0130—Education and Training—SCHOOL LIBRARY CATALOGUES

Dr Kaye to the Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for the Central Coast, and Minister Assisting the Minister for Finance—

1. Is the OASIS school library automated system being replaced?
2. If not, why not?
1. Is the Department designing its own replacement?
2. If so, are there commercial products available that are suited to the needs of school libraries?
3. What steps has the Department taken to ensure that school library catalogues are available online?
4. What steps has the Department taken to ensure that school library catalogues link learners with information which has been specifically pre-selected to support the curriculum by subject and information specialists and evaluated for relevancy and for appropriate content, language and reading levels?

Answer—

The Department of Education and Training is investigating the replacement of the current student administration system in schools. The replacement of the OASIS school library system will be considered as part of this initiative.
I am pleased to say that we are working hard to improve the library catalogues with an immediate interim solution. As part of the current OASIS Thin Client project, a browser interface for OASIS Library Enquiry, called OASIS Web Enquiry, will shortly be made available to all NSW government schools. This is an interim solution which will support integrated student and teacher access to a broader range of resources. It is not a library system replacement but it does significantly improve library services for students and teachers. It operates in a web environment and will be accessible to students and teachers through their internet portals.
The pilot of OASIS Web Enquiry has just been completed and pilot school libraries and teacher-librarians have responded very positively to Web Enquiry.
School library catalogues have always enabled schools to link their learners with carefully selected resources and information supporting the curriculum by subject. This is because teacher-librarians, as a school's information specialist and library manager, have used their invaluable skills to select resources to support their school's teaching and learning program, and ensure they are made available through the library catalogue. The Department of Education and Training continues to support school libraries to do this work efficiently and effectively. The OASIS Web Enquiry enhances this support.
All NSW government schools are part of the statewide subscription to the Schools Catalogue Information Service (SCIS). This is a national, searchable database which provides bibliographic services and catalogue records for school libraries, for all sorts of resources including websites, digital resources, DVDs and books. Schools are able to download to their library system the catalogue records for resources they have selected for their students and teachers.
The Department of Education and Training's resource review program also assists teacher-librarians and teachers select resources which are appropriate for their teaching and learning programs. Resource reviews are available in the Department of Education and Training's quarterly journal, Scan and in the online database of resource reviews. These reviews provide information about the reading levels, relevance and appropriateness of content for subject topics, and some guidance on possible use by teachers.