Tag: Subject headings

SCIS asks

SCIS is conducting a consultation workshop in Melbourne on Tuesday 4 December 2012 from 9.00-1.00pm. The consultation aims to engage SCIS and its partners in discussion about future priorities in our support of school libraries.

Spiral sculpture
Spiral, Rena Voronoff, 2007
Photo by Michael Jongen

Twitter hashtag for the day: #scisasks

9.00am Welcome, SCIS update and consultation goals

9.15am Strategic directions

9.45am Resource Description and Access

  • Introduction to RDA and its benefits for education libraries (Renate Beilharz, Box Hill TAFE)
  • Recommended changes to SCIS Standards for Cataloguing (Pam Kadow, SCIS Cataloguing Team Leader)
  • Discussion and questions
    Outcome: Resolutions on RDA implementation dates and process

11.00am Morning Tea

11.30am ScOT and subject access in SCIS

  • Subject authorities looking forward
  • Schools Online Thesaurus (ScOT) in library systems
  • Australian Curriculum alignment opportunities
  • Discussion and questions
    Outcome: Resolutions on research required and timeline

12.15pm Integrating digital collections

  • Challenges of collection building and workflows
  • Priorities for cataloguing digital content
  • Discussion and questions
    Outcome: Recommendations on priority areas for SCIS services

1.00pm SCIS Consultation closes
Participants are encouraged to stay for a light lunch and then join delegates at the keynote session and opening reception for the IDEA 2012 conference at the Sofitel, 25 Collins Street Melbourne.

2.00pm Keynote: The science and technology of learning, Professor Erik Duval, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
3.15pm Afternoon tea
3.45pm Panel: Challenges and opportunities for digital learning including Rhyan Bloor, Digital Education Branch, DEEWR; Rodney Spark, eWorks; Kerri-Lee Krause, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education), University of Western Sydney and Bevan Doyle, Chief Information Officer, Department of Education Western Australia

5.30pm IDEA2012 Reception and Networking

6.30pm IDEA 2012 Day 1 close

Contact scisinfo@esa.edu.au for further information

Which subject search?

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:

  1. a SCIS Subject Heading or ScOT term to apply to a catalogue record, or
  2. resources on a particular subject.

1. TO FIND A SUBJECT HEADING

Subject tab returns term anywhere in subject

Subject tab search

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.

Subject browse returns term at the start of a subject

Basic search: Subject browse

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.

Basic search: Subject returns records with the term anywhere in subject

Basic search: Subject

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

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.

Advanced search by subject and GMD

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Screenshots of SCIS Catalogue courtesy of Ex Libris Voyager system

New SCIS subject headings for electronic devices

The SCIS Information Services Standards Committee met by teleconference on 25 May 2011. The major outcome of the teleconference is a revision of the SCIS subject heading hierarchy covering types of computers and device names.

The New South Wales SCIS agency prepared the original paper which was raised for discussion in February 2011.  As the paper was complex and included many aspects of the subject area of computers and related devices, further discussion and consultation, particularly with the WA SCIS agency was required before the proposal was approved.

New headings for the following categories of devices are now available:

Digital media players
E-book readers
Interactive whiteboards
Laptop computers
Pocket computers
Portable computers
Smartphones
Tablet computers

Most of these headings allow for the construction of further headings for specific devices, such as iPad (Tablet computer) and Kindle (E-book reader).

Further details of the changes will be announced in the term 3 2011 issue of Connections (issue 78).

New and Changed SCIS Subject Headings

The SCIS Information Services Standards Committee (ISSC) recently met for one of its regular teleconferences.  As part of normal teleconference proceedings, proposed changes to the SCIS Subject Headings were discussed and agreed upon.

The changes included 2 new subject headings, Non-government organisations and Case studies, as well as revisions to the reference structures of the terms Matter, Operas, Biology, Evolution and Variation (Biology).

A detailed list of the changes is available from the SCIS website, and if you are a SCISWeb subscriber you can of course review all the above headings and their reference structures in the SCISWeb OPAC, or in Subject Headings Online if you have a subscription to that (Note: you’ll need to login first).

