October 19, 2020 Dear friends of Knowledge Ontario, Knowledge Ontario’s sector partners have pledged sufficient funding to keep KO operational until June 30, 2011.

The “bridging” support we are receiving from all sectors will maintain our programs and services until June 2011 by which time we expect to have a sustainable multi-year funding plan in place.   We announce this gratefully to those who have already pledged support; encouragingly to those yet to respond to KO’s request; and reassuringly to those who have inquired about the status of the KO services they participate in and deliver.

Status of the requests Knowledge Ontario made requests for bridging support from each of the sectors represented on its board of directors: K-12 school boards, colleges, universities and public libraries. Except for the public library sector, that request was coupled with an amount to support continuation of e-resources licensing: The K-12 school boards, through the Council of Ontario Directors of Education, have pledged to date just over $1 million, which is 81% of the original request of $1.25 million; Ontario colleges, through the Heads of Libraries and Learning Resources in Ontario, have pledged $131,000, which is 87% of the original request of $150,000; Universities, through the Ontario Council of University Libraries, have pledged 100% of the request for $200,000, which, like colleges and school boards, includes both bridge funding and e-resources contribution; Public libraries are pledging individually to a bridge funding request of $250,000 and have been asked to respond to the request by November 1. To date, approximately $100,000 has been pledged with nearly two-thirds of that amount still pending board approval. Supplemental funding Knowledge Ontario is also turning to other key sectors for funding contributions: The Ontario legislative library, which has pledged $20,000 towards e-resource licensing and the Our Ontario government docs portal; Other government / health libraries; Our Ontario’s toolkit partners in the culture sector; And special libraries that would benefit from use of the Knowledge Ontario services. Public libraries Thank you to the public libraries that have already responded by supporting Knowledge Ontario’s bridge funding request. For those that have not yet been in touch, please let us know the status of the request by November 1. We hope this update also acts as support and reassurance that your investment is solid. If your library is on the fence and this update tempts you to take another look at our request, we encourage you to do so. Every contribution has the tangible effect of maintaining and strengthening KO operations. Your library’s contribution will also help towards the goodwill of the cross-sector collaboration that has always been the backbone of Knowledge Ontario. E-resource licensing update The licensing process is underway. The Knowledge Ontario Resource committee, which represents the three partners from the learning ministries, has identified priorities and are using those to review all proposals received from current vendors. Knowledge Ontario is also working closely with public libraries through the Southern Ontario Library Service and Ontario Library Service North so that decisions are made in a way that ensures the best value and benefit for all sectors. What’s next? With bridge funding secure, the sustainable funding plan process is now underway. Over the next two months, Knowledge Ontario will undertake a process of consultation with its sector partners to ensure that plans going forward are in tune with the longer term goals and strategies of each of the library sectors.  As part of that, sector partners will be invited to participate in focus groups and a larger roundtable session to help shape a sustainability plan for Knowledge Ontario. KO is also working on a government relations strategy and will ask for help from partner organizations in delivering key messages, particularly in ridings held by provincial Cabinet ministers. Fundraising efforts with foundations and other potential partners are ramping up. And KO will soon go forward with a direct personal request for donations from individuals interested in supporting KO’s vision and its future efforts to raise awareness with funders and community leaders. KO’s latest news and updates can be found on knowledgeotario.ca at latest news (or you can subscribe to the RSS feed). Going forward Knowledge Ontario understands the bridge funding that secures its operations until June 2011 as a commitment to its core values of equity and collaboration. These values will guide our actions over the coming months as we continue to work with all of our partners and supporters to ensure ongoing funding for the vision and the services of Knowledge Ontario. Sincerely,

David Thornley,
Executive Director

Open Access Week is an opportunity to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access to research, including access policies from all types of research funders, within the international higher education community and the general public. The now-annual event has been expanded from a single day to accommodate widespread global interest in the movement toward open, public access to scholarly research results.

Participate locally! Here is a list of Open Access Events courtesy of the University of Toronto Libraries Portal. See you there!

The Access 2009 conference in Charlottetown PEI was a huge success (I think some people should be fully recovered by now) and as
promised we recorded all the sessions.

Most of the Access2009pei (also a Twitter and Flickr tag) live video streams are available on the UPEI ePresence site at UPEI – ePresence Presentation Portal.

Video streams are also embedded on the session pages at http://vre2.upei.ca/access2009/taxonomy/term/41.

Thanks to everyone for coming to PEI and sharing stories with your colleagues. We hope it was worth your while and enjoyed making it happen.

