Goals

Knowledge Ontario’s plans and projects support the achievement of six over-arching goals:

1. Bridge the digital divide by providing equitable and seamless access to high quality digital content and services to people at every stage of life and reflective of Ontario’s diverse communities
2. Strengthen libraries as community hubs of learning and literacy by adopting and delivering new technologies and innovative services
3. Enable the creation of informed, engaged and digitally literate citizens
4. Build Ontario’s digital literacy and critical thinking skills through creation of innovative, collaborative, web-based learning tools
5. Support life-long learning and close the gap experienced by students and adult learners in Ontario’s remote and rural communities by delivering quality electronic databases, virtual reference services and digital learning tools
6. Enable communities to create and manage sustainable digital content about Ontario history and culture and make it discoverable to a wider audience

In developing its partnerships and projects, Knowledge Ontario identified equity of access as a key enabler in achieving its goals. For Ontario to realize its potential, its citizens must be allowed to reach theirs – in their studies, in their work, in their health and in their contribution to the lives of their families and their communities.

If part of the population has the digital tools and resources and part does not, there can be no expectation that students will succeed, that people will achieve more, work more productively or contribute to knowledge and innovation. Knowledge Ontario’s initiatives are critical in overcoming the digital divide and enabling Ontarians to develop the digital literacy needed to succeed in the 21st century.