thing, use the list pages and their filters instead.

How a search matches

Names and titles match word by word. Type the words in any order, leave out accents and punctuation, stop partway through a word, or get a letter wrong, and the search still finds it: potter harry finds Harry Potter, and pena finds Peña. Every word you type has to match, so adding a word narrows the results.

Barcodes, call numbers, ISBNs and email addresses match only from their first character, with no allowance for typos, so a number from the middle of a barcode finds nothing. Every other search box and picker in Lyra matches the same way, from the list pages and the pickers in dialogs to the OPAC’s sign-in list. The OPAC’s catalog search is the exception: it has its own, described in Search & holds.

Jumping to a filtered list

This is the part worth learning. When what you type matches the name of a filter value rather than a record, Lyra offers the value itself — and choosing it opens the list it belongs to, already filtered.

Say you tag items To cull as you find them on the shelf:

Press key: ⌘+K and type to cu.
Select To cull under Tags. Lyra opens navigation path: Catalog then Items filtered to that tag, with a button: Tags chip showing it.

That is the same list you would get from button: Filter ▸ button: Tags ▸ To cull, reached in one step instead of three. Because the result is an ordinary filtered list, its address holds the filter, so you can bookmark it and come back — see Finding items.

Choosing a filter value replaces whatever filters were already set rather than adding to them, so you always land on exactly the set you named.

What each kind of value opens

You search for	Lyra offers	And opens
A tag, topic, author, or series	Tags, Topics, Authors, Series	navigation path: Catalog then Items, tab: By item
An item policy	Item Policies	navigation path: Catalog then Items, tab: By item
book or other	Item Type	navigation path: Catalog then Items, tab: By item
A target audience, such as juvenile	Target Audience	navigation path: Catalog then Items, tab: By item
A shelving location	Locations	navigation path: Catalog then Items, tab: By copy
A copy state — available, checked out, on hold, lost	Copy Status	navigation path: Catalog then Items, tab: By copy
A reason you weeded something	Weed Reasons	navigation path: Catalog then Weeded
A homeroom, or a grade	Homerooms, Grade	navigation path: Patrons
student or faculty	Patron Type	navigation path: Patrons
reachable or unreachable	Reachability	navigation path: Patrons
overdue, due today, due this week	Loans	navigation path: Circulation then Active Loans, on that tab

Two of these are worth calling out because you would not guess them:

overdue goes straight to the overdue loans, which is usually what someone means when they type it. See Active loans.
Reachability offers Reachable and Unreachable, which sort patrons by whether Lyra has an email address it can actually send to under this library’s notice settings. Filtering to Unreachable is how you find the patrons an overdue notice would never reach. See Notices.

When nothing matches

Lyra shows message: No matches and suggests checking the spelling. The usual causes:

You’re in the wrong library. Search covers the library named in the box. Switch libraries and try again.
The copy is in another library. A barcode from a sister library’s shelf will not be found here.
The record was weeded. Weeded copies leave the catalog list; look on navigation path: Catalog then Weeded.