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Bring even more value to your library catalogue by adding SCIS Authority Files to your subscription. 

Authority Files help provide a rich search experience to make the most of your resources and help users find what they are looking for. 

What are Authority Files? 

SCIS Authority Files are additional search and discovery terms that are uploaded to your library catalogue. They create ‘see’ and ‘see also’ references, so a user can find resources that are related to their search, not just those that include their search term. 

How do SCIS Authority Files work? 

Library users, including educators and students, may not understand how to search effectively for resources in the library catalogue, making it difficult to find what they're looking for. SCIS Authority Files bridge the gap by making search more intuitive. 

For example, a library user may enter the search term 'bugs' in the catalogue. Without SCIS Authority Files, they may be presented with few or no results, as ‘bugs’ is not an authorised term. However, with SCIS Authority Files, the search results will also direct the user to related items; for example, books with the subject 'insects' (the authorised term). All relevant resources in the library catalogue will be displayed. Users can then choose to make their search broad or narrow. 

View our two-minute video to find out more about how SCIS Authority Files can enhance your library’s search capabilities: 

For information on uploading SCIS Authority Files to your library management system, please refer to our Authority Files help page. 

What is included with SCIS Authority Files? 

When you subscribe to SCIS Authority Files, you get: 

• Name Authority Files: an authorised list of name headings 
• Subject Authority Files: an authorised list of subject headings 
• Series Authority Files: an authorised list of series headings 
• A reference structure to link authorised terms to related terms 
• Direction from alternative (non-preferred) terms to authorised terms. 

SCIS releases new Authority Files twice a year. New Authority Files are released after we have updated the files with new headings and have run a series of quality-assurance checks. Subscribers are notified when new Authority Files have been released. 

I want Authority Files! What do I do now? 

A SCIS Data subscription is required for an Authority Files subscription.  

If you already have a SCIS Data subscription, simply add SCIS Authority Files to your cart.  

If you don’t yet have a SCIS Data subscription, please refer to our SCIS Data page for more information and to subscribe.