Knowledge Management Tools within the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)

Abstract

Several Knowledge management tools have greatly enhanced the U.S. Geological Survey National Biological Information Infrastructure (http://www.nbii.gov) ability to deliver high quality scientific information to researchers, decision makers, and ultimately the general public. These include various cataloging, thesauri, collaboration, spatially oriented, and integrated portal tools. For instance, the use of thesauri in the retrieval of information has been in practice for the past several years. However, the use of these knowledge management systems as a framework in supporting Internet based retrieval of biological information is still relatively new. The NBII has benefited significantly from this approach in the areas of thesauri and portals through providing customized, tailored, and user driven access to information. Also, through the use of web-services, various weighting algorithms, pre defining search results, and integration with other international thesauri, biological users are able to discover information that was once not available via traditional query methods.