At WiLS, we want to bring valuable information to our library partners, including information about the missions and big ideas of the vendors they may already do business with. Each month, WiLS interviews a vendor partner in order to bridge the gap and open the door to valuable collaborations. This month, we are delighted to share insights from Brenna Castagna, Territory Manager at Britannica Digital Learning, one of WiLS’ bronze vendor partners!
Tell us about your company’s background.
Encyclopedia Britannica published its first 3-volume encyclopedia way back in 1768. We’ve come a long way since then! Britannica has evolved from print encyclopedias to strictly offering online digital solutions to libraries and classrooms. We were one of the pioneers in providing digital educational content, first in the form of CD-ROMs and DVDs then, 20 years ago, via the Internet. Because of the dramatic changes in education and in the kind of products and services that we provide, we often describe ourselves as a 250-year-old start-up.
Over this time, our digital products have acquired a reputation for currency, relevance, accuracy, and reliability. We have over 80-full-time editors on staff and nearly 3,500 expert editorial contributors who are continuously updating and adding to our database. In the past, our editorial contributors have included many of the great minds of every era, such as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Sigmund Freud. Today our contributors include former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and tennis great Chris Evert, as well as Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and leading educators in every field.
With Britannica Digital Learning, a 10-year-old brand we use for schools and libraries, we’ve put a strong emphasis on PreK-12 education, and today we’re focused on diversified digital solutions across the curriculum that teachers, teacher librarians, and students can use effectively in school and at home, on any device. You are probably most familiar with our flagship product, Britannica School, and our Spanish Reference Center, which are both available to all K12 schools and public libraries in Wisconsin through BadgerLink. How awesome is that? We strive to continuously bring the best products to the marketplace, and I think we do a great job at this.
Why do you, personally, choose to work with libraries?
Well, that’s an interesting story. I stayed home for almost 9 years with Nathan and Ava who are now 14 and 12 years old. I chose to go back to work in the education field when Ava went to 1st grade. I found that it was a natural fit for me since I was living in that world every day. Helping my kids with their homework and school projects really reinforced the importance of having high-quality, age appropriate educational resources readily available through our school district and public library. People can turn to the library for easy access to quality content that is up to date and relevant. Librarians, as trained knowledge professionals, are still the most reliable guides for finding solutions to homework problems and research queries.
Honestly, I love working with librarians and educators to understand their viewpoint while having a parent’s perspective as well. I felt that I was really able to do both jobs, Britannica and Mom, better by getting to see both sides. I enjoy working with everyone that I’ve had the privilege to meet so far and look forward to working with many more of you in the future! Definitely stop by and say hi to me at the conferences!
What do you like to know about the libraries you work with? What helps you better understand their needs?
I am very interested in learning as much as I can about the specific interests of the libraries’ patrons and how they access the digital resources that the libraries currently provide. I don’t want to make assumptions. We have many digital products that address a variety of needs, from pre-K to university, for Spanish speakers, and English-language learners at all reading levels. I am interested in matching as closely as we can our products with real-life needs. We want people to use and enjoy our products every day, and come to us for trustworthy and engaging information. But we can do that only with the help of librarians, teachers, and students. Learning from them helps us improve our products and continually evolve to meet changing needs. The more input I have about library patrons and their interests, the easier it is for me to provide advice on our products and services and to communicate to our editors important additions in our products that will make them even more relevant and easier to use.
What big ideas are being worked on at your company? What problems are being solved?
We continue to pursue what we see are the most important trends in educational products. These include differentiated content at various reading levels; the use of interactive, multimedia content and graphic organizers; linking our curated content to image banks and primary source content; and increasing our global reach. One of the biggest problems that we have to solve is addressing the increasingly mobile nature of learning as well as the interoperability of databases. We have to make sure that our products work well and look great on all devices of all sizes and that they can be accessed from any platform. It is the challenge of an increasingly complex technological world. Publishing was simpler when information was only presented in ink on paper. The challenges today are much greater, but when digital products are created correctly, with the specific needs of patrons in mind, the value to the learner is exponentially greater as well.
Our product development efforts are driven primarily by input and feedback we get from librarians and educators like you. We continuously strive to create products that are not only easily accessible, relevant, and useful but also address the challenges that librarians and patrons face in finding the content they need. For example, Britannica ImageQuest was created to help resolve issues that students and librarians were encountering in finding images that were safe, relevant, and free of copyright issues. This online image database now contains nearly 3 million rights-cleared images from 60 of the world’s top collections. We’ve also recently linked ImageQuest with Britannica School. This a nice feature because users can get results from both resources with just one search. Stay tuned for future development and innovation from Britannica!
How can librarians become partners in product or training development?
Because we are all online, it is much easier to communicate than it has been in the past. Access to email, social media, webinars, etc., are all excellent ways for us to communicate with librarians and learn more about our customer needs. We have the advantage today of creating intimacy with our partners and to have a truly two-way conversation, both for learning what our customers want as well as training them on our products and services at their convenience.
We love the relationship we have with librarians. We learn from the conversations that they have among themselves through online forums as well as when they reach out to us directly. We want them to ask us to do more, to challenge us, and to make sure that we are meeting the needs of their patrons. We want them to tell us what they like and what they don’t like. And the great advantage of being online is that we can make changes quickly and often. With the help of librarians, teachers, and students, we will continually improve and become more important to our customers.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share here?
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my thoughts and Britannica’s product information with you. Our mission is to serve as many people as possible with content that they can use immediately in their daily lives. We are proud to be able to partner with librarians, who, by definition, are dedicated to providing the best possible information and educational resources available, and have the knowledge, experience, and goal to do so. Please reach out to me with any ideas, concerns, and/or questions. I’d love to hear from you!