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The Question of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
By Catherine Barnes
Issue 125, Term 2 2023
future, the currency and publicity of the topic should prompt us to consider our past and current practices. Some of us would remember a time when school library staff searched databases and the internet for students through the use of complex Boolean queries we developed, and then retrieved the
Informit Explore: new to SCIS Collections
By Pru Mitchell
Issue 135, Term 4, 2025
schools that subscribe to Informit Explore, as well as for those who are budgeting for a subscription in 2026 or considering a trial subscription. School library staff help teachers save time by providing easy access to credible, curriculum-aligned resources. Just as you incorporate digital conte
School libraries and e-learning: where synergy equals opportunity
By Anita McMillan
Issue 104, Term 1 2018
E-learning is gaining momentum in schools, and opportunities abound for school library professionals to support and even lead in this area. School library staff are highly regarded for their information, critical and digital literacy skills, and well known for their early adoption of new technolo
Supporting Australian book creators
By The ELR team
Issue 106, Term 3 2018
book holdings. SCIS works closely with library system vendors to ensure that the survey runs efficiently, with minimum effort and time required from school library staff. How are schools invited? Schools are randomly selected as a representative sample of all Australian schools, across all stat
Educational Lending Right
By Article by Education Services Australia (ESA)
Issue 136, Term 1, 2026
In each addition of Connections, we like to give an update about the Educational Lending Right (ELR) scheme. We know that you – as librarians and school library staff – understand the importance of supporting the Australian literature community. Each year, ELR surveys schools to understand how many
EAL/D in school libraries
By Nicki Moore, Martin Gray
Issue 121, Term 2 2022
ew South Wales Department of Education to conduct a recent survey exploring the extent to which EAL/D programs and their students may be supported by school library staff. In the past, figures on the commonality of such collaborations have been hard to come by. This initial survey, which began in Ne
SCIS is more
By Anthony Shaw
Issue 127, Term 4 2023
nding the School Library Association of South Australis (SLASA) Conference. It was a wonderful, vibrant and positive day spent talking with wonderful school library staff and learning more about how we can help support their amazing work. We were also lucky to hear some fantastic presentations. I ma
Supporting Australian book creators
By Laura Armstrong, Toni Jordan
Issue 95, Term 4 2015
s (ELR), and in the coming weeks 600 schools will receive invitations, either by mail or email, requesting their participation in this year's survey. School library staff play a critical part in the data collection process – without their assistance to extract the book count data from their library
SCIS: the next 40 years
Issue 132, Term 1, 2025
d 40 years of SCIS, and this year we’re looking to the future. How will we continue to innovate and improve our services? What are the challenges for school library staff and how can we continue to support them? What changes in school libraries and technologies will shape the future development of S
Know your rights and responsibilities: teaching digital citizenship
By Susan Marshall
Issue 103, Term 4 2017
None of us could imagine a world without the internet. It has become an ever-increasing element of our daily life — and it is often the school library staff’s role to support students and classroom staff to maximise the benefits of engaging with the online world for learning, creating, playing and
Website and app reviews
By Nigel Paull
Issue 104, Term 1 2018
y 250 freely available e-resources, including websites, indexes, databases, e-journals, subject guides and full-text journals on a variety of topics. School library staff would benefit from becoming familiar with this content. SCIS no. 1842227 PETAA teaching resources www.petaa.edu.au/imis_pr
Website and app reviews
By Nigel Paull
Issue 107, Term 4 2018
ng. To preserve the cultural and historical significance of these languages, UNESCO has declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages. School library staff will find a variety of material on this website to resource the topic for the 2019 school year. SCIS no. 1886905 Lorax Project
Cover images and SCIS
By Renate Beilharz
Issue 109, Term 2 2019
m to promote resources and reading. ESA has been offering cover images to schools as part of their subscription since 2008. This article explains how school library staff can use these without breaching SCIS Terms of Use. Cover images Text-only catalogue displays have become a thing of the past.
Educational Lending Right (ELR) School Library Survey 2019–20
By Daniel Hughes
Issue 113, Term 2 2020
s a matter of minutes, not very long at all. It took less than five minutes. Too easy. ESA is very grateful for the enthusiastic cooperation of school library staff who took part in ELR 2019–20. ESA offers a $150 voucher to one respondent whose name is drawn at random from a list of all those
ELR: big win for Aussie authors
By Amanda Shay
Issue 126, Term 3 2023
r payments from lending rights are the difference between being able to afford to write and not being able to. Or if you look at it another way, when school library staff are adding Australian books, in physical, ebook and audio book formats, to their collection, they are supporting the next lot of
Website and app reviews
By Nigel Paull
Issue 133, Term 2, 2025
oposition. Since then, he has written reviews for countless websites (and later, apps) bringing both discernment and concision to the task of guiding school library staff through an ever-expanding digital landscape. Across nearly three decades, Nigel has helped SCIS build an immense and trusted co
A new look for a trusted learning resource
By Article by the Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS)
Issue 135, Term 4, 2025
trusted tool that’s supported teaching and learning for more than a decade. Hōpara Kaupapa (Topic Explorer) continues its mission to help teachers, school library staff and students in Years 0–13 (NZ classification) discover quality, curated online resources. The name hōpara kaupapa means ‘to expl
Non-fiction: the elephant in the library
By Rebecca Tobler
Issue 107, Term 4 2018
ools and fields illuminated a growing sentiment — that we didn’t need non-fiction at all! I was understandably floored by this turn of events. Most school library staff will not disagree with the notion that we are ‘fighting a losing battle’, but have we already lost, and simply not noticed yet?
Love and Autism
By Kay Kerr
Issue 125, Term 2 2023
periences. As our society continues to have conversations about diversifying the voices and perspectives in our storytelling, what role do you see school library staff playing in educating young people when it comes to not just neurodiversity, but diversity in general? I’ve actually just start
Authority File Maintenance - An Ongoing Task
By Carolyn Brown and Jane Withers
Issue 36, Term 1 2001
ions where we were uncertain. Maintenance of authority files is an ongoing, ultimately rewarding task. We would advise Teacher Librarians and other school library staff to undertake the process in small manageable 'chunks' and to use the power of the library system to make changes and corrections