OPAC access

This page covers patron-side OPAC sign-in problems. For staff sign-in, see Sign-in.

The first question: which sign-in method is the patron’s grade configured for?

Open Library level navigation path: Configure then OPAC then Configure and select button: Configure on the card: How Students Visit card. The dialog: Student Sign-In dialog shows the default method and any per-grade methods: email code, name and PIN, tap their name, or students don’t sign in. The patron should see the matching sign-in screen.

If the patron is seeing the wrong sign-in screen (e.g., a self-select grade is showing a PIN field), see “Wrong sign-in screen” below.

Email-code patron not getting the email

The patron entered their email; the OPAC says message: A 6-digit code went to ada@school.edu. It expires in 5 minutes. The email doesn’t arrive.

Confirm the email on the patron record matches what they typed. A typo means no email. The OPAC echoes back the address it sent to.
Check spam at the recipient. First-time senders often land in spam.
Confirm school mail filter isn’t blocking. See Notices for the allowlist guidance.
Email-code is the wrong method for this patron. If they don’t have email access at the OPAC station, the code is impossible to use even if it’s delivered. The fix is to set their grade to PIN instead (and seed a PIN).

PIN patron forgot their PIN

There’s no patron-side “I forgot my PIN” recovery. A staff user resets it from the patron’s detail card:

Open the patron from Library level navigation path: Patrons.
In the card: Library Card card, open the menu beside the field: OPAC PIN and choose menu item: Set PIN… or menu item: Assign random PIN. (The PIN controls will only appear for libraries that use PIN sign-in.)
Tell the patron their new PIN.

See Patron records and Patron sign-in.

The OPAC says message: Too many tries. Ask the librarian, or try again in a few minutes.

Lyra stops accepting PINs and email codes after too many wrong ones, so nobody can guess their way into a patron’s account. Once that happens, even the right PIN or code is refused until the pause ends.

One student on one device, 5 wrong tries in 5 minutes. That student can’t sign in on that device for the rest of the 5 minutes. Other students on the same device, and the same student on other devices, aren’t affected, so a child who locked out the wrong name can still pick their own.
One patron, 10 wrong tries in an hour, from any device. That patron can’t sign in for the rest of the hour.
Email codes can be sent to the same address up to 5 times in 10 minutes.

To let a student with a PIN back in straight away, reset their PIN as described above. A new PIN starts with a clean count. For email-code patrons there is nothing to reset, so they wait out the pause.

A library card isn’t recognized

The student scanned or typed their card and the OPAC says message: That card doesn't work here. Check it's your library card, or ask the librarian. That one message covers every reason on purpose, so a guess learns nothing about which card numbers exist. Check, in order:

The card belongs to a student. Faculty cards don’t sign in to the OPAC; teachers use the emailed code.
The student’s grade signs in by name. The card works only where the grade’s method is Tap their name or Name and PIN, set in dialog: Student Sign-In. A student’s grade is their homeroom’s grade, or the grade their class year puts them in.
The number matches the patron record. The barcode must match exactly, including leading zeros. Compare the number printed on the card with the barcode on the patron’s page.
The camera can read it. The camera reads Code 128, which is what Lyra prints. A card from another system in another symbology won’t scan; typing the number works.

Ten unrecognized cards in ten minutes on one device pause card sign-in there for the rest of the ten minutes.

PIN patron is signing in but immediately bounced

The patron picks their name and enters their PIN, the OPAC shows a brief loading state, then returns to the sign-in screen with no error. This is usually a session-cookie issue.

Confirm the patron’s browser allows cookies for *.lyralibrary.com. Most patron devices do by default, but a heavily-managed school iPad sometimes blocks third-party cookies.
Confirm the OPAC URL is correct. If the patron bookmarked an old URL after a web-address change, the bookmark may now go to a slightly different OPAC that the session cookie doesn’t apply to.