BTW – ePresence is a great open source app for streaming live and archiving: get more info at epresence.tv.

Cheers,

Access2009 Organizing Committee

Cushing Academy has all the hallmarks of a New England prep school, with one exception.

This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks – the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.

“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “This isn’t ‘Fahrenheit 451’ [the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel in which books are banned]. We’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology.’’

Instead of a library, the academy is spending nearly $500,000 to create a “learning center,’’ though that is only one of the names in contention for the new space. In place of the stacks, they are spending $42,000 on three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet and $20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels. Where the reference desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

And to replace those old pulpy devices that have transmitted information since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, they have spent $10,000 to buy 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and Sony. Administrators plan to distribute the readers, which they’re stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time with literature.

Those who don’t have access to the electronic readers will be expected to do their research and peruse many assigned texts on their computers.

“Instead of a traditional library with 20,000 books, we’re building a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books,’’ said Tracy, whose office shelves remain lined with books. “We see this as a model for the 21st-century school.’’

Not everyone on campus is sold on Tracy’s vision.

They worry about an environment where students can no longer browse rows of voluptuous books, replete with glossy photographs, intricate maps, and pages dog-eared by generations of students. They worry students will be less likely to focus on long works when their devices are constantly interrupting them with e-mail and instant messages. They also worry about a world where sweat-stained literature is deemed as perishable as all the glib posts on Facebook or Twitter.

Continued…

For immediate release

COLLEGE PARK, MD – November 19, 2008 – The International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) (http://www.childrenslibrary.org), which is the world’s largest collection of children’s literature available freely on the Internet, today announced the release of the ICDL for iPhone application.

Available free at Apple’s iPhone App Store, the ICDL for iPhone application allows users to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch user interface to read a selection of books from the ICDL’s master collection, which today represents thousands of children’s stories from 60 countries. The children’s books can be read in their native language and in English.

The ICDL for iPhone application features ICDL’s ClearText technology which was designed to make it possible for users to read story text clearly in the context of highly illustrated beautiful children’s picture books — even on the small mobile screen. The ICDL for iPhone application will be updated regularly as new books are made available.

Additional features of the ICDL iPhone application include:

• Offline reading — access the International Children’s Library to read on and offline
• Online reading — linkage to the full ICDL collection which has over 3,000 titles in 48 languages representing 60 countries
• Simple navigation — view books with engaging animations quickly
• One or two page view — takes advantage of iPhone’s “auto-rotation”
  feature
• ClearText — allowing exceptionally clear text in the context of highly illustrated pages

The ICDL iPhone application syncs via Wi-Fi or the user’s cellular network and downloads the latest featured children’s books directly to the device, giving children and parents access to content offline and in airplane mode. Compatible with any iPhone or iPod Touch with operating system version 2.0, the application was designed by International Children’s Digital Library Foundation with support from Zumobi and the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab.

The Interactive Project Manager/Designer is the primary client contact and liaises with the client and its internal departments to manage projects from start to finish. The role will involve managing the collaboration between planners, creative, and developers, ensuring that deadlines and targets are met. Design experience/understanding is essential as you will be integral in all facets of development.

• Work closely with the President
• Assist with strategic development, and hands-on development when necessary
• Proactively manage a specific set of clients
• Be a key interface between client and creative team/production manager
• Provide on-going reporting, tracking and support for all projects
• Monitor internal project deadlines
• Inspiring outstanding creative quality
• Ensuring creative integrity, and providing mentorship and feedback

Requirements

• 5+ years experience in web or e-learning environment
• Project Management skills
• People and process management experience
• Previous Web Design and Development experience is highly desired: HTML, XML, CSS, Adobe CS2 (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, Premiere)
• Experience with video is a plus
• Microsoft Office skills
• Demonstrated organizational skills
• Demonstrated strong verbal and written skills
• Demonstrated commitment to delivering high-quality solutions on time
• Knowledge of web technology standards are required
• Ability to multi-task
• Instructional design experience is a plus

Please visit our website for more details: www.nextmovelearning.com

Contact: David Van Klaveren, 416-646-2393 Ext: 2223

TVO has traditionally shunned advertising-supported sites such as Yahoo! — their mandate for decades has been to provide quality, educational programming that is untainted by traditional advertising, (although supported by corporate sponsorship). As a provincially-funded public broadcaster, up until now they have disdained the mass market approach to media. As a result, as good as TVO programming is, it’s never achieved mass market popularity, online or on-air.

