The Thousand Oaks Library has brought to you the Encore Catalog, a discovery platform that makes searching for library resources easier. Look for the Encore icon while in the classic catalog or access Encore at the library's homepage at http://www.tolibrary.org. It is similar to searching in Google and is very easy to use. Just enter a search term into the Encore search box to discover books, videos, spoken words, eBooks, eAudiobooks and journal articles. This is a fabulous way to discover resources on your research topic, especially when you are at the preliminary stages of your research. Read up on any topic and let Encore help to narrow down searches, such as by availability, format, publication year, location and more.

The integration of Research Pro into Encore allows easy discovery of images, newspapers and magazine articles while searching for traditional library printed materials such as books. Besides library materials, Encore also presents the opportunity to search five online databases simultaneously with one simple click. For example, after an initial keyword search in Encore, users can focus their search to find articles on the topic by selecting "Articles"      on the top left hand corner of the search result screen. After clicking on the "Articles" link, the system will automatically search five selected online databases simultaneously using the initial search terms, making the search for articles that much easier. Once logged into Encore, users will not be prompted to log in again to search the online databases, making this a one-stop search. In addition, Research Pro itself can search up to 30 online resources all at once. The partnering of Encore and Research Pro brings extraordinary search power to users, allowing faster and easier access to the vast resources available at the Thousand Oaks Library.