The month of October is International School Library Month. This year’s theme is reading for global peace and harmony. SCIS Cataloguing Team Leader Ceinwen Jones has some great suggestions for developing your library collections in support of this theme.

On first impressions, the International School Library Association seems to be setting some lofty aims for this year.

But isn’t reading for global peace and harmony what teacher librarians have been promoting since school libraries began? That is, providing materials that give students a chance to be transported to other worlds, and generating knowledge, understanding and appreciation for achievements, peoples, cultures and lives that are different to their own.

This ongoing work is surely a powerful and important step towards global peace and harmony.

What, then, is the best way to focus our resources on better achieving this goal? First, we must ensure our collections reflect the diversity of our communities, both local and global. By providing and promoting access to a variety of voices and perspectives, we can celebrate the ways diversity enhances our lives.

Here are five recently catalogued titles reflecting diversity, easily found using the search function in the SCIS database – an excellent tool for developing your collection!

Indigenous Australian history from the perspective of a First Nations female historian

Sister girl: Reflections on Tiddaism, identity and reconciliation

Jackie Huggins

SCIS number: 5396925

A new edition of Murri historian and activist Jackie Huggins’s seminal Tiddaist classic, featuring timely and compelling speeches and essays. The pieces in this collection represent almost four decades of writing, including essays, speeches and interviews. They combine both the public and the personal in a bold trajectory tracing one Murri woman’s journey towards self-discovery and human understanding. As a widely respected cultural educator and analyst, Huggins offers an Aboriginal view of the history, values and struggles of Indigenous people. Sister Girl reflects on many important and timely topics, including identity, activism, leadership and reconciliation. It challenges accepted notions of the appropriateness of mainstream feminism in Aboriginal society and of white historians writing Indigenous history. Jackie Huggins’s words, then and now, offer wisdom, urgency and hope.

Learning about pronouns

The pronoun book

Chris Ayala-Kronos and Melita Tirado

SCIS number: 5415913

They, she, he … all together, us! Join along in this vibrant board book’s joyful celebration of people and their pronouns. How do you know what someone wants to be called? Ask! This lively board book features illustrations of a diverse cast of people and simple text that introduces their pronouns.

Celebrating neurodiversity

Wired differently: 30 neurodivergent people who you should know

Joe Wells and Tim Stringer

SCIS number: 5411451

Covering the spectrum of neurodiversity, the book features a range of inspirational people, from actors and entertainers, to athletes and activists, and shows young neurodiverse readers that often what makes you different can be your key to success. The chapters feature biographies that expand to cover a broad range of themes, such as the importance of lived experience in discussions of neurodiversity, challenging stereotypes, representation and creativity.

A celebration of our diverse world

A world for me and you: where everyone is welcome

Uju Asika and Jennie Poh

SCIS number: 5408759

Imagine a world where everyone looks identical, where all food tastes the same, where we all speak the same language. A world that is … well, pretty boring. This picture book encourages inclusion, acceptance and kindness, and invites readers to imagine the world as a vast library with room on the shelves for everybody’s story. It is a celebration of our incredibly diverse world as it really is: home to 195 countries, thousands of different cultures, 10 million colours, 6,500 different languages and 4,300 religions.

Diversity toolkit for teachers and librarians

Infobase’s diversity toolkit

edited by Sam Elkin [and three others]

SCIS number: 5419894

Celebrating diversity in the community helps foster a sense of respect, equity and inclusion. This website gathers a wealth of content and digital tools – including expert-led webinars, blogs and relevant Infobase resources – to empower users with fresh insights, information and practical strategies.

At SCIS, we’re constantly cataloguing new resources of all kinds, and we love letting our community know about any free resources. With the help of our friends at Infobase, we’ve created a brand new list of free sacred texts, which are useful for schools offering senior subjects such as Texts and traditions (Vic), Studies of religion (NSW, ACT), Religion and life (WA), Religion studies (SA, NT), Religion in society (Tas) and Study of religion (Qld).