This partnership with Yahoo!Canada signals that there’s been a shift in thinking within TVO. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

An excerpt of the TVO release is as follows (full release here):

“The dramatic increase in demand for online content creates exciting opportunities for partnering with content providers like TVO,” said Iain Wilson, Director Business Development, Yahoo! Canada. “Tapping into the web through Yahoo! Canada gives TVO the ability to greatly expand its reach and wow new audiences with fresh, innovative educational content whenever they go online.”

TVO is currently implementing a “going digital” strategy with the goal of reaching new audiences using a multi-platform content distribution approach. To meet the growing needs of viewers who prefer to access their favourite programs based on their own unique daily schedules, partnering with a trusted online content provider like Yahoo! Canada made perfect sense.

“TVO is focused on increasing our impact in the digital space with our unique, educational media resources,” says Lisa de Wilde, TVO’s Chief Executive Officer. “Working with Yahoo! Canada aligns with TVO’s digital strategy to make our content accessible to new audiences through alternative distribution channels, while exploring new revenue streams and business models.”

Although TVO creates a wide range of educational resources for people of all ages, its initial efforts with Yahoo! Canada will be aimed at engaging web-savvy parents who look online for resources related to their children’s learning and success in school. TVO will deliver content on subjects ranging from managing homework time to dealing with bullying, including a compilation of resources for parents of children with autism and a complete inventory of TVO’s Your Voice, the first and only online interactive program for parents built on education issues .

“At TVO, we’re committed to empowering people through knowledge, and that includes partnering with parents in their children’s education,” says de Wilde. “By integrating our parent-focused educational content with a major online content provider like Yahoo! Canada, we can reach more people, while showcasing the relevance of our trusted brand.”

Thursday, March 6, 2008
The Boiler House Restaurant, Distillery District

4 pm – Chalk Mobile chalkboard™
5 pm – eLATED eLIXIR: Mix, mingle, share, learn

Click here to directly RSVP or alternatively at www.elated.ca.

The Hon. Aileen Carroll, Ontario Minister of Culture will be on hand for the formal launch of   Knowledge Ontario’s askON online research and virtual reference service.  The launch will be held on Thursday January 31, 2008 at 5pm at the Knowledge Ontario exhibit booth (813/815) at the OLA SuperConference being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

askON is a leading edge virtual service that allows Ontarians to chat, in real time with expert library staff who can help them find information, answer questions, deliver articles and improve web searching skills.  askON, in its first phase, is a collaboration of 10 public and 7 post-secondary libraries. Using state-of-the-art software askON will offer 40 hours a week of chat reference service to public library visitors (10 hours in french) and over 60 hours a week to post-secondary students.  Visitors to askON will access the service via the askON link from the web sites of the participating libraries.

askON began operation on January 7, 2008 and has responded to over 150 information requests in the first three days of service. There are over 200 askON information specialists from libraries around the province trained to provide askON real-time chat reference services on a rotating schedule.

“We are thrilled that the Minister of Culture will be joining us to celebrate the launch of askON”, said Virginia Roy, project manager. “Libraries and librarians from around the province have invested hundreds of hours since June working on the implementation, technology and service details of askON.” “It is a true collaborative effort and demonstrates the strength that libraries can collectively deliver to the province’s knowledge economy.”

About askON
askON is a new information service, managed by Ask Ontario, that will help Ontarians connect, using real-time chat over the internet, with library staff who can help them find authoritative digital information and improve their online search skills. The first phase of askON involves 10 public library systems and 7 post-secondary libraries from across Ontario.

About Ask Ontario
Ask Ontario is the project of Knowledge Ontario focused on planning, delivering and managing province-wide, real time library information and research services. Knowledge Ontario is the first ever province-wide collaboration of libraries (public, school, college and university) working together to create an integrated and interactive digital environment about and for Ontarians. The Knowledge Ontario initiative is supported by the Province of Ontario. For more information visit: www.knowledgeontario.ca or www.askon.ca.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
9:30am – 4pm
Convener: Kimberly Silk, Consultant, Video Ontario

Are you responsible for the use and delivery of videos and DVDs in a public, school, college or university setting? Do you know what Knowledge Ontario is doing with video streaming in Ontario and around the globe? Come and hear about pilot projects already in progress, about the technical issues being faced, vendor proposals and Canadian content.

Register at http://www.accessola.com/superconference2008/registration.html 

Video Ontario is the Knowledge Ontario project focused on delivering video-on-demand to schools, libraries, colleges, universities and homes across Ontario.