Fostering Respect in Australian Schools through SCIS Authority Files

In today’s educational landscape, nurturing inclusivity in schools is of increasing importance. At SCIS, we’re deeply committed to fostering diversity and respect within the educational community, and we have recently taken a significant step in this direction by enhancing SCIS Authority Files.

We have now integrated AustLang terms into SCIS Authority Files. AustLang is an extensive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language database that utilises the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) catalogue of language terms.

SCIS Authority Files play a central role in supporting learning and exploration through library catalogue searches, providing ‘see’ and ‘see also’ results to help users find the information they need.

Why is this development so crucial? The inclusion of AustLang terms means that school communities will see search results categorised by terms that appropriately name Australian languages, helping them understand how to respectfully refer to the resources they are looking for.

For educators, it offers a valuable resource, in line with the Australian Curriculum v.9, to help teach the importance of cultural diversity and respect to their students. It also encourages teachers to incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander terms in their teaching, embedding a deeper understanding of Australia’s diverse culture into education.

Over 5000 schools across Australia use SCIS Authority Files. AustLang headings are now available to subscribing schools through our September Authority Files release. This update can be downloaded via our website, or automatically imported through our API for Accessit, Oliver and Athenaeum users.

If you don’t currently subscribe to SCIS Authority Files, you can contact our friendly customer service team at help@scisdata.com for more information. You can also sign up for our FREE March 2024 webinar to find out more about what SCIS Authority Files are, and how they can benefit your school library:

Sign Up Today

Enhance your library collection with digital content

Most subscribers use SCIS Data to download records for books and other physical items that they would like to make available in their library catalogue.

But, with over 100,000 records available for websites, apps, ebooks, audiobooks, and digital videos, it is also the perfect tool to help build your digital collection.

This blog post looks at the benefits of including digital content in your library catalogue, and how SCIS supports this.

Continue reading Enhance your library collection with digital content

SCIS Catalogue features

Have you checked out the new SCIS Catalogue launched last week?
As well as a fresh look, there are a number of features that will be appreciated by SCIS users.

Search filters

The search limits available in previous versions of SCIS OPAC are still available (year, place, type, format and language), but search limits have been supplemented in this version of the Catalogue by the ability to filter the results following your initial search. These filters are found in the right hand column of the search results page.

SCIS Catalogue filter options
Search filters

Log in to the SCIS Catalogue and try the filters on a search for World Cup.

If you have requests for other filters you would like to see included as default, please let us know.

Timeout warning

A new timeout countdown feature alerts you if your search session has been idle for some time and is about to be reset.
Extension to the timeout period is also being trialled following a server upgrade.

Accessibility

The Voyager 7.0 WebVoyáge user interface was developed to comply with international industry accessibility standards.

Mobile devices

The new SCIS Catalogue is designed to display well and resize for use on various mobile devices.

Technical infrastructure

The SCIS Catalogue is now on a separate server at address: http://opac.scis.curriculum.edu.au which means it can function independently in the event of downtime on other SCIS services such as SCISWeb. If your network settings or firewall need to be changed as a result, please contact SCIS for the IP address of this server.

New SCIS Catalogue

From 3 October 2011 the SCIS catalogue will undergo a major upgrade.

This involves implementation of

Design concept for SCIS catalogue
  1. a new version of the Voyager library system which underpins the SCIS service
  2. a new, more intuitive interface design for the SCIS Catalogue
  3. a new server platform.

We will endeavour to keep disruptions to a minimum during this time.

You will be able to follow the progress of the upgrade via:

  • news postings on the SCIS website
  • the SCIS twitter account and
  • email messages to subscribers.
    Please ensure you have a valid email address registered with SCIS so that we can keep you informed. Simply log in to SCISWeb,  and go to My Profile to add or update your email address.

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.

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.

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.

Website ordering tool in SCIS

SCISWeb has a new feature!

For quite some time SCIS has made a list of all websites added to SCIS each month available in Special Order Files for all SCISWeb subscribers. Websites added to SCIS are evaluated for their educational content, and with the new SCIS websites  tool they can be much more easily previewed and ordered as either a monthly download file, or by selecting a date range of your choice.

Check out our demo below to see how easy it is to download SCIS Website records with the new websites ordering tool.

SCIS Website Special Orders from scis on Vimeo.