OPAC enhanced

From July 2011 SCIS is pleased to announce the addition of enhanced content services to SCIS OPAC from Syndetic Solutions and LibraryThing for Libraries via a new subscription with Thorpe-Bowker.

ThorpeBowker logoWhat is enhanced content?
The bibliographic records in SCIS OPAC are enhanced to display additional detail about resources; information such as plot summaries, author notes, awards and reviews.

This content is sourced from third party services and delivered to SCIS by linked data based on ISBN.
Scroll down the page to view the external enhanced content fields which often appear slightly after the rest of the SCIS bibliographic record page loads.

Why add enhanced content?
SCIS OPAC is a valuable starting point for school staff looking to identify books, digital resources and websites to support the curriculum.
While providing catalogue records is core business, SCIS recognises the value of enhancing the catalogue record where possible with any information that may help school staff discover and review resources of interest.

What type of enhanced content is available?

Can enhanced content be added to our school library system?
Enhanced content in SCIS OPAC is a display feature only and reviews, tags and other enhanced content will not be downloaded with SCIS records. Some library system vendors have negotiated agreements to provide enhanced content in the local school library system for an extra charge. Consult your vendor if you are interested in enhanced content services for your local system.

How can I provide feedback or ask questions?
We hope you find the additional content valuable for resource selection and that it enhances your discovery of learning resources and fiction in SCIS OPAC. SCIS welcomes feedback and questions about SCIS OPAC enhanced content, either as a comment on this blog, or via email scisinfo@esa.edu.au.

Syndetic Solutions

Through the subscription service Syndetics, SCIS offers additional descriptive and evaluative information for its catalogue records where available. Syndetic logo
Features include:

  • author notes
  • awards
  • books in a series
  • fiction and biography profiles
  • summaries and annotations.

Syndetics reviews

Syndetics delivers edited reviews from authoritative reviewing sources including:

Awards for Harry Potter and the deathly hallows by J.K. Rowling
Awards for Harry Potter and the deathly hallows by J.K. Rowling

Continue reading Syndetic Solutions

LibraryThing for Libraries

SCIS is now a member of LibraryThing for Libraries, an enhancement service that delivers information created and shared by members of the LibraryThing social networking service into library catalogues.

LTFL logoCommunity generated content from LibraryThing for Libraries includes a range of features that provide additional descriptive information about resources in the SCIS catalogue.

Recommendations point to other ‘similar’ titles available within the catalogue.

Similar books to Queen of sorcery / David Eddings
Similar books to Queen of sorcery by David Eddings All rights in images of books or other publications are reserved by the original copyright owners

Links to other editions and translations are provided where applicable.

Tag-based discovery provides tag clouds for resources and tag-based search, drawn from the 75 million tags added to resources by LibraryThing members.

LibraryThing reviews are sourced from the LibraryThing customer base around the world – a diverse community of readers, taggers and reviewers.

Individuals or libraries registered with LibraryThing will be able to add their own reviews through the SCIS OPAC interface and share these for the benefit of all SCIS and LibraryThing users.

A short introduction to LibraryThing provides useful information to individuals interested in joining the LibraryThing community.

Please note: LibraryThing’s terms of use exclude children under 13 from joining. Children over 13 years of age require parent/guardian permission.

Connections 77

You can now read the latest issue of Connections online. Copies have been mailed to all Australian schools.

Teacher librarians and the networked school community

Everyone knows everyone!
Everyone knows everyone!, image by arianamedstudent, licence: CC-by

Mal Lee and Lyn Hay present their view of the evolution facing schools and the role of the information centre professional.

Schooling worldwide is in the process of evolving from a traditional paper-based operational mode to one that is digital and networked. The opportunities being opened daily for the astute, proactive information professional prepared to embrace and lead ongoing change are immense.

Natural disasters and disaster plans

In recent months many areas of Australia and New Zealand have experienced very serious natural disasters. These natural disasters have had significant impact on schools in the affected areas. Many schools continue to operate in difficult conditions or are temporarily operating off site. This article raises the timely question of school library disaster plans.

Behaviour

Adam Le Good explores the reasons behind unacceptable behaviour (of students and staff) and what we can do to minimise its effect.

Schools and social media

An article adapted from Denis Masseni’s report of a 2010 survey of Victorian school principals entitled ‘Why schools are spooked by social media‘. It discusses the benefits of social media for schools and security and protection issues.

From little things big things grow

The fifth instalment of Nigel Paull’s account of a new BER library at South Grafton Public School, New South Wales in which he describes the enthusiastic response of students to the finished library.

Print complete issue of Connections 77, term 2 2011

Enhanced catalogue content trial

SCIS is trialling additional enhanced content in its online catalogue, including summaries, reviews and other content from Syndetics and LibraryThing for Libraries.

Step through our guided feedback surveyTrial Feedback
We are very interested in your feedback to help us decide on the most appropriate new content to display in SCIS OPAC.

You are welcome to explore the trial database

Notes
The trial catalogue contains a small subset of records from the SCIS database so you will not find a wide range of titles.
Enhanced content in SCIS OPAC is a display feature only and will not be downloaded with SCIS records.

2010 in stats

As we finish the 2010 school year in Australia and New Zealand, and with many libraries completing a stocktake, there may be some interest in statistics for annual reports.

SCIS has a feature in MyProfile that quickly counts the total records that a user has processed during the year.

Take a guess at how many catalogue records you think you have downloaded – then check out your library’s total.

