How to Use The New York Public Library's New Catalog

Messy pile of books from NYPL's 125th Anniversary List, including titles like The Lord of the Rings, Wolf Hall, American Gods, The Great Gatsby, Beloved, and others.

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Welcome to the new catalog!

Highlighting the collections of The New York Public Library's branches, the new catalog improves access to materials in different formats while providing additional resources to discover new items to borrow. If you would like to use The New York Public Library's research collections, please use the Research Catalog to discover our research materials and those held by our partner institutions.

1. Searching for Titles

NYPL has a new catalog that makes searching for materials and selecting the format you want easier. Results for a title now include books, e-books, and other formats in one clear display, along with the locations where copies are available:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows results for A Tale of Two Cities, featuring various copies available at Throg’s Neck Library.

Clicking on a title in the search results will take you to a page that links to specific edition information and provides additional resources for the title:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows results and availability for the Book format of A Tale of Two Cities.
Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows results for additional items by Charles Dickens that you may also like, including Top Picks like Great Expectations and Bleak House, as well as Similar Authors, including Anthony Trollope and Jane Austen
Screenshot showing About the Author information regarding Charles Dickens, including a photo, short biography, and more items by the author.
Screenshot showing a Book Profile result featuring Character Names, Genre, Topics, Location, and Time Period for A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

2. Easily See All Editions of a Title

The “Edition information” link allows you to see details for requesting specific editions of a title. Clicking the caret icon and the “i” circle icon provides additional details about each title, such as ISBN:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows results with the Edition Information for A Tale of Two Cities, including Publication Date, Edition, Details, Publishers, Physical Description, and Availability.

Clicking on a location allows you to see if a copy is available, or view call number information to help with browsing material at your local branch:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows a location-specific view of results for A Tale of Two Cities at Aguilar Library.

3. Bookmarking and Saving Titles

The new catalog allows you to bookmark titles of interest as you browse through search results:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows a Bookmarked search result for The Smart Cookie by Jory John.

Bookmarked items are temporarily saved during your browsing session and are available in a For Later list after you log in to your Library account:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows a pop-up window that reads: Your temporary bookmarks have been added to your For Later list.

You can also save searches after logging into your Library account:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows a pop-up window that allows a user to save a search query and to name that search in order to revisit it at a later time.

Lists of items that were saved in the previous catalog will be available in the new catalog. Going forward, lists can be created and managed only in the new catalog.

4. Refining Your Search

After an initial search, you can refine your search results by checking date, language, format, and/or age group checkboxes. You can also redo your search in the Research Catalog to discover research materials held by us and our partner institutions by clicking the Research Catalog link at the top right of search results:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows a refined search result for The Smart Cookie.

Please note that this new catalog only contains materials which you can borrow and take home. It does not include our research collection materials, which you need to use on-site in one of our research centers. In the past, patrons expressed confusion about having some materials in the catalog that can be borrowed and some that cannot, and we believe separating them into distinct catalogs will help ease that confusion. Please use the Research Catalog to access our 15 million research items. To learn more please visit the Research page of our website.

5. Requesting a Book

To request a copy of a title, click the “Request” button to have it sent to your preferred branch. After you click it, the catalog will prompt you to log in to your account, if you haven’t already done so:

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows a pop-up window that allows a user to choose a pickup location for a requested library item.

6. Managing Your Account

You can view the status of your requests and review account information by clicking either on your bookshelf link in the bottom left or on the up arrow at the bottom of the screen. Please note, to view Interlibrary Loan items checked out to your account you can log into the Research Catalog.

Screenshot of circulating catalog search that shows results and availability for the Book format of A Tale of Two Cities; there is a large yellow arrow pointing to a button that reads: Jim’s Bookshelf at the bottom left side of the page.

Clicking the bookshelf link provides a summary of your account details. The “Requests” view allows you to change the pickup location for individual requests, cancel them, or freeze them, which preserves your place in line until you are ready for a title:

Screenshot of a circulating catalog user bookshelf interface showing a request for A Tale of Two Cities and a pickup location of Throg’s Neck Library.

Clicking the “Checkouts” view shows the current status of titles checked out to your account, overdue titles, and allows you to renew eligible titles:

Screenshot of a circulating catalog user bookshelf interface showing the current status of titles checked out to an account; in this example, American Folk Songs for Children is overdue by five days and has already been renewed three times.

Clicking the “Fees” view shows the status of outstanding bills for lost items or miscellaneous fees your account has accrued:

Screenshot of a circulating catalog user bookshelf interface showing how many fees a patron has; in this example, there is a $1 fee for a lost card.

Clicking the “Profile” view and “Edit Profile” button allows you to manage account details such as assigning a nickname to your Bookshelf, updating your email address and phone number, changing your notification preferences, and account PIN/PASSWORD details. Not all fields can be edited:

Screenshot of a circulating catalog user bookshelf interface showing a patron’s account profile information, including Name, Email, Home Address, and Phone Numbers.

7. Other Things to Know

While the new catalog allows you to search for materials that you can borrow from The New York Public Library's branches, you can use the Research Catalog to search for materials from our research collections. To learn more please visit the Research page of our website.

For access to InterLibrary Loan items checked out to your account, please login to our Research Catalog to view items. For further information about Interlibrary Services, please visit us here.

The new catalog adheres to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 AA level and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA level, providing a high level of accessibility to a far wider range of users..