If you have any free texts you would like SCIS to catalogue, you can ask us to add them to our database by submitting a cataloguing request.

Use the below SCIS numbers in the left-hand column to search for and download the resources from our database.

 

5414903	American Hero Myths	Native American
5414918	Babylonian Legends of the Creation	Babylonian
1311209	Bhagavad Gita as It Is	Hinduism
5414960	Book of Mormon	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
5415607	Book of Shadows	Wiccan religion
5415455	Bulfinch’s Mythology	Greek and Roman mythology
5415418	Concerning Christian Liberty	Christianity
5415427	Daodejing	Daoism
5415436	Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa	African wisdom stories
5415568	Hebraic Literature, translations from the Talmud, Midrashim, and Kabbalah	Judaism
5415449	History of the Reformation in Scotland	Christianity
5415581	Holybooks.com
5418406	Hymns of the Eastern Church	Christianity
1316415	Internet Sacred Text Archive
5415556	Legends of the Gods: The Egyptian Texts	Ancient Egyptian mythology
5415580	More Jataka Tales	Buddhism
5418364	Most Holy Book (Kitabi aqdas)	Bahai faith
1587116	Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome	Greek and Roman mythology
5415615	Myths and Legends of China	Chinese mythology
5415810	Myths and Legends, The Celtic Race	Celtic mythology
5415628	No Cross, No Crown	By William Penn
5415634	Popol Vuh	Quiche Maya of Guatemala
5415676	Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts	Mayan
5415882	Rubaiyat	Islamic mysticism and Sufism
5415950	Sayings of the Fathers (Pirke Aboth)	Judaism
5415853	Selections From the Writings of the Bab	Babi religion, Bahai faith
5418856	Siri Guru Granth Sahib	Sikhism
5415865	Songs of Kabir	Islam, Hinduism, Sihkism
5415876	South African Folktales	African folktales
5416171	Summa Theologica, Part III	Roman Catholic
5416228	Táin bó Cuailnge	Celtic mythology
5416193	The Bible, Douay Rheims Version	Christianity
5416333	The Bible, King James Version	Christianity
5416119	The City of God, Volume I	Christianity
5416122	The City of God, Volume II	Christianity
5418322	The Four Books	Confucian
5415972	The Imitation of Christ	Christianity
5415730	The Indian Fairy Book	Native American
5415811	The Institutes of the Christian Religion	Christianity
5414944	The Kitáb-i-Íqán	Bahai faith
5415701	The Myths of the North American Indians	Native American
5415849	The Quran	Islam
5415689	The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi	Hopi myths
5418316	Tibetan Book of the Dead	Buddhism

When I tell people what I do, I often find that the general impression of librarians (and cataloguers, in particular) is that the job must be a bit boring, but at least we get to read books all day.

Some of this is true – tackling that pile of maths textbooks can get a little dull. However, sometimes my to-do list contains a real gem among the everyday humdrum.

To give you an idea of what these diamonds in the rough look like, I’ve put together a list of some of the more provocative resources that have recently punctuated my days with both intrigue and humour.

1. Tazzie the turbo chook finds her feet
   SCIS no: 5410326

Australian picture books have delighted me ever since I read Harry the hairy-nosed wombat as a child. My latest happy find was Tazzie the turbo chook finds her feet by Sonia Strong. I had not previously been aware of the existence of this Tasmanian native-hen known affectionately as the ‘turbo chook’. (Apparently this flightless bird has been clocked running at more than 50 km/h, although that may be an exaggeration.) The artwork is a delight as well. I was only sorry that, as I did not have the book in hand, I couldn’t read about how Tazzie managed to defeat the nasty feral cat.

2. Zelensky: the story. The country’s top comic
   SCIS no: 5408453

The resources that schools ask SCIS to catalogue vary widely and often include videos. I recently catalogued a documentary biography of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It was fascinating to see a former TV star presented as an effective president at a time of invasion. The contrast between footage of his comedy career, and his current role was striking.

