Transportation Knowledge Networks A Management Strategy for the 21st Century -- Special Report 284 (2006) / Chapter Skim
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2 Toward a Nationwide Transportation Information Management System
2 Toward a Nationwide Transportation Information Management System
Pages 37-60
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From page 37... ...
The chapter ends with a brief discussion of what is necessary to implement the recommended system. MODELS FOR MANAGING INFORMATION SERVICES The committee examined the characteristics of national libraries and networksofinformationserviceprovidersinothermajoreconomicsectors-the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
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Full members must have their own collections, Internet connections, and regular staff, and they must provide information services to health professionals or the general public. Affiliate members must provide health information to users but do not have to meet the criteria for full membership.
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Although the transportation sector is unlikely to replicate either the budget or staffing levels of NLM, it could emulate many of the keys to its success, such as its strong network, effective governance arrangements, and useful products. National Agricultural Library Founded as the departmental library for the U.S.
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Department of Education; ERIC = Education Resources Information Center; FTE = full-time equivalent; MEDLINE = Medical Literature and Analysis Retrieval System Online; MTKN = Midwest Transportation Knowledge Network; NIH = National Institutes of Health; TLCat = Transportation Libraries Catalog; TRB = Transportation Research Board; TRIS = Trans portation Research Information Services; USAIN = United States Agricultural Information Net work; USDA = U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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j Provides reference services and free access to TLCat.
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, of citations to the agricultural literature; provides DigiTop, a digital desktop library that brings published information on agriculture and related sciences to the desktops of USDA employees; operates seven national centers that provide information on such key topics as alternative farming, animal welfare, and food and nutrition; and collaborates with universities and other partners in the Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC) , which provides reliable web-based information and expertise on food, agriculture, and natural resources to national and international users.
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These objectives are being accomplished through such initiatives as convening a leadership council focused on the future of agricultural information, strengthening congressional relationships, and promoting NAL as coordinator of a national network of information specialists that serves a broader audience than USDA. National Library of Education NLE is a relative latecomer as a national library.
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It makes this collection available to DOE staff and contractors and to a broader audience through local libraries. NLE operates the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
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The current leadership has chosen to carry out the library's mission to foster cooperation and resource sharing among providers of education information through the ERIC program, working with the Online Computer Library Center's (OCLC's) WorldCat and selected libraries, as well as with secondary vendors of the ERIC database and content providers, to improve access to education information.
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The success of the organization is attributed to the loyalty of its members and the value added by its knowledgeable staff. Local Technical Assistance Program Centers The transportation community operates a network of Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP)
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regions, meets annually and serves as a mechanism to facilitate communication and coordination among association members and other government, academic, and private institutions and associations. Implications for Transportation A well-conceived system for transportation information management must be tailored to the decentralized character of the transportation sector and user community, the uneven development of libraries and other transportation information providers and services across the country, and resource constraints at all government levels.
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Unlike health and agriculture, however, transportation does not have a system of strong libraries and information providers in each region; the institutional infrastructure to enable networked operations must be developed. OVERVIEW OF A PROPOSED TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The information technology revolution provides an opportunity for transportation libraries and other information providers to organize and deliver transportation information in new ways.
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· Lead core group · USDOT libraries · State DOT libraries · BTS/modal · University libraries administrations · Other libraries and · Other federal collections (e.g., agencies MPOs, transit agencies, large cities and counties, corporate) FIGURE 2-1 Proposed nationwide system for transportation information management.
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, and coordinating the preservation and storage of printed and electronic materials. In today's business environment, in which transportation professionals are asked to do more with less, networking and coordination can help leverage resources, minimize duplication, and stretch budgets for libraries and information services.
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. · They can clarify whether they want information in narrative form, tabular or geospatial data, or all of these.
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· If a document is not available electronically, they are offered a menu for delivery: interlibrary loan (because of the Trans portation Libraries Catalog or First Search, the location of the closest borrowing institution is known) ; electronic document delivery (from where and how much)
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17The committee is not recommending a specific structure for the coordination of international information providers, but it views better coordination of and access to international information as a key function for the national coordinating structure (see the next section)
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NTL should take the lead in organizing this federal network as part of its mission to work with other transportation libraries and information providers. Other key participants should include the headquarters library at USDOT, the libraries and collections of the USDOT modal administrations, the TurnerFairbank Reference Technical Center, the Volpe Transportation Library, and the transportationrelated libraries and collections of other federal agencies (e.g., the U.S.
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,19 discussions with selected committees representing information service providers and users at the Transportation Research Board's (TRB's) 2005 Annual Meeting,20 a roundtable discussion on this topicfromtheinformationprovideranduserperspectivesatthefirstcommittee meeting, and discussions with members of AASHTO's Research Advisory Committee and the Standing Committee on Research of AASHTO at various committee meetings.
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The coordinating structure could help develop collection and reference strategies to minimize duplication, manage appropriate document storage redundancy, take advantage of economies of scale, ensure interoperability across networks so that operations are seamless to users, and share best practices to obtain the greatest value from networked operations. For example, the coordinating structure could help realize economies of scale across the system of TKNs by working with them to develop policies for rationalizing library collections and to create centers of specialization that would reduce duplication in holdings across individual libraries and information providers.
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The coordinating structure would act as a focal point for promoting the value of information and information services and attracting adequate resources for this purpose. It would also handle government relations, including links with international information providers.
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Product Development One way to raise awareness of the benefits of the proposed transportation information management system would be to develop a highly useful product that would require the cooperation of multiple information providers and demonstrably benefit users. The Transportation Libraries Catalog (TLCat)
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Turning the vision into a reality, however, requires good choices regarding administration and funding of the system, the topics of the following two chapters. REFERENCES Abbreviations GAO General Accounting Office MTKN Midwest Transportation Knowledge Network NAL National Agricultural Library OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
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2003. Scoping Study for a National Strategic Plan for Transporta tion Information Management.
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