SCIS Manager, Pru Mitchell facilitated a workshop on the future of library collections, asking:
Is a collection of resources fundamental to the school library’s role?
What priority should be given to balanced, professionally selected and managed collections in emerging learning environments?
The workshop considered the assumptions behind these questions, reviewed the changes taking place in school library collections, and discussed associated resource and information management challenges.
What issues are schools facing in resourcing the curriculum?
During 2013 SCIS has been conducting informal surveying of school library staff who attend workshops, asking them the free text question: What are your current collection issues?
This survey closed at the end of Term 3 with a total of 85 respondents. The results were then coded, revealing what the researcher saw as 16 distinct issues.
While the frequency of each category being mentioned in a response is shown in the table below, the goal of the pre-survey was to collect a range of responses from which to prepare a more in-depth survey. The fact that respondents were attending a cataloguing professional learning activity at the time of completing this survey question, may well explain the high occurrence of ‘cataloguing’ as an issue.
Collection issues survey responses. Sep 2013
Categories
cataloguing 14%
catalogue records for resources are unavailable or unsatisfactory
e-resources 13%
e-resources are not available, or not managed or used appropriately
time 9%
time to manage resources is limited and/or wasted
library system 7%
system does not meet school’s needs
promotion 7%
resources are not promoted to staff and students
budget 6%
budget for resources is inadequate
staff 6%
staff responsible for managing resources are not doing this effectively or do not exist
technology 6%
technology required to use curriculum resources is not available and/or inadequate
search 5%
finding what resources the school has, and where they are located, is difficult
weeding 5%
weeding of resources does not occur regularly
access 4%
access to resources is inadequate
age of collection 4%
outdated resources are retained
balance 4%
balance between print and digital resources is lacking
collection use 4%
staff and students do not use school resources
OPAC use 3%
staff and students do not use OPAC to find resources
professional learning 3%
professional learning in resourcing the curriculum required
On 16 September 2013, Education Services Australia received advice from the Director-General of the Western Australian Department of Education that the Department will be closing the in-house cataloguing service as of 27 September 2013.
The cataloguing service has for many years catalogued resources sent in by Western Australian schools, as well as providing support and training in the use of SCIS.
Access to SCIS for WA government schools
The Department WILL continue to provide ongoing support for Western Australian government schools to access SCISWeb and retrieve catalogue records via a bulk service subscription to SCIS for all Western Australian government schools.
Cataloguing of Western Australian school resources
Education Services Australia will provide a replacement cataloguing service for Western Australian schools and is currently investigating options for schools who wish to send resources. It is a priority to ensure Western Australian resources continue to be added to the SCIS database in a timely manner. Schools will be advised of the process via email, this blog and on the SCIS website Cataloguing Services page.
Questions
If you have further questions about SCIS cataloguing services, please email the SCIS cataloguers at catinfo@esa.edu.au.
For any SCIS login problems, training or general requests, email scisinfo@esa.edu.au, or call 1800 337 405.
Farewell and thanks to the WA SCIS cataloguing agency
WA cataloguers prior to final ISSC teleconference Sep 2013. Photo by Robin Wake used with permission.
We would like to acknowledge the outstanding service that the Western Australian Department’s e-schooling staff have provided to SCIS and to Australian schools. According to statistics available since 1996 a total of 240,000 learning resources have been catalogued by the WA agency.
Particular thanks to the most recent team members Bev Blackwell, Barbara Carle, Sabina Cull, Tina Hoyland, Charlene Plunkett and Suan Kui Yoong, plus previous members Leonie Samuelsson and Barbara Shardlow, and all those who have supported this team over many years.
Feel free to record your experiences of the team and its service in the comments area or send us an email.
This is a handy feature of SCIS, but remember that SOMEONE has to send the resource to SCIS for it to be catalogued. Our cataloguing services staff would love to receive your unmatched resources.
Hamish Curry constructs an argument and shares his passion for games-based learning within the curriculum. He illustrates how gaming can address learning opportunities across the general capabilities.
Digital Gaming final project study – isolation team – 3 by ario, CC-by-nc-sa 2.0
Belinda Doyle illustrates how Erskine Park High School library promotes and supports literacy and learning through the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge, collaborating with teaching colleagues to meet wider reading outcomes.
SCIS catalogues apps and has introduced the term as a subject heading. Kay Cantwell provides a timely and practical introduction to apps and their management within the educational and library context.
