Knowledge Ontario & Gale

A Partnership to Empower Ontario’s Learners

Diverse, High Quality, Trusted Resources to Meet Ontario’s Needs

Spreading the WordCustomized Promotion Materials Placing Ads in Industry Publications

Reaching More and More Ontario Communities

Usage in 2009 is up 208% from 2008 and

up 1385% from 2007!!

Building Awareness, Increasing Usage

The 3rd listed cite in Google is unreliable and gives

unaccredited information.

Why Google and Wikipedia Are NOT The Answer

Gale provides trusted, accredited information to users in Ontario. Google and Wikipedia are not always

reliable and often lead to information that is not FACT, but is influenced by outside sources.

Scenario #1

Who? Megan, Student at University of Toronto

What? College Assignment on Financial Bailouts in the United States

Resource: General OneFile

What do I need to satisfy the professor?

Will it be credible?

Where can I go?

What are financial bailouts all about?

How many companies has this affected?

Where do I begin?

Which great KO resources will help Megan with her paper?

=U.S. Financial Bailout

Megan goes into Knowledge Ontario, and finds many databases that will help her with her paper. She searches General OneFile and finds 1,836 Magazines, 67 Academic Journals, 6 Books, and 5,507 News Articles, 416 Multimedia on Bank Bailouts. Megan can toggle between Publication Date and Relevancy to provide a different set of results within one search!

With such a wealth of information, Megan wonders where she should begin…

Megan searched “related subjects” and was able to get a better understanding of bank bailouts. She decided to narrow her paper to talk specifically about Goldman Sachs.

But first she wants to compare and contrast the Financial Bailouts of 2008 with the Savings and Loan Crisis that occurred in the late 1980’s. Megan is able to “Browse Subjects” to provide historical context and to compare and contrast the two economic calamities.

Megan has written the background and comparative part of her paper, and now needs to focus on a particular company. After narrowing her search to Goldman Sachs, Megan finds up to the minute information for the remainder of her paper.

Megan was able to use the KO products to generate source citations for all the articles she used in the paper! Furthermore, the functionality in the Knowledge Ontario resources allowed Megan to obtain a deeper understanding of her topic by providing an array of additional sub-topics, historical context and current content from American and International writers. Canadians need the ability to quickly search authoritative, trusted, educational content that is indexed to provide pointed, relevant results. And that’s only part of what the KO’s resources do for Ontarians!

I got an A!

Scenario 2

Who? Joann, askON Librarian at Thunder Bay Public Library

What? School Assignment on Bioterrorism

Resource: Health and Wellness Resource Center

Jarrod: : [typing instant message] “Hi I need research help!”

Joann: [typing a response] “How can I help.”

Jarrod: “I’m a sophomore in high school, and I need to do a presentation on bioterrorism for my Current Events class. It has to have multi-media and be from a reputable source. Can you help?”

Joann: “Yes! This is similar to a question I got last week – we can find everything you’ll need through Knowledge Ontario. Are you sitting in front of your computer?”

Jarrod: “What is Knowledge Ontario?”

Joann: “Knowledge Ontario brings all the great resources of your library to your home. Let’s take a look at what will work for your presentation…”

=Bioterrorism

Jarrod: “Where do I start?”

Joann: “Let’s go into the Health and Wellness Resource Center, and do a search on Bioterrorism. This search yields 3,598 Magazines and Journals, 1,726 News articles, and a video that you can add to your presentation…”

Jarrod: “Cool! Let’s check out the video!”Joann: “The video is with Pete Williams, a renowned reporter, who talks about the anthrax attacks that occurred in 2008…”Jarrod: “Great! That’s a topic that interests me. I think I will focus on the anthrax scare. It looks like there is a lot of really great information on it.”

Joann: “Here are lots of authoritative magazines

and journal articles that are updated daily”

Joann: “I just received a thank you IM from Jarrod – he originally browsed Google, and was only able to find sporadic articles from reputable sources. Most of the information that he found

on the open web centered around preparedness, which is not what he wanted at all. He was able to use Knowledge Ontario’s depth of unbiased information to find notable articles, pull out relevant facts and data, and

add the video in to create a stellar presentation for his class. And all of the information was in ONE PLACE!! He also noted that he received an “A” grade from his Current Events teacher.

