Using the Search Portal

Sophie pages to delete:

What is the Search Portal?

The Search Portal is the place to access learning commons resources such as physical books and kits, eBooks, audiobooks, databases, curricula, hands-on resources, supplemental packs, and inclusive education support materials.

Physical resources are shipped directly to your home if you live outside the area of Lake Country to West Kelowna. Please read the Shipping notes to learn more about how many free shipments you receive.

What is Available to Me?

	HCOS Enrolled and Flex	HCOS Registered
Books, eBooks, audiobooks	✅	✅
Digital Unit Study Kits	✅	✅
Inclusive education books	✅	✅
Curriculum	✅	✅
Gr. 10-12 Extended Loan General Textbooks	✅	✅
Robots	✅	❌
ADST/Steam Resources*	✅	❌
Supplemental packs	✅	❌
Inclusive education packs	✅	❌
Individualized Course Extended Loan Textbooks	✅	❌
Susan Barton Material	✅	❌
Microscopes	✅	❌
Physical Unit Study Kits	✅	❌

*ADST/Steam resources include hands-on items such as Keva planks, K’nex, Lego, Coding kits, Snap Circuits and Cubelets.

How to Log In

Parents

Parents use their Encom username and password to access the Search Portal, Sora, and Subscription passwords. To book physical books and curriculum for a student, log in to the Search Portal under your PARENT account.

If you do not know your Encom password, you can reset it here. If you don’t remember your username, it is usually FirstnameLastname.

Important Note: If you ever change your password in Encom, it will also change for the Learning Commons Search Portal, so please keep track of your login information. It takes 24 hours for the credentials to update.

Students

Students use their Encom username and password to access Sora eBooks and Subscription passwords. They cannot book physical items from the Search Portal but can view them. Bookings must be made on the parent account. If you do not know your Encom password, you can reset it here.

Loan Periods

Make the most of your free shipments! Although there is no minimum, ordering more than one small item at a time is best, as shipping is expensive.

Maximum of 40 items per shipment.
- Maximum of 8 media items, including DVDs, CDs, and CD Rom (part of 40 items max).

Book items well in advance – you can book items up to a year in advance, from September to June.

The loan period for most items is ten weeks, which does NOT include shipping time. You have the FULL ten weeks to use the material!

Extended Loan High School Textbooks (Gr. 10-12) have a loan period of 8 months with an option to renew for one month.

Overlapping bookings are not allowed if they exceed 40 items within the 10-week loan period.

Back-to-back bookings of the same items are not allowed. Items can be renewed twice for four weeks each time, provided the items have not been booked by someone else.

Please contact Kelly Wiebe (shipping@onlineschool.ca) or Raine Oddy (raine.oddy@onlineschool.ca) regarding shipping questions.

Free Shipment Limits

Enrolled Families

Eight free shipments (4 round trips, there and four back) per school year, Aug. 1st. To June 18th.

Maximum of 6 unit study kits out at one time (part of the 40-item max).

Registered Families

Four free shipments (2 round trips, there and four back) per school year, Aug. 1st. To June 18th.

Searching for Resources

First, log in so you can view all resources.

On the Subs/Passwords tab, registered patrons will find a curated list of subscriptions to online research tools, videos, and other educational resources.

To search for an item, use the Search drop-down menu. The default search is by Keyword, but you can search by Title, Author, Subject, Series, etc.

There is also an Advanced search (with And/Not options).

Search Bar

Once you enter a term in the search bar, you will see how many results were returned.

Use the “Refine Your Search” options in the left column to limit your results by Material Type, Audience, Author, and Series.

Note that the “+” sign adds further options to refine your search.
- Check the boxes you want to refine by, such as Books or Kits.

Click on the refresh button to see the refined search.

Topics

Click on “Topics” in the menu bar, which will take you to a visual search of curated lists in alphabetical order.

Topics are organized by subjects and by grades. This is a great way to quickly find a list of items and the unit study kits by grade. (Registered Families can only access the Digital Unit Study Kit Guides online.)

Click on a grade.

On the left, you will see a list of Subjects. Click on a subject to view the list. When you hover over the title, a balloon pops up with information about the title.

Use the arrow keys to go to the next page. You can also change the number of items per page in the top right corner.

Booking Items

Click on a record to see the details.

Click directly on the title to be taken to the Title Details page to book the item.

The Title Record will show how many copies are available and the due date if it is already out.

You can save the item to a list if you don’t want to book just one item at a time or save it to book later.

Note: Even if an item is OUT or on HOLD, you can still book it for future dates (if it is available).

Click Book Item. A calendar will appear.

You will see your unique shipping “Site” on the top right. In this example, the patron is HCOS5, which means they are five shipping days from Kelowna.

The small red numbers indicate how many copies are available each day. Be sure to choose a date that allows the number of shipping days before you want to receive your items. The system will automatically change your date to allow for the correct number of shipping days.

Ensure that the item is available for the 10-week loan period. Patrons cannot book items for shorter periods.

Click on the day you want to receive the item. In this example, Aug. 13th was chosen. Items are loaned for ten weeks, not including shipping. The calendar now shows the entire booking period.

Shipping days are highlighted in dark orange on the calendar (weekends/holidays are not counted as shipping days, so seven shipping days are shown for the HCOS5 zone). The requested date is Aug. 6th.

Click “Book Items”

A pop-up will confirm if your booking went through, and you will receive a confirmation email.

