Why do we ask for book images?

Written by Deb Cady, SCIS Cataloguing Team

It’s a good day.  You’ve just sent off your request to SCIS for items to be catalogued and moved on to another project.  And then – you get an email asking for images to be sent.  First, you sigh.  Then you say “Oh, sugar!”  Then you think to yourself “But why????”

SCIS relies on a number of sources to catalogue books from an online request.  When we contact you for images, it generally means the ISBN has not been catalogued ANYWHERE in the world.

In order to make the highest quality records for these books, SCIS needs to view certain information about each title.  This information is on the publishing history (or copyright) page.

Example of copyright page.

This page tells us the date, publisher, ISBN and other key information so we can complete your request.  It is, generally, the single best image you can send with any cataloguing request.

Often these requests are made because the resource is part of a special print run. Special prints runs might be books sold through newspapers, a single store, or distributor (Aldi, Big W, QBD, McDonalds, etc.) and are not advertised on the publishers’ webpages.

SCIS knows that it is not always easy for you to send images to us.  It’s not something we ask lightly.  We ask for it because we really need it to provide a quality cataloguing service.

More information on SCIS cataloguing can be found on the SCIS Help page.

Happy cataloguing!

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SCIS (Schools Catalogue Information Service) was created with the aim of providing schools with access to a database of consistent catalogue records created according to agreed national standards, in order to reduce the cost and duplication of effort of cataloguing resources in schools. Since its inception, SCIS has been responsible for improving the quality and consistency of cataloguing materials for schools.

2 thoughts on “Why do we ask for book images?”

  1. Thank you! This is something I will take on board next time i send through a resource that needs cataloguing.

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