Susan Stephenson aka the Book Chook, explores ThingLink [SCIS 1591721] a new presentation tool, and provides practical examples of how the app can be used in a classroom and assessment environment.
What is an app? App is an abbreviation for application software. Oxford Dictionary defines an app as “a self-contained program or piece of software designed to fulfill a particular purpose; an application, especially as downloaded by a user to a mobile device. The term app came into prominence with the introduction of the mobile devices and smartphones. Generally an app performs one dedicated task, or presents a discrete amount of format.
With the ubiquity of tablets, smartphones and ‘phablets’ and the move towards ‘bring your own device’ in schools, apps are increasingly becoming resources used by students and teachers. GarageBand, Know your skin, iMovie are good examples of apps being used in Education.
Garage Band is an app being used in Schools
Schools are also using dedicated sets of tablets with story making, art creation programs and apps which cover many more curriculum areas. There are periodic table and anatomy apps, language and math apps and many more. To find out more about educational apps Scoop.it! is a good source of information. Android Apps in Education and Apps for learning are two sites to explore.
More and more schools are buying apps and libraries are looking to catalogue these resources so that students and staff need to search in only one place to find school resources.
Apps is a new subject heading introduced to SCIS this term.
Recent SCIS workshops and presentations have focused on the challenges facing school libraries in their management of digital content. As a key service provider and partner with Australian and New Zealand school libraries SCIS is committed to helping schools deal with collection management issues, and provides catalogue records for e-books, websites, apps, audio books, learning objects and digital video.
SCIS, along with the library world globally, is implementing the new Resource Description and Access (RDA) cataloguing standards – the first major change to take place since the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, second edition (AACR2) were released in 1978.
SCIS Standards for Cataloguing and Data Entry 2013 edition
The standards that govern SCIS cataloguing have been rewritten and the new 2013 edition has now been published. This extensive document available as a PDF download from the SCIS Help page, is written for SCIS cataloguing staff and runs to 209 pages. The sections most affected by RDA include:
Section 2: Descriptive cataloguing
Section 5: Standards for specific formats, and
Section 6: MARC coding: Bibliographic records Celebrating the launch of RDA at ALA10 CC-by-nc-sa
SCIS cataloguers will commence using these standards on 1 July 2013. SCIS major decisions
SCIS has consulted with library system providers in Australian and New Zealand school libraries and has decided to move slowly towards full RDA implementation. From 1 July 2013 – 1 July 2014 SCIS will produce hybrid RDA records which continue to use the GMD from AACR2, and which will also retain the 260 Publication field rather than the new 264 field: Production, Publication, Distribution, Manufacture, and Copyright Notice, used by most systems using RDA.
RDA test records
The following records have been added to SCIS so library system providers and SCIS subscribers can test any impact of the change in standards on their systems.
Please note that ISBNs have been removed from these records so they are not accidentally retrieved through SCISWeb or Z39.50. Normal SCIS records will continue to include the ISBN where available.
Judith Way discusses why she saw the need for a digital citizenship blog which reached out to all sectors of her school community. She felt that many students and parents, even if adept at using digital technology and social media, were often unaware of the implications of their digital footprint. She resolved to promote the responsible use of social media and the internet.
Kew High School’s cybersafety/digital citizenship blog. Printed here with permission
Bianca Hewes looks at the traditional classroom and wonders why in a changing world, it remains unchanged despite the creation of virtual learning spaces. She examines the work of Prof. David D Thornburg who identifies four ‘archetypal learning spaces: Campfire, Watering hole, Cave and Life.
Dianne McKenzie discusses how the annual report can be a record of a year’s planning and activity, allowing the Librarian to showcase the diverse roles and activities of the Library. She emphasizes the importance of documenting and collecting data
Meet our new Cataloging Team Leader Soula Kipos, and find out more about SCIS records for e-books and the introduction of the cataloguing standard: Resource Description and Access (RDA).
Anzac Day, 25 April is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand honouring the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli during World War One.
The National Library of Australia’s Trove provides links to digitised newspapers which you can search by State and newspaper title, and their picture library has a wealth of images. See Papers Past for New Zealand newspaper search.
To search for further ANZAC resources in SCIS select a subject search using one of the SCIS subject headings above [SCIS login required].
Our favourite recent addition to SCIS with an ANZAC subject heading is the beautiful picture book Anzac biscuits by Phil Cummings and illustrated by Owen Swan [SCIS 1598353].
