How long does it take to have my items catalogued?

SCIS aims to have your items catalogued within ten working days of receiving them. We prioritise physical items that have been sent to us and as such, requests that are not accompanied by a physical item may take longer than the 10-day guideline. In some cases, SCIS may not be able to create a record if we do not have access to an original item (see Why do I need to send physical items to SCIS for cataloguing?).

How quickly SCIS catalogues your items depends on some of the following factors:

1. Cataloguing load balanced against cataloguer availability: Some times of the year are especially busy, which can also coincide with the period when cataloguing staff are unavailable for work.
2. Resource type: Some resources require greater analysis, cataloguing effort, and subject analysis.
3. Item-in-hand: Cataloguing is faster if we are able to inspect the item itself. If our cataloguers need to research the item online to source metadata, the cataloguing process will be prolonged.

Once cataloguing has been completed, we will notify you of the completion.