Another success story for Knowledge Ontario!”

Scenario 3

Who? Sarah, a 6th Grade Biology Teacher

What? Supplemental material to her H1N1 class discussion

Resource: InfoTrac, Junior Edition

I am so tired of being bombarded by news and other

chatter about the swine flu! Interestingly, my 6th grade

students either seem oblivious or confused by what they hear

on the news or what their parents are saying. I need to address this topic in class, but how can I do so to keep them

engaged?

Sarah knows that kids these days are bored unless discussions are dynamic

and include some multimedia, so she wants to find an interesting video or

podcast to add to the discussion. She has used Infotrac Junior Edition often for

her classes, and has students working with it as well. What a great opportunity!

She goes through the Knowledge

Ontario databases

to access Infotrac Junior. A search reveals 183 multimedia

options, including podcasts, videos,

and images.

Sarah gives her kids a homework assignment to access Infotrac Junior from

home through Knowledge Ontario, an online library available 24/7. She tells

her students to listen to two short podcasts to inform them of what swine flu is

and how it affects them.

As a teacher, I don’t use information from the open web for fear that I will get misleading or even wrong information. I

am confident in Knowledge Ontario’s resources because I know that the

information is accurate and was written or sourced by subject matter experts.

“Class, that was a great discussion and I’m glad you are all excited to understand

swine flu better! See how much better it is to go to a trustworthy source instead of relying on Google or Wikipedia, whose sources are not necessarily written by

experts?

For your assignment, I’d like for all of you to use Infotrac Junior to write a paper on any epidemic in the last century. You can start here at school and finish at home. Be sure to

include the multimedia that you all enjoy! Infotrac Junior shows its value again! A preliminary search in Infotrac Junior on epidemics yields 166 magazine articles, 34 academic journals,

20 books, 611 news articles, and 199 multimedia. Plenty for the kids to work with!

Scenario 4

Who? Ed, Sales and Marketing Professional for Ticketmaster

What? Drug Information on OsteoPure

Resource: Health and Wellness Resource Center

“I’m just returning back to the office after my annual physical. I’m a little concerned – the doctor is lacking in bedside manner but didn’t indicate that there was

anything wrong, Yet, he handed me a prescription for OsteoPure and suggested that I be part of a test market group. He didn’t explain it

very well.”

Ed remembers a few months

ago he went to the local

library and Mary, the

librarian, helped him do

extensive research. His

sister had just been

diagnosed with Type II

diabetes and he wanted to

know everything he could

about the disease, her

upcoming tests and exams,

and her prognosis and

options. He found the

answers to all of his

questions in the Health and

Wellness Resource Center

and had been back several

times since from home

through Knowledge Ontario.

Type II Diabetes

Insulin levels

Simple Sugars

Breakdown of fats and proteins for

energy causes acid compounds called ketones to form in

the blood

Resulting

hypergly-cemia

Dialysis

Exams and tests

Treatments and

medicationPrognosis

and Options

Knowledge Ontario is such a great resource! Ed has been back

several times since to get information for training in his marathon!

Ed especially likes the ones that are podcasts, so he can listen to

them while he is running!

Back to the task at hand… drug research on OsteoPure. It sure sounds like something he would

need to take for brittle bones, but Ed is in great shape, is training for a marathon, and is only 45, so

he shouldn’t have any signs of osteoporosis yet! He knows that with his library card he can access

Knowledge Ontario and get some quick answers to his questions,

Ed logs into his KO products and goes to the Health & Wellness Resource Center. He inputs the drug name and breathes a sigh of relief! Great news! It is just a dietary supplement which will help build his bones as he trains for the marathon, and it is even made by Marathon Nutrifoods, a company he has ordered from before! Thanks again, HWRC!!!

