Navy library resources on NKO

The Navy General Library Program (NGLP) partnered with Navy Knowledge Online(NKO) to provide ebooks, reference materials and practice testing services at no cost to Sailors and Marines worldwide. These materials are also available to Reservists, retirees, Department of the Navy civilian and nonappropriated fund (NAF)personnel. The move to partner with NKO saved the Navy an estimated $15.5 million compared to the cost of having each installation purchase the resources individually, according to Nellie Moffitt, NGLP Director.

"The primary reason for joining NKO was to provide greater library services to a greater number of Sailors at a cost savings," said Moffitt. "There isn't a Navy General Library at every Naval installation, so we can best meet Sailors' needs through Econtent (electronic content), which is accessible worldwide. An added benefit is that NKO also provides support to Navy civilians, NAF personnel and retirees. NKO allows us to meet many needs with a comparatively small investment."

The idea to put Econtent on NKO originated with Capt. James Kantner, Director of Knowledge Management at the Naval Personnel Development Command in Norfolk, Va. "These Econtent resources are the perfect fit for NKO," said Kantner. "We developed NKO to connect Sailors with the right knowledge at the right time to support their professional and personal development. The vision was to create a learning environment dedicated to providing our Navy workforce with the tools to excel, and that requires us to harness the best Navy and commercially-produced resources available today."

NKO is the Navy's Web Learning Portal through which Sailors will be able to access the professional and personal development resources needed to support their5 Vector Model (5VM), the Navy's premier interactive career planning model. NKO is currently averaging more than 17,000 daily logins by approximately 265,000 users.

NGLP Econtent currently available on NKO includes:

Gale Student Resource Center--provides full-text resources including books and pamphlets on a wide range of subjects.

Gale Expanded Academic--2,000 full-text journals, periodicals and magazines covering all academic disciplines.

Peterson's--an educational resource site, offering information on colleges, universities and distance learning. NGLP also purchases Peterson's study guides and sample tests for 10 subject areas of the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) and several others. In addition, Peterson's offers full-text, printable study guides for eight tests including ASVAB and Officer Training.

Newsbank--offering 460 U.S. and 40 full-text international newspapers and special papers on hot topics. Most have extensive back files from prior years.

Morningstar Library Edition--stock, bond and mutual fund information, study guides on investment topics and approximately 100 courses on investing and related topics.

NetLibrary--offers more than 6,000 full-text ebooks, including computer titles, Cliff Notes, career and vocational information, testing study guides, personal financial information titles, library science titles and military history titles.

Moffitt said the NGLP/NKO relationship is a natural partnership. "It's great because they handle the technical end, and we do the analysis of what content meets the greatest needs of the Navy community."

"It's a seamless interface for the end user--they simply click on the product channel on NKO and go directly to a commercial vendor's site, such as the Gale Student Resource Center or Peterson's." "We're going to expand the titles in this library next year," Moffitt continued.

"We've been very pleased at the usage, which has been high with all the products. Use of the Morningstar financial investment information product increased by 550 percent between October and December 2003. That's a good example of a product with strong personal interest among our users that also supports a Navy program--in this case, the Personal Financial Management (PFM) program. Morningstar offers a large volume of classes, which dovetail with the PFM emphasis throughout the Department of Defense. PFM manager scan make use of this database, as well."

A part of Navy Region Gulf Coast, the NGLP headquarters at the Naval Education and Training Professional Development and Technology Center, Saufley Field, supports all general libraries in the Navy, including more than 300 afloat and70 at shore installations. NGLP provides professional military materials, such as the Blue jacket's Manual, books from the Chief of Naval Operations and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy reading lists, reference materials including Jane's Fighting Ships, atlases, and other materials like DVDs, videos and audio books.

For further information, contact the Navy General Library Program office at nglp@cnet.navy.mil, (850) 452-1001, ext. 2185 or DSN 922-1001, ext. 2185. To access NKO, visit https://www.nko.navy.mil/.

COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Navy
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group