3. Poo, spew and other gross things animals do!
   SCIS no: 5397452

When working with resources aimed at children, it can help to have an ‘earthy’ sense of humour. I was recently called upon to catalogue a CSIRO publication called Poo, spew and other gross things animals do! written by Nic Gill and Romane Cristescu, with illustrations by Rachel Tribout. This book delivers on the promise of the title, describing in delightfully disgusting detail the many and varied products of animal digestion.

4. The mapmaker
   SCIS no: 5410486

The highlight of my cataloguing work today happened to be a graphic novel by an up-and-coming Australian author. The mapmaker, by Ben Slabak and illustrated by Francesca Carità, is the first volume in a series. It is a tale of pirates and magic in a parallel Earth during the age of discovery. Appropriate for all ages.

5. Wombat can’t sing
   SCIS no: 5400579

I will round out my list with another Australian picture book, Wombat can’t sing by Katie Stewart. Wombat would like to make people happy, like his friend Fantail whose singing is a delight. Wombat’s attempts to learn to sing are not very successful, even with the help of his friends. He eventually finds his own way of making others happy. The artwork showing the animals and birds featured is beautiful, and I got a good chuckle at the image of Wombat trying to sing like Frog.

Justin Healey reflects on editing and publishing the Issues in Society series, after recently announcing the impending closure of The Spinney Press.

In late May this year, The Spinney Press released its final print and digital editions in the popular Issues in Society resource series after 30 years and 484 volumes.

Volumes 479–484 are the last six titles in the series and represent some core topics of concern over the years: Asylum seekers and refugees, Indigenous health and wellbeing, Family trends and changes, Youth crime and justice, Self-harm and suicide prevention, and Gender and equality.

In recent days, I have been overwhelmed by kind farewell email messages from school librarians, some of whom have supported the series since it began in 1992 when it was rather short-sightedly called Issues for the Nineties! (The series became Issues in Society in 1998.)

The publishing business is in the process of gradually closing down, due to family reasons. Chief among them is the need to care more for my delightful teenage daughter who lives with complex disability and health issues.

It has been an honour and a privilege to produce the Issues in Society series for so long – initially in tandem with my mother Kaye Healey as editor for 8 years, then myself as editor/publisher for the last 22 years – along with the invaluable expertise of a small team of long-term colleagues.

Issues in Society has long enjoyed loyal and trusted subscriber support from secondary schools around Australia. When Digital Editions were introduced back in 2011, schools embraced them with enthusiasm. The pairing of print and ebook editions ensured that anyone in a school could have easy and affordable access to our issues.

As you may already know, every Issues in Society title consists of a thoroughly researched compilation of the best available content on current social issues topics. I must acknowledge the thousands of contributors to our books over three decades, who all gave permission to reproduce their works in our resources. To our authors from the media, government and non-government organisations, lobby groups, academia, and to our creative cartoonists, we salute them!

I have explored an immensely diverse array of topics: the perennial debates on voluntary euthanasia and drug law reform; the cumulative consequences of climate change; human rights concerns such as racism and Australia’s treatment of refugees; contemporary concerns like our nation’s relations with China; sexual consent and harassment; and the ethics of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. The list of fascinating topics is indeed long.

I have been asked over the years what has made The Spinney Press such a long-term independent presence in the educational publishing industry. I think it really comes down to having established a unique niche by covering current topics which traverse school curricula and fill the gaps in many a syllabus. And we have been nothing if not current, curious and consistent!

I feel a great sense of pride at the sustained relevance and longevity of the Issues in Society series. And I feel satisfied that so many school libraries will still be able to engage their readers with their legacy collection of titles, which will continue to provide an overview on issues in our society for years to come.

By Justin Healey, Editor & Publisher, The Spinney Press.

The Spinney Press will continue to trade over the next 6 months and offer customer sales support for all backlist Issues in Society print and Digital Editions – via email and online.

If your school library needs to download and save new or past Digital Editions from The Spinney Press website, please ensure you access your web account before 31 December 2022.

