► Overview
Collecting, managing and preserving institutional knowledge.
Library participation in an agencywide knowledge management strategy.
Strategies and actions to preserve knowledge.
Supplemental resources for more information.
Definitions of terms, abbreviations and acronyms used throughout the Quick Guide.
The Quick Guides in this collection address the following issues of interest to transportation information professionals:
► Introduction to the Quick Guides
► Accessibility and Section 508
► Collection Development and Management
Knowledge management (KM) has been a hot topic of discussion within the transportation community in recent years:
[A] collection of policies and practices relating to the identification, sharing and retention of intellectual/knowledge-based assets in an organization.
It is a management practice fostering collaboration across organizational and disciplinary boundaries[,] linking people who have the requisite knowledge with those who need it to do their jobs.
[A]dvancing and disseminating practices that improve knowledge and information creation, access, sharing, preservation and retention within and among transportation organizations. The committee identifies critical research needs in these areas, promotes understanding of these topics throughout the transportation community, and fosters the use of library and information science and knowledge management practices through education, training, collaboration, outreach and research.
Transportation librarians and information services providers not participating as active members of these committees can ask to participate as a friend of the committee.
KM is becoming more important given the generational changes in the workforce and the quantity and quality of information the outgoing generation possesses. Collecting, managing and preserving this valuable resource is of great value to any agency.
The guidance in this Quick Guide is appropriate for DOTs with or without library spaces and with or without library collections.
The Transportation Research and Connectivity pooled fund study, TPF-5(442), is a consortium of state departments of transportation (DOTs) and other partners that supports the coordinated development of transportation libraries as well as research organizations without dedicated libraries. Study focus areas include communication and networking, digitization, research report accessibility, and developing online resource guides and a toolkit for non-librarians.
NCHRP Report 813: A Guide to Agency-Wide Knowledge Management for State Departments of Transportation, Spy Pond Partners, 2015.
Libraries and information centers can use this guide to support agencies interested in implementing a knowledge management strategy to preserve and enhance employees' organizational knowledge. The report includes guidance for adopting a strategy along with examples from organizations that have successfully implemented these practices. See Preserving Knowledge for more information about this report.
This Quick Guide was prepared by CTC & Associates LLC for the Transportation Research and Connectivity pooled fund study, TPF-5(442), under the guidance of the following members of the study's technical advisory committee:
This guide is a living document that is intended to be revised and updated to incorporate new resources. To suggest a resource for inclusion, please contact one of the committee members listed above.
Publication date: December 2022.