January 2007

Another Huge Increase in Use of iCONN, Connecticut’s Research Engine

Over the past year the number of searches in iCONN increased 75% to over 33 million. Since the program’s inception in 2001, Connecticut residents and students have conducted 64 million searches in iCONN.

Today, iCONN provides an extensive set of information resources available for all its citizens at www.iconn.org. With a $2 million annual investment by the state, schools, libraries and colleges save the over $33 million it would cost if they were to purchase these databases individually.

Log on now at www.iconn.org to find magazine articles, reference books, newspaper articles, images and more. iCONN serves a variety of needs including student homework, business and consumer health research, and genealogy. Magazine and newspaper databases targeting different age groups and needs make iCONN a valuable and useful resource for students of all ages from kindergarten through college as well as the general public. Among the resources are: the full-text of The Hartford Courant back to 1992, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and biography, science and history databases. There are also dictionaries and encyclopedias, subject guides to Internet resources, a large collection of primary source materials, and a statewide catalog of library holdings.

Explore this free resource available to you and your children. In addition to using iCONN at school and at the public library, students, parents and teachers may access the databases from a home computer with Internet access using their public library card number.

The Connecticut State Library administers iCONN in conjunction with the Department of Higher Education.