You can find the SCIS numbers for the most recent editions below:

1. Family trends and changes: 5393755
2. Gender and equality: 5393752
3. Self-harm and suicide prevention: 5393736
4. Self-harm and suicide prevention: 5393735
5. Youth crime and justice: 5393734
6. Youth crime and justice: 5393727
7. Family trends and changes: 5393707
8. Indigenous health and wellbeing: 5393761
9. Indigenous health and wellbeing: 5393638
10. Asylum seekers and refugees: 5393633
11. Asylum seekers and refugees: 5393634
12. Gender and equality: 5393739

 

Indigenous resources to add to your school library collection

To celebrate National Reconciliation Week 2022, the SCIS team has created a list of wonderful new Indigenous resources catalogued over the last year. Whether your students are into science, history, sport, art, dance or just love reading great stories, there’s something for everyone here. If you have a SCIS subscription, use the SCIS number provided below to find and download the catalogue records into your library catalogue.

Primary school resources

Title: Story doctors
Author: Boori Monty Pryor
Illustrator: Rita Sinclair
SCIS number: 5378457

Summary: From the very first stories and art, to dance, language and connection with the land here, Boori offers a rich account of Australia’s true history. This is an illustrated celebration of the power of storytelling, how nature connects us, and the truth that the medicine needed for healing lies within us all.

Title: Hello and welcome
Author: Gregg Dreise
SCIS number: 5354188

Summary: This picture book celebrates Australia’s Indigenous heritage and the diversity we enjoy today. Hello and welcome to our corroboree. Hello and welcome to our gathering. Father Sky, Mother Earth, together here with me. Different colours, different people, together in harmony.

Title: Indigenous Australia for kids
Author: Larissa Behrendt
SCIS number: 5376598

Summary: The Indigenous peoples who live in what we now call Australia have extraordinary histories. Here you can learn about their cultures and how they’ve shaped modern Australian society with this fun and fascinating guide to the economies, art, spirituality and politics of the First Nations peoples. You can learn about things like The Dreaming, what a corroboree is and how Australia’s past shapes the realities that First Nations people experience today. Discover the Indigenous Australian culture that surrounds you and how you can contribute to a world we all aspire to live in.

Title: Heroes, rebels and innovators: inspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from history
Authors: Karen Wyld and Jaelyn Biumaiwai
SCIS number: 5364825

Summary: These seven stories are about important Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from history. Each colourful spread in this illustrated book tells a story.

Title: Somebody’s land: welcome to our country
Authors: Adam Goodes, Ellie Laing
Illustrator: David Hardy
SCIS number: 5375433

Summary: For thousands and thousands of years, Aboriginal people lived in the land we call Australia. The land was where they built their homes, played in the sun, and sat together to tell stories. When the white people came, they called the land Terra Nullius. They said it was nobody’s land. But it was somebody’s land.

Somebody’s land is an invitation to connect with First Nations culture, to acknowledge the hurt of the past and to join together as one community with a precious shared history as old as time.

Title: The story of Australia, First people – 1805
Author: William Finch
SCIS number: 1997864

Summary: Come with Australian Geographic on a story through time as we explore the early history of our nation, including the First Nations peoples and their culture, the arrival of the Europeans and the First Fleet, the development of the penal colony, the spread of European settlement and their documented clashes with Indigenous peoples.

Title: The first scientists: deadly inventions and innovations from Australia’s First Peoples
Author: Corey Tutt
Illustrator: Blak Douglas
SCIS number: 5382399

Summary: Have you ever wondered what the stars can tell us? Did you know the seasons can be predicted by looking at subtle changes in nature? Maybe you have wondered about the origins of glue or if forensic science is possible without a crime scene investigation.

Australia’s First Peoples have the longest continuing culture on Earth and their innovation will amaze you as you leaf through the pages of this book, learning fascinating facts and discovering the answers to life’s questions. In consultation with communities, Corey tells us of many deadly feats, from bush medicine to bush trackers, that are today considered ‘science’, and introduces us to amazing scientists, both past and present. The breadth of ‘sciences’ is incredible with six main chapters covering astronomy, engineering, forensic science, chemistry, land management and ecology.