SCISMyProfile500Go to the SCIS website
Click on My SCISWeb to login in
Go to MyProfile on the banner

From the main tab, click on
Records ordered this yearcheck here (may take a few moments to calculate)

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SCIS Vital Statistics

So how has SCIS itself gone this year?

Thanks to our wonderful team of cataloguers, a total of 48,766 resources has been catalogued in 2010 (to 9 Dec)

7,866,341 catalogue records have been processed by SCIS users in 2010 (to 9 Dec) – an average of 151,276 records per week.
What a wealth of resources and literature supporting learning that represents through school libraries!

Would you care to celebrate and share some statistics from your school library’s activities in 2010?

Urgent Z39.50 access message

SCIS Z39.50 IP change Tuesday 23 Nov 2010

All SCIS Z39.50 subscribers should be using the host address name: z3950.scis.curriculum.edu.au as advised on the SCIS Z39.50 help page.

Today, Tuesday 23 November 2010, the Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) is planning to turn off an old IP address (203.24.26.68).

For most SCIS Z39.50 subscribers this should have no impact at all, but for some systems it may require a change to router or firewall as outlined below.

If possible, please test your Z39.50 access to SCIS today to ensure it is working. If it is? Cheer and take no further action.

If you experience the ‘Failed to connect’ or other error message, please contact your library’s technical support in the first instance and provide them with the following router / firewall settings to allow an additional access list as follows:

IP SETTINGS

Source: SCHOOL_IP_ADDRESS_BLOCK/X
Destination: 203.24.26.124/32
Protocol: TCP
Port: 7090

In some cases the system may require a flush of the DNS to remove the old IP address.
Click on the Start button (bottom left of Windows computer)
‘Start’ -> ‘Run’ -> type the command ipconfig /flushdns (note the space between ipconfig and /)
and press <Enter>

CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this process, or require further assistance at any stage, please contact the SCIS helpdesk
By email: scisinfo@esa.edu.au
By phone: 1800 337 405 (free call within Australia outside Melbourne)  or +61 3 9207 9600 or +61 8 8334 3209

SO WHAT IS Z39.50?

An introduction to Z39.50 is the subject of a separate blog post.

End of an era for QLD

On 18 November 2010, on advice from the Queensland Department of Education and Training’s Library Services, SCIS sent out an email to Queensland schools to inform them that the Department will be discontinuing in-house SCIS cataloguing services as of 10 December 2010. The in-house cataloguing service has for many years catalogued resources sent in by Queensland schools, as well as providing support and training in use of SCIS.

Access to SCIS for QLD government schools

The Department will continue to provide ongoing support for Education Queensland schools to access SCISWeb and retrieve catalogue records via a bulk service subscription to SCIS for all Queensland government schools.

Cataloguing of Queensland school resources

Education Services Australia will continue to provide cataloguing services. We are currently investigating options for schools who wish to send resources to be catalogued and to ensure Queensland resources continue to be added to the SCIS database in a timely manner. As soon as we have more information we will advise schools.

Questions

If you have further questions about SCIS cataloguing services, please email the SCIS cataloguers at catinfo@esa.edu.au, or call 1800 337 405.
For any SCIS login problems or general SCIS enquiries, please email scisinfo@esa.edu.au, or call 1800 337 405.

Farewell and thanks to the QLD SCIS cataloguing agency

We would like to acknowledge the outstanding service that the Queensland Department’s Library Services have provided to SCIS and Queensland schools over many years. According to statistics available since 1996 a total of 25,550 learning resources have been catalogued by the QLD agency, an average of 1,825 records per year.

Particular thanks to the most recent team members Mary Gough, Frances Todd and Debbie Trollip and to all those over the years who have been involved in this team including Mary Lincoln, Edwina Dunn, Sam Andreata, Lisa Dorney, Jan Johnson, Peggy Hebblethwaite and June Richardson.

Feel free to record your experiences of the team and its service in the comments area or send us an email.

Strategic review of SCIS

In June 2010 we invited SCIS subscribers to respond to a user survey, as part of a strategic review of SCIS. This review is being undertaken by library consulting company Libraries Alive! The review is to develop strategies to ensure that SCIS continues to meet the needs of its users into the future.

Strategic planning helps future direction
Strategic planning helps future direction

We were delighted to receive more than 1300 responses, which is a high response rate for a survey. Thank you to all the schools who took time to provide us with their views. Your comments clearly show that time savings are fundamental to the appeal of SCIS.

The consultants have delivered a draft report which notes the many benefits our customers experience using SCISWeb. These include school-ready subject headings, consistent quality records, effective support and use of the database to identify materials for purchase or classroom use. More information about the outcomes of the review will be provided here in our blog when the final report is available.

SCISWeb enhancements

We are delighted to let you know about some recent enhancements to SCISWeb.

  1. Book cover images are now supplied by a daily online process rather than in monthly batches. This enhancement makes it more likely that you will get matching cover images for recently catalogued items when an order is first placed.
  2. Some SCIS subscribers like to print out the results of their orders and we had requests for the print format to be improved from Internet Explorer. An enhancement has been made so the print output is now in a clear readable font.
  3. Another change is to the link colours. These are now consistent with link colours on the SCIS public web pages. This enhancement will be particularly useful in keeping track of activity on the create orders page, as links that you have followed will be a different colour and the fonts are easier to read.

Many enhancements have been made as a result of our subscribers suggestions. Using Contact SCIS  from any SCIS web page provides an opportunity for you to let us know if there is a change you would like to see, or you can add your comments to this blog.