On May 20, 2010, I blogged about volunteering for Knowledge Ontario's Ask Ontario (AskON) initiative. It's an awesome initiative that builds and supports strategic, province-wide partnerships between Ontario's public, college, and university libraries and makes it possible for them to share scarce resources and provide high quality reference service to people across the province.
In early June, (only weeks before this year's new group of keen AskON virtual reference volunteers were set to attend our first AskON training session with Virginia and Jan) we heard that Knowledge Ontario would not receive its expected federal funding past December 2010.
Perhaps it is because of the immense value I see in this sort of strategic, province-wide partnership that I was so disappointed by this announcement. While the Ministry of Tourism and Culture announced $2 million in funding for electronic resources in Ontario public libraries, Knowledge Ontario lost its support. Although this seems like it is (at least partly) good news, it is my understanding that with proper funding from the Ministry of Culture, KO could have licensed these same electronic resources for the whole province.
Now, I'm certainly no expert on the rationale for the decision, the cost of the e-resources in question, or the potential cost savings of KO licensing the resources. So my questions go to the government agencies, library directors, and librarians in all sectors: In the current economy, doesn't it make sense to strongly support partnering initiatives like KO? I mean, if we can reduce our costs by sharing resources, can't we hire more librarians? Or, at least keep the ones we have? In addition to cost savings, what other benefits would libraries in the public, college, and university systems gain by working more closely together? And finally, what other types of organizations (libraries or otherwise) could contribute to--and benefit from--the KO initiative?
The good news is that librarians are rallying around the cause. AskON volunteer training sessions were held as planned today (I'm pumped about virtual reference!) and the AskON service will run as usual through the fall semester. As a future librarian, I know I will have a role to play as an advocate for information resources and services. I hope that the type of partnerships encouraged by initiatives like KO continue to grow.
So, if you want to write a letter, share your ideas, or even just read more about how to support the KO initiative Kim Stymest's blog post on the topic and KO's own Knowledge Ontario Matters page will bring you up to speed.