For those of you who download the SCIS Authority Files for implementation of the Subject Headings in your own library system, the newly authorised headings and amended reference structures will be included in the August 2010 Authority File update.

SCIS Information Services Standards Committee (ISSC)

Ever wondered how changes to the SCIS Standards for Cataloguing and Data Entry or SCIS Subject Headings are decided on? Both are the responsibility of the SCIS Information Services Standards Committee (ISSC), which is comprised of representatives from Education Services Australia, members of our agencies in the education departments of Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales, and representatives from the National Library of New Zealand. Members of the ISSC also contribute to the Schools Online Thesaurus (ScOT) discussion group.

The ISSC continually revises the SCIS Standards for Cataloguing and Data Entry and SCIS Subject Headings in order to ensure that they remain in keeping with international standards, whilst also ensuring that schools’ specialised needs are taken into account. Members of the ISSC draw on their experience in providing cataloguing and support services to school libraries and their links to curriculum experts within their organisations in order to provide informed discussion on the adoption of  new or modified headings, alterations to the cataloguing standards and other enhancements to the SCIS service.

The ISSC group conducts regular meetings throughout the year via teleconference, as well as utilising an edna group page which acts as an online forum for the exchange of discussion papers, regular updates and news.

If you have any questions about how SCIS Standards for Cataloguing and Data Entry are implemented in SCIS bibliographic records, or wish to suggest a change to the SCIS Subject Headings we would love to hear from you.  Drop us a line at scisinfo@esa.edu.au – we’re here to help!

Connections issue 72 …

Quentin Blake at Kings Cross St Pancreas, London

…is currently winging its way across the Tasman into New Zealand schools for the first time ever! Those of you in Australian schools  should also be receiving their free print copy shortly, if you haven’t already.

This term’s edition has a reprint of our favourite Quentin Blake poster, ‘The rights of the reader’ for you to pull out and display, and our feature article is by Doug Johnson, Director of media and technology at Mankato, Minnesota Public Schools in the United States, on the need for libraries to respond to the needs of what he refers to as a post-literate society.  How libraries can best support the needs of their users whilst simultaneously responding to current changes in technology is a highly topical, occasionally polarising subject at present, and we’d be very interested to hear some comments from schools on Doug’s article.

We also have a really inspiring article, After school in the library media centre by Bob Hassett, head librarian at Luther Jackson Middle School, also in the States, about how he and his library team have fostered local support to implement and maintain an after-school Gamer’s club in their school library, and some of the positive flow-on effects this ‘un-traditional’ activity has had for both the library and the students.

With the next release of the SCIS Authority files due to be released in March this year we also have the latest changes to the SCIS Subject Headings.  This quarter we have made changes to the reference structure of a number of existing headings, and we have implemented a number of new subject headings in response to requests by schools.   A brief summary of these is included in Connections, or for more information, see our detailed list.  If you would like to suggest a new subject heading, or a change to an existing subject heading, please contact us here at SCIS with your suggestion.

Please remember also that the full text of this and past issues of Connections (back to 2006) are freely available online at:
http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/connections/latest_issue.html

The image above is from flickr creative commons, and can be viewed at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/egfocus/ / CC BY 2.0

Connections issue 71

Connections issue 71 has just gone live! All Australian schools should receive their issue of Connections in the mail VERY shortly, but you can also view the full text for free at http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/scis/connections/latest_issue.html.

This month our feature article is about how libraries worldwide are utilising Twitter to communicate with their users (you might like to check out SCIS on Twitter too!).

We also have a fabulous article Are schools killing off the library? from British screenwriter and novelist Frank Cottrell Boyce (Welcome to Sarajevo, Hilary and Jackie,  and the CILIP Carnegie Medal-winning novel, Millions)  who argues that the current fad of renaming school libraries with the unimaginative moniker, Learning Resource Centre, is responsible for disconnecting “reading from the world of pleasure, from the world at all“, and is indicative of a failure by educational institutions to recognise that children need to enjoy reading in order to become competent at it.

Do you want kids to be safe online? Loosen those filters! by Mary Ann Bell of Sam Houston State University argues that that students are more, rather than less, safe with increased internet access at school, plus we have all the latest news and info on ELR, SCIS Subject Headings, the Learning Federation, website reviews and more!