Hon Trevor Mallard
Minister of Education

12 July 2005
Media Statement

Students win from new high-tech libraries' system

A new on-line cataloguing service for all school libraries, announced today by Education Minister Trevor Mallard, will provide students quality information about the resources their libraries hold.

The on-line School Cataloguing Information Service (SCIS) is being introduced this month and is a joint project by the Ministry of Education and the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mâtauranga o Aotearoa. It will provide quality cataloguing information to all New Zealand schools.

“All school students in New Zealand will now benefit from being able to access the most up-to-date information about everything held in their school libraries,” Trevor Mallard told 700 delegates at the U-Learn Information and Communications Technolgies Conference in Auckland.

“Many New Zealand schools, particularly primary schools, don’t have access to the skills needed to catalogue the materials they purchase," said Trevor Mallard. "That means students may not realise the full extent of information available to them in their school library.

“As any librarian will tell you, an up-to-date, comprehensive catalogue is the key to any good library. That is also true for school libraries. Now, with this new cataloguing service, students should more easily be able to find the information and resources they need.”

The Ministry of Education will fund access to the on-line cataloguing service for an initial period of two years.

The Minister Responsible for the National Library, Marian Hobbs, said she was delighted that the Ministry of Education and the National Library had worked together to produce such a great result for school students.

“It’s particularly pleasing that the new catalogue services will encourage better use of existing school resources.

“It will help connect students to the information that they need for their everyday studies. It will ensure school library resources are used to the fullest. That’s got to be good.”

Marian Hobbs said the National Library’s school library advisers had been working closely with Curriculum Corporation, the providers of the School Cataloguing Information Service, to ensure it meshed well with the New Zealand school curriculum.

"This project lays the groundwork for a national web-based catalogue of school library holdings," said Marian Hobbs.

ENDS

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