The first scientists passed on the lessons of the land, sea and sky to the future scientists of today through stories, song and dance, and many of these lessons are now shared in this book.

Title: Macquarie junior atlas of Indigenous Australia
Authors: Bill Arthur and Victoria Morgan
SCIS number: 5394348

Summary: The Junior atlas of Indigenous Australia is a unique tool for students in upper primary and early secondary years to explore and gain understanding of the lives and cultures of Australia’s First Peoples. An atlas can represent – in graphic form – a pattern of human activities in space and time. This second edition of the Macquarie atlas of Indigenous Australia opens a window onto the landscape of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives, from over 60,000 years ago to the present time.

Title: Open your heart to country
Author: Jasmine Seymour
SCIS number: 5405428

Summary: A moving account of reconnection to Country from a First Nations perspective. Sharing the nourishing power of returning home and being immersed in the language of Country, this picture book invites readers to reflect on the importance of place, not only for First Nations peoples, but for everyone.

Title: Island places! The Torres Strait
Author: Sharlene Coombs
Illustrator: Dean Maynard
SCIS number: 5388341

Summary: Come on a journey of discovery and explore what makes the Torres Strait and its First Nations people so special – from their seafaring way of life and skilful fishing abilities to their traditional music and dance customs. Australia has some special places full of history and culture, and the Torres Strait is one of them!

Title: Uncle Finny’s war: the forgotten soldier
Author: Nigel Allsopp
Illustrator: June Hintz
SCIS number: 5364325

Summary: Finny grew up on a station in central Australia. He worked as a stockman and could ride a horse better than any man. When the First World War began, Finny tried to join the army, but Aboriginal people were not allowed. As the war continued, the government restrictions were eased so Aboriginal people and other men of colour were allowed to enlist. Finny was one of the first to sign up to the Light Horse Regiment.

Title: Born to run
Author: Cathy Freeman
Illustrator: Charmaine Ledden-Lewis
SCIS number: 5375604

Summary: As a little girl, Cathy Freeman had only had one dream – to win a gold medal at the Olympics. At 27 years of age, that dream came true. At the Sydney 2000 Games, she crossed the finish line, won a gold medal for Australia and became a national hero.

How did she go from being a little girl who loved to run to an inspiration to people around the world? Cathy tells her story about where self-belief, hard work and the power of a loving family can take you.

Secondary school resources

Title: Australia Day
Author: Stan Grant
SCIS number: 1997956

Summary: In Australia Day, Stan Grant’s long-awaited follow-up to Talking to My Country, Stan talks about our country, who we are as a nation, the Indigenous struggle for belonging and identity in Australia and what it means to be Australian. A sad, wise, beautiful, reflective and troubled book, Australia Day asks the questions that have to be asked, but that no-one seems to be asking. Who are we? What is our country? How do we move forward from here?

Title: The boy from Mish
Author: Gary Lonesborough
SCIS number: 1998064

Summary: A sensitive coming-of age-story, filled with vivid descriptions of landscapes and clashes between First Nations’ cultures and modern Australia. This is a vital story for young people and provides a perspective that has been missing in Australian literature for too long.

Title: Tell me why: for young adults
Author: Archie Roach
SCIS number: 1995958

Summary: Archie Roach tells the story of his life and his music. Aged only two when he was forcibly removed from his family, and brought up by a series of foster parents until his early teens, Archie’s world imploded when he received a letter that spoke of a life he had no memory of. It took him almost a lifetime to find out who he really was.

Title: My spare heart
Author: Jared Thomas
SCIS number: 5405270

Summary: Phoebe’s non-Indigenous mother, a busy event manager, and her father, an Aboriginal man and uni lecturer, have split up and she’s moved to sleepy old Willunga with her dad and his new health-obsessed girlfriend. It’s only a few kilometres from Phoebe’s old friends and the city, but it feels like another world. Her new school is full of hippies, but some of the kids are cool and the local basketball team is tight, and before long Phoebe’s fitting in. But as her mum becomes increasingly unreliable, Phoebe’s grades begin to suffer, her place on the basketball team is under threat and her worries spiral out of control. Phoebe can’t tell her friends and is worried her dad will get angry, but pretending everything is fine is breaking her heart. How can she help her mum without tearing her family apart?

