About HKN
How We Got Started
The Health Knowledge Network [HKN] is a collaborative venture between the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta. Established in 1994, we are Alberta’s leader in licensing quality published health information resources to post-secondary, health, government and research organizations and institutions for both Alberta and Saskatchewan. Our role is to negotiate fair and equitable pricing with international publishers and vendors on behalf of our subscribers. Through our affiliation with the two universities we draw on the experience and expertise of the highly trained health information professionals to provide complementary services such as training, technical support, and document delivery. We operate at full cost-recovery through an appropriate cost-sharing strategy. Future directions for HKN are based on meeting the needs of the two Universities and being responsive to the needs of external users.
Why We Got Started
- To provide access to scholarly health information on behalf of academic institutions that otherwise would not have the funds or expertise to purchase these knowledge products for their staff and students.
- To provide access to practice-based health information to healthcare practitioners, researchers, and policy makers at hospitals, clinics and research institutions.
- To ensure that graduates from health sciences programs across Alberta and the Prairies continue to have access to the health literature that they have grown to depend on during their studies.
Mission
To facilitate continuing professional education and support evidence-based practice by extending the networked health information resources of the University of Calgary and University of Alberta to organizations and institutions in Western Canada.
Vision
Equitable delivery of quality health information to the post-secondary sector, practitioners, researchers and policy makers.
Our Community
The Health Knowledge Network (HKN) currently reaches 80% of the health practitioner community in Alberta through our agreements with health authorities, research institutions, health boards, and the majority of post-secondary educational institutions throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan.
By providing Health Knowledge Network (HKN) services at the academic level, all graduating medical and health practitioners in Alberta and Saskatchewan are already knowledgeable users and early adopters of the Health Knowledge Network (HKN) system. Once in the community as practitioners, they continue to access key health information through their affiliation with HKN member sites.
Supporting Services
To support maximum uptake of our licensed resources, the Health Knowledge Network also provides training through formal classroom sessions and interactive online tutorials. The University of Alberta and the University of Calgary partner with libraries throughout Alberta and Canada to provide document delivery of full text literature. HKN also provides information presentations throughout the year to update its memberships on new knowledge products and product features.