The inclusion of SCIS and ScOT terms in a catalogue record is a ‘catch-all’ for the various key words that may be searched in using a controlled vocabulary approach to finding a particular resource. Considering the example: How to make a golem and terrify people, by Alette J. Willis, the SCIS headings include: E-books, Courage – Fiction, Monsters – Fiction, Edinburgh (Scotland) – Fiction. The ScOT terms include: Mythical creatures, courage, fiction and E-books. The ScOT terms are single concept headings, whereas the some of the SCIS terms include subdivisions to further specify the key word’s more descriptive connection to the resource.
In general comparisons in terminology between ScOT and SCIS, I have noted that generally ScOT includes more options than SCIS does, however, there are some terms that are surprisingly absent in ScOT. For example, the inclusion of Mythical creatures as a ScOT heading in the particular example is provided due to the absence of Monster as a narrower concept option. Rather, Monsters exists as an alternative label directive. However, there are a variety of more specific headings that I would have thought aligned at the narrower concept level including fairies, ghosts, trolls, unicorns etc.
Regardless, the inclusion of both varieties of headings from ScOT and SCIS increases the search- and find-ability of resources at the user level, which is ultimately the end goal of catalogue record creation.