School libraries

Knowledge Ontario works in collaboration with Ontario school libraries to offer digital services to students, teachers, boards and all other staff.

Resource Ontario online databases
Learn Ontario teaching digital literacies
Our Ontario online discovery of history, culture and digital collections
Ask Ontario online chat reference help

Knowledge Ontario and Ontario school libraries

Knowledge Ontario is committed to school libraries and supports teacher-librarians, teachers and all those responsible for databases and other digital services within schools and school boards. We recognize the value of school libraries and understand the challenges of staffing and funding.

School libraries are safe places for learning and we acknowledge your desire to be integrated fully into the classrooms of your school. When school libraries are available and open, they are well used and appreciated by students. Indeed you have a captive audience to introduce to digital teaching and resources! You teach students who are used to surfing and chat how to find valuable resources online, connecting their interests to skills and tools.

Working in collaboration with you, Knowledge Ontario is part of your team and part of your toolkit, backing you up and giving you resources you need. KO provides resources and services that let you spend your funds otherwise while providing timely digital tools so we protect and extend the library budget. That lets you serve your students and staff well. We support you in offering digital literacy and research fundamentals. We extend your services after hours by offering parallel services through public libraries. We expand your collections and give you high-tech “wows” to introduce.

Read more about Knowledge Ontario's digital offerings and how they're helping to build access to educational resources in a recent article featured in The Teaching Librarian, a magazine produced by the Ontario Library Association.

Resource Ontario e-resources offers school libraries:

• Availability when you need it, 24/7

• Equity of access to all school districts

• Online resources classrooms can use

• Authoritative validated info, continuously updated

• A high curriculum match across the grade levels

• Significant Canadian content, including Student Reference Centre: Canadian Edition and Canadian Points of View as well as local, provincial and national newspapers, journals and magazines

• Current French language resources for Franco-Ontarians, immersion students and French class students

• Diversified material including maps and schematics

Learn Ontario digital literacies offers school libraries:

• Tools for you that make you look smart

• Answers to tech questions

• “Just in time” resources that quickly let you handle stumbling blocks with just the right information for right when you need it

• A means to build your own digital literacy and that of your students and colleagues

Our Ontario digital discovery offers school libraries:

• Virtual access to primary sources on Ontario history, heritage and culture from libraries, museums and archives at the fingertips of teachers and students – see: www.ourontario.ca

• One place to access videos, images, oral histories and text related to Ontario curriculum topics and themes

• Results map in 3D so you can use Google Earth as a teaching tool to locate historical/social events and landmarks

• Using add-ons like Cool Iris, you can transform your search results into a visually engaging wall of images

• Easy way to find government documents –over 24,000 government documents of the Legislative Library in one place – govdocs.ourontario.ca

Ask Ontario chat help offers school libraries:

• A means of helping your students after hours through the askON and ONdemande services

• A tool that mimics how students communicate through IM (instant messaging)

• Subject specific and curriculum experts

• Focus on research skills

• Focus on building critical thinking skills

• Assistance and direction for students in getting school projects done

• A bookmarked knowledge base to draw on

• Success! An overwhelming majority of clients report they found better information than they could have found themselves

• Use of the same Resource Ontario e-resources through the local public library as the school boards access, reinforcing patterns and familiarity

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