Certica Partners with Mackin to Enhance Content Search and Discovery
(PRWEB) October 31, 2017 -- Certica Solutions (Certica), provider of the Certica Connect™ edtech platform-as-a-service (PaaS), today announced that the company has entered into a partnership with Mackin, provider of library and classroom materials for grades PK-12. Mackin uses Certica’s Artifact® capabilities to enhance the search and discovery of book titles within Mackin.com and its Publisher Showcase website.
Artifact enables teachers, librarians and curriculum buyers to discover the most relevant and meaningful titles for their students, by cataloging and tagging the ideas, themes and educational topics in books. Artifact includes three key items on each title: 1) an artifact type, which is selected from the Artifact taxonomy of over 700 unique terms; 2) a rationale, written by a teacher to show how and why the element is present in the text; and 3) a quotation from the text to provide direct evidence.
Artifact was acquired by Certica Solutions in June 2017 and, combined with Certica’s Academic Benchmarks collection of over 3.9 million learning standards and taxonomies, constitutes the largest collection of education content search criteria available to the K-12 sector.
As a result of the partnership, Artifact metadata tags will be used as search facets in Mackin.com. Mackin.com provides access to Mackin’s fast-growing digital catalog that includes more than 1.9 million digital products such as eBooks, databases, digital audiobooks and video resources.
“With the inclusion of Artifact, we are dedicated to enhancing the search experience within Mackin.com and providing users with a more comprehensive way to browse and discover books,” said Mesa Heise, director of Digital Services at Mackin. “Our users can now discover more meaningful information on book titles, and make informed buying decisions that will positively impact their students.”
Additionally, the adoption of Artifact will be included in Mackin’s Publisher Showcase website, which gives libraries and schools an easy way to see the newest and most popular series and titles from publishers. Artifact will provide an additional resource to showcase publishers’ titles by providing enhanced search items that expose specific topics, concepts and learning outcomes.
“We are excited to work with Mackin to help educators, librarians and buyers discover the most relevant and engaging books,” said Katie Palencsar, creator of Artifact and now Certica’s chief solutions strategist. “We look forward to continuing our work with publishers to highlight specific topics, concepts and critical elements in their content to help their titles stand out in search results.”
About Certica Solutions
Certica is the innovator of the Certica Connect platform-as-a-service which provides application interoperability and centralized integration, as well as access and enrichment of education data, metadata and content. The company partners with a diverse network of K-12 application and system vendors, learning content and assessment providers, and book distributors and publishers. Certica also delivers solutions directly to more than 600 school districts and numerous charter school organizations, state education agencies and educational service agencies. Certica is based in Wakefield, Massachusetts and has offices in Harvard, Massachusetts; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Austin, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.certicasolutions.com or follow @Certica_K12.
About Mackin
For more than 34 years, Mackin has provided library and classroom materials for grades PK-12. Known for their substantial catalog that boasts more than 18,000 publishers with over 2.5 million print books, Mackin’s ever-growing digital catalog now includes more than 1.9 million digital products including eBooks, databases, digital audiobooks and video resources – all available through their free, multiple award-winning digital management system, MackinVIA. For more information, visit http://www.mackin.com.
Melinda Powers, Certica Solutions, Inc., +1 (855) 766-9916 Ext: 5112, [email protected]
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