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About KnowUK
What is KnowUK?
What can KnowUK help me do?
What does KnowUK contain?
How does KnowUK work?
How does cross-searching with NewsUK work?
Who uses it?
How will KnowUK benefit my library/organisation?
What are the technical requirements for using KnowUK?
Who do I contact for further information? What is KnowUK? KnowUK is an online service developed to provide UK reference information. It is the most comprehensive resource of its kind, offering a complete library of UK information. Since its launch in December 1998, KnowUK has tripled in size in terms of content. KnowUK is currently available to around 30% of the UK population through library services and is the leading UK reference product for libraries. What can KnowUK help me do? KnowUK is the essential online reference tool. KnowUK makes life easier, cutting out information overload and providing authoritative and current information. Our subscribers use us to: - Research college assignments
- Research questions for TV quiz shows
- Answer queries at the reference desk
- Support teaching of information literacy
- Fact check newspaper stories
- Do their homework
- Plan business trips to places in the UK
- Find funding for university courses
- Answer queries for digital reference services
- Read reference books with a speaking browser
- And much, much more…
What does KnowUK contain? Over 100 reference publications (see the full list here) provide a comprehensive resource for everybody in the UK. Most are unique to KnowUK and are not available elsewhere online. Many of these are updated more frequently than the equivalent print copy, so KnowUK is the place to search first. To illustrate the breadth and depth of information available in KnowUK, here's a sample of the information available in each of the 15 categories: - Arts and Media - Willing's Press Guide
- Biographies - Debrett's People of Today, Who's Who and Who Was Who
- Courses and Careers - UK Course Discover
- Education - The Good Schools Guide
- Events - Foresight
- General Knowledge - Whitaker's Almanack
- Government - The Civil Service Yearbook
- Grants and Funding - The Educational Grants Directory
- Health and Welfare - The Welfare Benefits Guide
- Law - The Law Society Directory of Solicitors
- Libraries, Museums and Archives - The Libraries Directory
- Organisations, Associations and Charities - The Voluntary Agencies Directory
- Personal Finance - Which? Money Saving Handbook
- Religion - Crockford's Clerical Directory
- Tourism and Leisure - The Good Food Guide
You can also look up words in The Chambers Dictionary and The Chambers Thesaurus using the Dictionary & Thesaurus Search. How does KnowUK work? KnowUK is easy and flexible to use. Users can: - Search across the 100+ publications in KnowUK for information on local towns using the quick search
- Search for information on pensions only in the Personal Finance category
- Search for information on your local library in the Libraries Directory
- Browse through the Which? Guide to Good Hotels
- Find all the GPs closest to your home
- Read about life-changing events such as getting divorced
- Find information on what's on in Bristol in the Local Information pages
Our unique search and indexing systems mean that your search results will be concise and directly relevant to your search terms. Once you have found the information you're looking for, you can either print it off in a user-friendly format or email it to yourself or others for later reference. For more in depth information on how to use KnowUK, take a look at our User Guide which takes you through every aspect of KnowUK in a step- by-step way. How does cross-searching with NewsUK work? If you also subscribe to NewsUK (http://www.newsuk.co.uk), our database of UK newspapers, you may have noticed this link:  Try the same search in NewsUK?
appearing at the top of your quick search results. Clicking on this button will automatically carry out the same search in NewsUK across the entire archive of news articles (1992+). This enables you, for example, to find a biography of Bob Geldof and then to find news articles about him. This enables you to cut down on research time and to get a complete up-to-date picture of his life, using contemporary news articles. The quick search in NewsUK also enables you to carry out the same search in KnowUK for reference information. Who uses it? KnowUK is the ideal resource for libraries of all kinds - public, further education, government, higher education, corporate, media and specialist libraries. It is suitable for a wide range of users, from professional researchers to people who are new to the 'net. KnowUK is available to millions of people in the UK and elsewhere through subscribing libraries and organisations. It includes special design features making it fully accessible to users with physical and visual impairments. (Read our page on accessibility for further information on this.) Remote access means that KnowUK is accessible for many public library members and students from home, work, wherever ... see our page on remote access to find out how to set this up for your library and benefit fully from your KnowUK subscription. How will KnowUK benefit my library/organisation? Public Libraries: Subscribing to KnowUK means that you can provide the same level of reference information to all libraries in the authority, from the largest central library to part-time service points. Remote access means that people who are unable to visit the library will be able to access quality reference information as provided by you 24/7. Further Education: KnowUK is the ideal environment for students to learn key information seeking and research skills. The information within KnowUK is guaranteed to be authoritative and current. It's so easy to use too. We've worked with JISC to provide curriculum focused user guides to aid lecturers and librarians to make KnowUK a useful tool for improving information literacy skills as part of the curriculum. KnowUK has Athens access so students will be able to access it wherever they are studying. Higher Education: KnowUK provides a valuable resource to aid in-depth research and study. It boasts a multitude of uses such as finding additional sources of funding for studying, checking historical facts, finding out more about people and finding more information out about specialist archives. KnowUK has Athens access so students will be able to access it wherever they are studying. Government Libraries: KnowUK supports the work of several central government departments, enabling them to find out more about people, contact organisations, find out about current events and check facts. Corporate and Media Libraries: KnowUK is used by leading media organisations to check facts, find out more about key people, and to generally help them to produce news and entertainment for you everyday. Corporate libraries use KnowUK as an essential part of their in-house information services and intranets. Special Libraries: KnowUK fits the needs of many specialist library services, for example the National Library for the Blind use KnowUK to provide reference information remotely to visually impaired users whereas the British Council use KnowUK to provide information to overseas students who want to come and study in the UK. What are the technical requirements for using KnowUK? The following browsers are needed to access KnowUK: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher, Firefox 1.5 or higher, or Safari 2.0. Macromedia Flash player is required to view the tour of KnowUK on the home page. Download the latest version of Macromedia Flash player from here. KnowUK does not work with the AOL browser, if you are an AOL user, you will need to use IE to access KnowUK. You can download the browsers in the list using the links below: KnowUK has been optimised to support speaking browsers such as Jaws and screen magnifying software such as ZoomText. Further information on the special accessibility features of KnowUK can be found in our page on accessibility. Who do I contact for further information? Contact us via our webmaster. If you have a specific query please go to our Who Should I Contact at KnowUK? page.
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