Double-check your dates. The system automatically bumps your booking to the next available date if it is unavailable for ten weeks. If the item is unavailable during the year, you will get a pop-up stating it’s unavailable.

Items can be booked for shorter periods in some instances. Contact Shandra at swiebe@onlineschool.ca or Kelly Wiebe at shipping@onlineschool.ca to inquire about shorter loan periods.

Booking Multiple Items for One Date

Log into the Search Portal

Enter your keyword search term, or click Topics on the menu bar

Click on the Title

Add an item to My Lists by clicking the Save to My Lists button

A pop-up will ask you to create a New Favorite Title. Use dates of shipments or subjects as titles. You can search multiple subjects and add resources to your lists by creating different Titles.

Once you have added all the books to your lists, click the My Lists icon in the menu. You will see all of your lists in the left column.

Items in your lists will be saved so you can add to them anytime.

To save time, use List view (icon in top right corners), and book all items for the same date by clicking the “Book Items” button at the top right of the page.

If you are in grid view, you must click the checkboxes for each item you want to book, then click Book Items.

Choose a date on the calendar and click Book Items. A pop-up will confirm your bookings.

Important note: If any items are unavailable for your original date, they will be bumped to the next available date. Check your Future Bookings list to ensure all items have the same loan period, and cancel any items you do not want. This will avoid using one of your free shipments!

Booking Grade 10-12 Textbooks

For Individualized Course textbooks, click on the Cr. 10-12 Course Extended Loan icon. (Enrolled Students only)

Click on the Gr. 10-12 Enrolled Students icon for other resources.

Click on the Gr. 10-12 Registered Students icon for resources available to registered students.

Manage your Account

You can view due dates, renew, change dates or cancel items online. Please cancel items if your plans change so other families can use the materials.

View Due Dates and Renew Items

Hover over the “My Account” icon, then “My Borrowing,” and select “My Loans.” View the due dates.

Renew one item by clicking the check box on the left or renew all items by clicking Select All.

Click the Renew button.
- Items needed for another patron will not renew.
- The renewal period is four weeks.
- Renew books no sooner than 1 - 2 weeks before they are due, or your loan period will be shortened.

View all of your Bookings for the Year, Cancel or Change Booking Date

Hover over “My Account,” then “My Borrowing,” and then select “Future Booking.”

If you are in List View (upper right icons), enter the “From” and “To” dates (change to June of the school year to see the entire year’s bookings). All of your bookings will be displayed.

- You will see:
  - The booking loan period
  - Shipping to and from days
  - The Cancel button - click to cancel your booking.* No Warning is given, so be sure you want to cancel it!
  - Edit Booking button - click to change your date.

If you are in Grid View, hover over the item record, and the Cancel and Edit buttons will appear.

Fines

Fines are charged for lost or damaged items. The fine can be paid with student funding or invoiced via Paypal.

Avoid fines by:

Keeping kit items together in one area. Ensure the kit bag is not damaged or forgotten when preparing the return shipment

Check all kits for books and items as soon as you receive them. Contact us if anything is missing or damaged.

Prepare packages properly for shipping. Poorly packaged items result in damage!

Please Note: Items borrowed from HCOS should not be shared with other families not registered or enrolled with HCOS. These materials are specifically for HCOS families. You are responsible for replacement costs of all items signed out under your account, regardless of how they are lost or damaged, except for courier issues.

Shipping Policies

Change of Address

If you plan to move or have moved, please update your address in Encom and email Kelly at shipping@onlineschool.ca with the new address so the courier/Canada Post information can be updated.

If you do not update the Learning Commons with a change of address and a shipment is sent to the wrong address, you will be charged for the shipping fee and any lost items. We do not receive updates automatically, so it is your responsibility to notify us! This will ensure your order is not lost or delayed due to the wrong address!

Shipping Outside of Canada

The Learning Commons does not loan items or ship outside of Canada due to shipping costs, limitations of loan periods, and higher risk of damaged/lost items. Families who are travelling or are missionaries have access to online resources.

Returning Items

Call or e-mail to arrange a courier pick up or prepaid return: Kelly Wiebe at shipping@onlineschool.ca or Raine Oddy at Raine.Oddy@onlineschool.ca

If you live outside the courier service area, we will ship by Canada Post and provide prepaid shipping labels for returns.

Items must be packaged in boxes or Tyvek envelopes (save the packaging in which the items were sent!)

Please don’t use paper envelopes as they rip too easily.

Items damaged due to poor packaging will be billed to your account.

Families are responsible for paying for postage to return DVDs, CDs and small items that can be mailed if they cannot be returned with a larger shipment.

Local Patrons

We do not ship locally. Patrons living in Kelowna, Lake Country and West Kelowna will pick up their items from the Learning Commons. Locals can book items out for a shorter period as no shipping time is involved. Contact the Learning Commons to have an item booked for a shorter period.

Learning Commons location:

Hours: Monday – Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.

The Learning Commons is located in the Flex Academy building at 907 Badke Rd, Kelowna, BC, V1X 5Z5.

Park in Visitor Parking spots between the school and the church.

You will see signs for HCOS Learning Commons shipping/receiving. Walk down the driveway beside the school building to the far end until you come to the door with a Learning Commons sign. Please ring the doorbell!

Directions are shared in the map below:

Who do I contact for help?

Shandra Wiebe - Physical account/booking/reference questions. swiebe@onlineschool.ca

Kelly Wiebe - Shipping information shipping@onlineschool.ca

Raine Oddy - Shipping information raine.oddy@onlineschool.ca