Title: Exo-dimensions
Author/illustrator: Seraphina Newberry
Colourist: Justin Randall
SCIS number: 5376038

Summary: Mutants, cyborgs, failed clones and emotional wounds. This book is a ride into central Australian Indigenous creation stories woven through family relationships, honour and sheer adventure. This story unsettles linear time as the past catches up with the future and vice versa while the present reveals itself in intimate moments of connection, loss and mayhem.

Title: Fire country: how Indigenous fire management could help save Australia
Author: Victor Steffensen
SCIS number: 1957588

Summary: Fire Country is an account from Indigenous land-management expert Victor Steffensen on how the revival of Indigenous fire practices, including improved ‘reading’ of country and undertaking ‘cool burns’, could help to restore our nation.

Title: Swallow the air
Author: Tara June Winch
SCIS number: 1998719

Summary: A loss in the family leads to a journey of self-discovery that centres around finding oneself through connection with other people. Swallow the air is a startling debut from Tara June Winch that creates a strong emotional connection to the landscapes of Australia and the cultures of the people who inhabit them.

Title: After Australia
Author: Michael Mohammed Ahmad
SCIS number: 1975568

Summary: Climate catastrophe, police brutality, white genocide, totalitarian rule and the erasure of black history provide the backdrop for stories of love, courage and hope. In this unflinching new anthology, twelve of Australia’s most daring Indigenous writers and writers of colour provide a glimpse of Australia as we head toward the year 2050.

Title: The white girl
Author: Tony Birch
SCIS number: 1988353

Summary: Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves.

Title: The end of the game
Author: Michael Fiddian
SCIS number: 5394659

Summary: This novel tackles one of the big issues for Australian sport and society by highlighting how a young Aboriginal footy (Aussie Rules) player is revered for his skills on-the-field, versus how he is often treated as one of the young male Aboriginal men in his town.

The Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS) acknowledges the Eastern Kulin Nation, Traditional Custodians of the land on which our head office stands and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We recognise the Traditional Owners of Country across Australia, and their continuing connection and contribution to lands, waters, communities, and learning.

The theme for National Reconciliation Week 2022 is Be brave. Make change. SCIS recognises our responsibility to work for national progress in reconciliation and we are committed to continuing to make changes in our data for the benefit of all.

SCIS cataloguing standards recognise the rich and special nature of Indigenous communities in society. As an Australian and New Zealand focused database, we have some unique cataloguing standards in our database that recognise the Māori and Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Dewey Decimal Classification and book numbers

To give emphasis and a shorter number to religion, spirituality and creation stories of the Australian Aboriginal people, the permanently unassigned Dewey number 298 is used.

For works where the book number would, if built according to SCIS Standards, be ABO and covers topics on Australian Aboriginal peoples, substitute the letters ABL.

SCIS Subject Headings List (SCISSHL)

Resources on specific indigenous peoples are entered under their collective name, for example, Māori, Torres Strait Islanders, Aboriginal peoples.

Alternative terms for Aboriginal peoples, including First Nations (Australia), First peoples (Australia), Indigenous Australians have been added to the SCISSHL reference structure. This enables retrieval of resources using the variety of terms in current usage.

SCISSHL has provision to create names of specific groups of Iwi (Māori peoples) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Names of most major Māori tribes and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are already embedded into the SCIS subject authority file.

Māori terms where applicable are authorised, for example, Waka, Wharenui, Te Reo Māori.

Reconciliation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia is an allowed heading, along with Stolen generations.

SCIS Standards are always changing and adapting to meet our school library communities’ expectations. We welcome feedback; the SCIS Standards Committee is happy to receive and review suggestions from our school library community. Suggestions and comments can be sent to help@scisdata.com.