LINC ( Libraries In Cooperation ), a cooperative catalog of the Lincoln Trail Libraries System, is a computerized library system listing information about the resources in over 80 academic, public, school and special libraries in 9 counties of East Central Illinois. LINC provides online access to over 1.7 million library items including books, audiotapes, videocasettes, DVDs, CDs, records, Books on Tape, pamphlets, music scores, maps, and other materials. Using LINC, you can also order materials from participating libraries, and have them sent to the Lake Land College Library.

NOTE: in order to check out or request a library item, you must have a library card first. You can get that at the Circulation Desk in the library.

How Do I Use LINC?

The library catalog tells you what physical items (such as books, videos, & CDs) the library owns and where to find them. You won’t find articles or parts of books listed here.

Basic Search: This is the search that automatically comes up when you enter LINC

1. Decide which “field” to search (You can only search one field at a time in Basic Search) :
1. Any Keyword : This looks for your search phrase anywhere at all in a record. This search will give you the largest number of results, but may give you a lot of extra things to sift through that aren’t related to what you’re looking for.
2. Title starts with : Use this if you’re looking for a specific book, and you know the title. Leave out words such as a, an, or the at the beginning: grapes of wrath.
3. Author : Use this if you’re looking for books written by a certain person. Always remember to put the last name first: hemingway, toby .
4. Subject starts with : Use this to find books about something. “Subjects” are terms assigned by librarians to describe what something is about. This search will take you to an alphabetical list of all the official subject headings in the catalog.
2. Decide which “search terms” to type into the empty box. This is especially important for subject and keyword searches. Try not to be too specific here, but keep it down to a single word or phrase. Think about what kinds of books might contain information on your topic. For example, you may not find any books specifically on catnip, but you may find information about it in books on herbs, gardening, cats, plants, or pets.
3. Click on the Go button.
4. If you did a title, author, or subject search, you will get an alphabetical list of all the titles, authors, or subjects in the catalog, starting with your search terms. Click on the one that best matches what you’re looking for.
5. Here you will get a list of items. For each title, look under Location to see if Lake Land has a copy. To find the book on the shelf, you need the Collection and Call No. Also look to see if the book is available under Status. While the library is in our temporary location (NE 116), follow the Request Any Copy instructions below (#7) to retreive books from the stacks.
6. You may limit this list to just Lake Land materials by selecting Lake Land College in the Limit by: drop-down list on any results page.
7. To request an item from another library (or something from our stacks while we're in NE 116) click on the Request Any Copy button to have the item sent here. Log on with your library card # and your PIN (the last four digits of your phone number.)
8. If the book is electronic, the Call No will say Click on URL for access. To read the book, you will need to click on the URL link on the item information page.

Advanced Search: Click on the Advanced tab in the green band at the top of the page

1. Here you can conduct various keyword searches. A keyword search looks for your search terms anywhere in the field, not just at the beginning. For example, a title keyword search of history would bring up every title in the catalog that contains the word "history", but a title starts with search would only bring up an alphabetical list of all the titles in the catalog that start with "history." A keyword search will always give you more results, but may give you too many things that aren’t relevant to your search.
2. You can also combine different search terms in the Advanced Search. For example, if you’re looking for any books by Phil McGraw on parenting, you could combine author keyword: McGraw AND subject keyword: parenting.
3. Advanced Search also allows limiting your search results to a certain location ( Lake Land College or Mattoon Public Library, for example) or a certain type of material, such as just DVDs or just music.

My Account : Click on the My Account tab at the top of the page

• You can check your library account on LINC to find out what you have checked out and when it's due, what your fines are, and the status of your hold requests. Click on the button at the top that says My Account. Note: If you log in to your account, always remember to logout afterwards or other people will be able to use your account after you.