Self-select patron can’t find their name

The self-select flow shows the homeroom roster after the patron picks their homeroom. If their name isn’t there:

Wrong homeroom picked. Click back, pick a different homeroom.
Patron isn’t actually in the homeroom. Open the staff app, find the patron, check their homeroom assignment.
Roster is stale. If you just imported a new roster, refresh the OPAC.

If the patron picks a name but the screen answers message: We couldn't find you in that class., their homeroom assignment changed between the roster loading and their tap — usually a roster sync mid-session. Refreshing the OPAC and picking again is enough.

Faculty always sign in with the 6-digit email code. There’s no PIN option for faculty accounts. If a faculty patron can’t receive their code:

Update their field: Email if it’s blank or wrong, and have them request a new code.
Check spam and the school mail filter as for any email-code patron.

Wrong patrons when students visit with their class

A 4th grader picks “Mrs. Patel” (the 5th grade homeroom) and sees the 5th-grade roster instead of the 4th-grade one.

The cause is that the patron picked the wrong homeroom on the entry screen. The OPAC doesn’t restrict which homeroom a patron can pick; that’s by design.

Two paths if this is happening systematically:

Educate at the desk. “Pick your own homeroom, not your friend’s.”
Switch to On their own. That visit mode has no class-pick screen; when the patron signs in, Lyra looks up their homeroom from the patron record. There’s no chance to pick a wrong homeroom.

The OPAC URL is wrong

Every library has an OPAC at https://opac.lyralibrary.com/{web-address}. The web address comes from navigation path: Configure then OPAC settings.

If the URL you have doesn’t load:

Confirm the web address. A typo lands on the catalog’s own not-found page, headed message: That page isn't here over message: Ask your librarian for your library's web address. A URL with no web address in it at all lands on the same page. Neither offers anything to click: a web address no library answers to has no catalog to send the patron to.
Confirm the account has an active subscription. Billing is account-level, so if the account’s subscription has lapsed, every OPAC in it shows message: This catalog is currently unavailable, with message: Contact your school librarian for help. beneath it instead of the catalog. An account owner resolves billing and the OPAC comes back, but only within the 30-day grace period after the subscription lapsed. Once that passes, the account and its data are permanently deleted and can’t be restored.
Confirm the web address hasn’t changed. Web-address edits change the URL. If you changed it recently, the old bookmark broke. Clearing the web address entirely removes the OPAC URL (it lands on the same not-found page); re-set it to bring the OPAC back. Lyra doesn’t redirect old web addresses to new ones.

Patrons can browse but can’t place holds

The catalog loads, search works, and patrons sign in normally — but button: Place hold is missing from every item, replaced by message: This library isn't taking holds right now.

This is billing, not a hold setting. An account in read-only mode blocks new holds on the OPAC as well as in the staff app. Two states cause it:

Over the patron limit. The subscription is current but the account-wide patron count exceeds its tier cap. Staff also see a red message: Action needed banner.
A lapsed trial. The 30-day trial ended without a plan being chosen. Staff see a message: Read-only mode banner.

Either way an account owner resolves it from Account level navigation path: Billing, and holds come back with no further action. See Over the patron limit.

Two things this is not:

Not a lapsed subscription. A cancelled or past-due account doesn’t reach the catalog at all; patrons get message: This catalog is currently unavailable instead of a browsable OPAC.
Not the patron’s hold limit. That shows button: Hold limit reached on the item and affects only that patron, not everyone.

Cancelling an existing hold keeps working throughout, so a patron is never stuck in a queue they can’t leave.

OPAC homepage is empty or looks wrong

A patron signs in successfully but the homepage shows nothing (or far fewer lists than expected).

The catalog is empty. Most common on a new library; until items are imported, there’s nothing to browse.
All lists are homeroom-restricted to homerooms the patron isn’t in. Open Library level navigation path: Configure then OPAC then Lists as staff; confirm at least some lists are not restricted, or are restricted to homerooms the patron is in.
The library’s visit mode flipped. A library that moved from With their class to On their own shows different homepage content (no homeroom-context lists visible until after sign-in). Confirm the visit mode.