I love Knowledge

Ontario!

Scenario 5

Who? Jenna, Sixth Grader

What? History Assignment on Inuit People

Resource: Student Resource Centre: Canadian Edition

I know very little about the Inuit and Canada’s First Nations people other

than that many of them live in northern communities.

I know the Inuit People are a very important part of Canadian

history, and that my teacher gave this assignment to make the

students more aware of Canada’s First Peoples

Teacher: “Class – I’m going to give you a tip – if you have a library card, you can access Kingston Public Library from home. Within the library are

Knowledge Ontario resources, and this is where you will find Student Resource Center Canadian. You can do this assignment without leaving

home!”

I know my teacher gave me the Knowledge Ontario tip, but I really would rather

use Google because I think it would be faster and

easier. Let’s see what it has…

Great! Google has more than 7

million hits for “Inuit!”

This looks like a good source… I’ll click here..

Uh oh – it is not sourced, and there is a really

annoying advertisement at the bottom. I wonder if it is even credible… Maybe Google is not a shortcut

after all…

Jenna goes to SRC Canadian and on the front page of the resource, she finds Inuit listed under “Popular Topics.” After she clicks on the topic, she finds 105 reference articles, 205 magazine

articles, and 221 academic journals and 1,323 newspaper articles, along with 4 primary sources and 29 photographs. She also finds some audio files.

Jenna even finds the Ontario Curriculum within Student Resource Centre Canadian, which links directly to Ontario curriculum articles and results broken down by grade. Jenna sends a quick email to her teacher, knowing she might get extra points for telling her teacher about additional classroom tools. Jenna hones in on the Inuit culture, and writes a comprehensive paper for her

class about the religious rituals, language, and way of living for Inuit People. Jenna not only ends up enjoying the assignment, but she wants to learn more about Canadian history!

Scenario #6

Who? Gabby, a stay at home mom to a 5 year old and a 8 year old

What? Need to stay informed about the 2010 Canadian Olympians

Resource: Canadian Periodical Index Quarterly

I could not be more excited about the 2010 Olympics in

Vancouver! I’ve just been out buying all of the magazine and news articles I could find about the athletes on the Canadian Olympic team! I can’t wait to

get the scoop on them!

Gabby quickly realizes that keeping up on all of the Olympic news will be much harder,

and more expensive, than she thought! How can she stay up to date while not spending

a lot of money and time subscribing to all of the best publications? It really would be

great to have one place to go to get all of the latest Olympic information…

Time!

Money!

$$$

Gabby has to go to the library anyway to get some books for the

kids, and she asks the librarian if she can help. The librarian

tells her all about Knowledge Ontario, and the Canadian

Periodicals Index Quarterly! Gabby is so thrilled! Not only will

she get updated information on a daily basis from all of the

Canadian newspaper and magazine writers, but the librarian

also showed her that she can set an RSS feed delivered to her

email so she doesn’t even have to search at all! Everyday, the

RSS feed automatically sends Gabby new articles on Olympic

news from Canadian writers to her email inbox.

Ability to limit to Canadian only sources…

RSS feed icon sends new information to Gabby through email..

Tons of Canadian resources all in one

place!

“Hi, this is Joann from the library! More good news! I just called Knowledge Ontario to verify that Gale, the company that provides Student

Resource Centre Canadian, has been commissioned to write special essays on

roughly 10 Canadian athletes to watch at the games! This special content will be available through RSS feeds also, so you will be able to get current information that cannot be found anywhere else outside of SRC-Canadian!”

YIPPEE!!

The Canadian Periodicals Index Quarterly is so much better than Google which does not

offer RSS feeds and thus can not provide up to the minute information. Knowledge

Ontario’s RSS feeds provide Gabby with up to the minute information every day, week,

or month depending on how often she wants it. To make it even better, the new AML

(Access my Library) iPhone app is free and allows Gabby to connect to her Knowledge

Ontario electronic resources via her iPhone. She can get updates – anytime, anywhere!

Gabby couldn’t be happier! Go Leafs Go!!