Academic library
Knowledge Ontario works in collaboration with Ontario academic libraries to offer digital services to students, faculty, staff and alumni at library, at work and at home.
Resource Ontario online databases
Ask Ontario online chat reference help
Learn Ontario teaching digital literacies
Our Ontario online discovery of history, culture and digital collections
Knowledge Ontario and Ontario academic libraries
The Knowledge Ontario collaboration greatly supports the multi-dimensional and rigorous demands of academic librarianship. We understand that these demands are both practical and abstract and include an integration of researching, teaching and publishing. Common to this integration is the foundation of scholarly research work. The efficient access to specific, authoritative data is essential to knowledge discovery as well as being a substantive element of academic instruction.
Knowledge Ontario collaborates with communities of inquiry by providing several tiered services that focus on distinct research needs, whether it is a highly exacting academic user searching for the most current peer-reviewed scholarly research or an information-seeking student requiring friendly access to primary and easy to navigate resources. An essential element of Knowledge Ontario’s province-wide infrastructure is its assurance of unparalleled equitable access to a shared research base, across disciplines and across Ontario’s academic institutions.
KO Solutions
Resource Ontario e-resources offers academic libraries:
As part of KO’s tiered service, Resource Ontario includes a core suite of second-to-none academic database resources mindfully selected to meet the needs of a diverse spectrum of research use:
- Academic OneFile includes more than 10,000 indexed journals with extensive coverage in disciplines ranging from the arts, humanities, sciences and technology. Authoritative and comprehensive, Academic OneFile is a premier source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world’s leading journals and reference sources. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, researchers are able to find accurate information quickly. This is an essential resource for serious research occurring in academic libraries throughout Ontario.
- Eureka.cc includes French-language titles identified by the French Advisory Committee as being of primary importance to their community. Titles are available as text or PDF files and are updated daily and contain 20 years of archives. The collection includes national and international newspapers (such as Le Devoir and La Presse,) news wires, audio capsules and radio/television transcripts. Significantly, the French-language titles are bundled with 20 English-language daily newspapers from across Ontario. From the Welland Tribune to the North Bay Nugget, these Ontario resources provide researches with access to a richly diverse array of local and regional news and information.
- Canadian Points of View Reference Centre database provides students with information on 100 key topics of interest, including substance abuse, race, the environment, and human rights. The database contains a balance of materials from all viewpoints, including 400 main essays, leading political magazines, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents, and reference books. Critically, this resource offers guides to debate, developing arguments and writing position papers. It provides the basis from which students can better understand controversial issues and to develop analytical thinking skills.
- Discovering Collection provides student researchers with easy access to primary resources through an intuitive interface. Comprised of more than 28,000 biographies, 18,000 overview essays and more than 13,500 critical essays in core curriculum subjects, the Discovering Collection supports students by presenting curriculum topics in a holistic view, contextualizing information in ways that assure the further development of their critical-thinking skills.
Ask Ontario chat help service offers academic libraries:
In September 2009 the askON chat reference help service will operate in both college and university streams, complemented by a public library stream.
askON is a one-on-one chat research and information service developed by Ontario’s libraries and Ask Ontario. It allows you to connect through your library’s website with a live librarian who will help you find better, more authoritative information than you could on your own. No question is too large or small, no subject too challenging for askON’s experienced research staff. You don’t even have to have a library card to ask a question.
More:
- Shared service, working cooperatively with library staff at other institutions to get back more hours than you put in. Read service detail for how we work
- Equitable access. A deliberate emphasis on northern libraries in 2009
- Specialized service, divided into college and university streams
- Peer support part of the service
- Training opportunity for new librarians
Our Ontario’s digital discovery offers academic libraries:
- Virtual access to primary sources about Ontario history, heritage and culture: ourontario.ca
- Bookmarkable search results that work with 3rd party applications such as Zotero citation tool, Google Earth, and shareable with social networking tools
- Browseable and searchable access to over 24,000 and counting downloadable government documents: http://govdocs.ourontario.ca/search
- Research collections are easily accessible, students can search and view all of your many research collections from different faculty libraries in one interface
- Customizable tools for managing and displaying digital collections, such as the University of Guelph’s Digital Collections or the opportunity to make current digital collections more globally accessible – see University of Toronto’s Libraries
Back to top