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National Transportation Knowledge Network (NTKN): Benefits of TKNs

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Benefits of Transportation Knowledge Networks

The cooperative efforts of TKNs

  • provide the combined resources of all institutions to members
  • deliver a wider pool of expertise to locate and provide needed information
  • create a platform for interoperability for tools and information
  • enable leveraging of resources through coordinated acquisitions and lending agreements
    • local point of contact for access to local, regional, and national information resources
    • improved and new services and tools for eastern/southeastern transportation community
    • ensured access and preservation to all participant institution’s information products

What Is a Knowledge Network?

A knowledge network is an ecosystem of information and knowledge professionals, the organizations that they serve, and the knowledge assets for which they are responsible. These professionals are motivated by a commitment to generate, disseminate, and share knowledge within a particular domain. The nodes on the network are spatially and geographically distributed and could be individuals, libraries, research departments, entire organizations, or web-based tools and resources. Connections among the network nodes can be social, formal, or technological. The term can be extended to include concepts, semantic relationships, data tables, and other machine-readable knowledge assets or components. Goals of a knowledge network include coordination of resources and efforts; teaching and learning; developing knowledge assets; innovating methods, tools, and services; adapting knowledge assets for local use; and supporting individual members.

NTKN Communities of Practice

A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern, set of problems, or subject matter interest.  Community participants expand their knowledge and expertise by interacting in regularly scheduled meetings.

NTKN sponsors three Communities of Practice <link here>:

  • 508 Compliance
  • Cooperative Digitization
  • Library Advocacy
  • Data Curation