November - December 2007

Best Practices: VDOT and Top Transportation Libraries Build New Knowledge Network

Ken Winter, second from left and shown with other transportation
library representatives, will serve as acting chair for the new group.

As the old adage goes, “knowledge is power.”

That’s why a distinguished group of transportation librarians from the Northeast and Southeast are pooling their resources and expertise to provide researcher and consumers access to information across multiple organizations.

The new network is called the Eastern Transportation Knowledge Network.

Although VDOT’s research library has an extensive collection of transportation research material, users will have access to even more transportation research and information, thanks to the network.

By sharing the administrative load, the network also aims to reduce each participating organization’s operating costs.

Ken Winter, director for the Virginia Transportation Research Council’s (VTRC) Library and Information Services, will serve as the network’s acting chair.

“Strategic partnership development is probably the single most important thing transportation libraries in this country can do,” said Winter. “No one library could ever hope to identify, buy, catalog, process, store or provide access to all the transportation information needed by its DOT to make sound decisions. Simply put, we've got to work together to accomplish that goal.”

The group held its inaugural meeting on Nov. 9 and included representatives from:

VTRC
The Transportation Research Board
National Transportation Library of the U.S. DOT
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
U.S. DOT Volpe Center
Federal Highway Administration
Transportation Connectivity Pooled Fund
Midwest Transportation Knowledge Network
Departments of Transportation from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee and Massachusetts