The Campfire Film Foundation provides schools access to short films which promote understanding and discussion about meaningful issues including many curriculum areas. SCIS provides bibliographic records for these films in the database. Here is a quick guide to accessing a full list of Campfire Films on the SCIS catalogue.
1. Subscribers wishing to bring up a full list of Campfire Films should use ‘Campfire Film Foundation’ as a search term
2. The search will bring up all the titles distributed through Campfire Film Foundation.
3. Click on the title that you are interested in and the full bib record looks like this including summary. Subscribers can use the SCIS number to order bib records using the SCISWeb Orders screen or Z39.50.
This SCIS Asks 2013 presentation by Alan Manifold, Digital and Library Applications Manager at the State Library of Victoria sets the future of library discovery architecture in the context of the evolution of library systems and search. Alan outlined the purpose of metadata as being to:
Authorize
Limit
Evaluate
Categorize
Link
He postulated that the format of the item no longer matters, it is about providing connections between resource and curriculum and resources inside and outside the library. The catalogue which was once designed for inventory control has morphed into a search engine.
Alan posed questions about the evolution in libraries and catalogues in the age of electronic resources, searchable full text and mega-aggregate sites. He touched upon discovery products such as EBSCO,WorldCat Local and the State Library of Victoria’s Primo Central. A useful observation was that while school students need authoritative information as soon as possible, they tend not to require a specific title or edition of a work.
His advice was that SCIS needs to provide connections between resources and curriculum and external indexes and search platforms. He recommends SCIS
continue to provide quality metadata
increase the connecting of resources with curriculum
work on linking controlled vocabularies
highlight diversity of resources and formats and
explore ways to rate materials
Education Services records its thanks to Alan for his clear thinking and recommendations.
SCIS subscribes to LibraryThing for Libraries which has a ‘similar books’ display that matches books based on what members own and tag in the social reading platform LibraryThing.
Look at the SCIS Catalogue screen [subscription required] for a popular title such as ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ and wait for the bottom section of the page to load. There you should see a table of Similar books which will give your students (and teachers) a range of options of further titles to check out. There are 8 suggestions in the table for each title, but by clicking on one of the suggestions you can get another 8 suggestions.
There are also reviews available (77 reviews for Diary of a wimpy kid) – many of them written by students.
Note: This content requires a subscription to LibraryThing for Libraries so the similar books and reviews will not download into your library system with the SCIS catalogue record. Use your school’s SCIS login to give students and teachers access to these ideas via SCIS Catalogue searches.
The new SCIS Catalogue provides a number of ways to search by subject. To choose the most useful subject search option for your purpose, first consider whether you are looking for:
a SCIS Subject Heading or ScOT term to apply to a catalogue record, or
Selecting the subject tab before entering a search term provides the most comprehensive option for a subject heading search, looking for the subject term anywhere in subject, and returning any matching SCIS Subject Headings and ScOT terms in an alphabetical list.
The number of related titles, and details of any broader and narrower terms are provided below the subject heading.
While the default display is set to a list of 20 subject terms per page, this number can be changed to 10, 25 or 50 records per page prior to searching.
The Subject browse drop down option within Basic search returns an alphabetical list of SCIS Subject Headings and ScOT terms that start with this term and also provides a count of titles and details of references.
This is helpful for finding the most appropriate subdivision of a SCIS Subject Heading.
2. TO FIND RESOURCES ON A SUBJECT Note: these search options will provide a list of records, not a list of subject headings.
Subject search within basic search looks for the search term anywhere in any subject heading and returns the records that meet that criteria.
Results are sorted alphabetically by title, but can be changed to a sort by publication date or author using the drop down options at the top right of the search results.
To find the subject heading used for a particular title, click on the title to display the full record and view the subjects. Click through from the full record to investigate that subject heading further.
Advanced search is accessed from the top right hand banner menu of the SCIS Catalogue, and provides the option to combine a subject search with other search parameters. Advanced search will return a list of records, sorted alphabetically by title.
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Screenshots of SCIS Catalogue courtesy of Ex Libris Voyager system
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What 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.
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.
Through the subscription service Syndetics, SCIS offers additional descriptive and evaluative information for its catalogue records where available.
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:
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.
Community 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.
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.