About the SCIS database
Curriculum Corporation's SCIS database contains over 970,000 catalogue records of educational materials. Records for books and a large variety of non-book materials, including videorecordings, maps, electronic resources and websites are included.
Each record has complete cataloguing details including abridged and full Dewey Decimal Classification numbers and SCIS subject headings. For books, the description will typically include:
- title
- author/editor/illustrator
- ISBN
- publisher
- place and date of publication
- a brief physical description.
Non-book materials are identified by a General material designation (GMD) according to Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules.
SCIS Cataloguing Agencies contribute approximately 3,500 catalogue records for recently published resources each month. The resources come from a number of sources such as publishers, booksellers and education systems, but school library staff throughout Australia contribute the majority. All resources are evaluated for their suitability in supporting school curriculum programs before being selected for cataloguing onto the SCIS database.
In order to keep the SCIS database current and relevant for all users, SCIS relies upon library staff to:
- advise us when recently published materials are not found on the SCIS database
- send these resources to a SCIS Cataloguing Agency for cataloguing.
This cooperation benefits everyone. Library staff providing the resources can ensure their items are catalogued, and other libraries that acquire the same items are able to locate the catalogue records on the SCIS database.
Resources on the database
Whilst the majority of resources on the database are books, it also contains catalogue records for other resources. The following list indicates the approximate number* of catalogue records for the following types of resources:
video recordings |
|
62,954 |
electronic resources |
|
20,247 |
kits |
|
15,849 |
posters or pictures |
|
9 ,318 |
games |
|
7 ,590
|
charts |
|
7 ,566 |
websites |
|
10,543 |
slides |
|
3,419 |
maps |
|
2,579 |
sound recordings |
|
23,167 |
* as at 11 July 2008 |
