Enterprise Knowledge Portals for Naval Personnel: Challenges in Development

1. Enterprise Knowledge Portalsfor Naval Personnel: Challengesin Development ILI 2001 27 March 2001 Joan Buntzen Librarian of the U.S. Navy buntzen@spawar.navy.mil and Dr. Maxine Reneker Naval Postgraduate School mreneker@nps.navy.mil

2. Naval Library Environment • Libraries and information centers • 115 special, medical, and academic • 94 general, 300 shipboard • Organization • Librarian of the Navy and policy under Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer • Web site: www.don-imit.navy.mil (Knowledge Sharing Interest Area) • Consortium of Naval Libraries • Content licensing • Information literacy • Next Generation Library planning

3. Definitions • Gateways and portals • Web/internet portal • Corporate/intranet portal • Enterprise knowledge portal • “Enterprise Knowledge Portals to Become the Shared Desktop of the Future” (http://www.itforecast.com/Data/Software/content/SW032699PR.htm)

4. The Two Projects • Next Generation Library (NGL) and Naval Postgraduate School Knowledge Portal (NPS KP) • Articles: • Reneker, M. and Buntzen, Joan L. (2000), “Enterprise Knowledge Portals: Two Projects in the United States Department of the Navy,” The Electronic Library, vol.18, No.6, pp.392-402 • Buntzen, Joan L. (Fall 2000), “The Next Generation Library,” chips (www.chips.navy.mil)

5. Naval Network Environment • Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) • Many portals in the Department • Anthes, Gary H. (August 21, 2000) “Charting a Knowledge Management Course,” Computerworld (www.computerworld.com) • The Port • Entrance point to NMCI • Facilitate enterprise knowledge discovery and sharing

6. Integrating NGL in NMCIand The Port • Refining our vision • Unifying and coordinating requirements … and exploiting new opportunities • Access to commonly licensed resources • Consortium collection development • Inter-library Web mining • Collaborate for distributed reference • Create new linkages • Digital science library hub at Naval Research Laboratory Library

7. Alternative Information Paths • Global and local • NMCI and the Port • General and specialized • Sources • Searching

8. Naval Postgraduate School Environment • Graduate university • Corporate university • Mandate to tie curricula and research closely to the needs of the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense • Targeted student body • School reorganization • Competitors • Dudley Knox Library mission

9. NPS Knowledge Management Goal and Objectives • Ultimate goal: increase the richness of the NPS information environment to further academic and organizational goals • Facilitate a common understanding of the NPS information environment • Increase ability to obtain information about sponsors and other customers • Provide ability to locate people on campus • Facilitate contributions to the NPS knowledge base • Incentivize information capture • Use knowledge management tools to improve internal processes such as thesis research

10. NPS Portal Status • Autonomy PIB software selection • System configuration • Server • Firewall • Test system developed November 2000 • Selected School for pilot • Administrative data through snapshot reports rather than real time access

11. Approaches to Implementation of Pilot • Target to School of International Graduate Studies • External resources • Usability testing planned • Promotional materials • Buy-in from Dean • Implementation team • License librarian • Reference/collection development specialists • Head, Information Services • Systems librarians • Information technology personnel at NPS

12. Home Page: Data from User Stakeholder Interviews • Flag level: AOL, FLAGNET homepage, NPS homepage • Military administrative personnel: Outlook up all day; Pointcast, NPS Intranet • Provost and deans: MS web, Yahoo, NPS Intranet, Satellite link data, Netscape homepage, Google, Northern Light, Netscape • Civilian administrative personnel: DFAS homepage, Cyberfeds, NPS Intranet, list of favorite bookmarks • Department chairs: NPS Intranet, bookmarks,

13. Alternative Information Paths • View Dudley Knox Library web pages as the interface between the NPS community and the Library service program (http:// web.nps.navy.mil/~library/ • Newly updated NPS home web page with Google search engine (www.nps.navy.mil) and updated intranet pages accessible only on campus • Dudley Knox Library web page net search site • http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/netsearch.htm • Dudley Knox Library resources page • http://web.nps.navy.mil/~library/resources.html • Browser list of favorites

14. NPS Intranet Search Page

15. New NPS Internet Home Page

16. NPS Internet Search FromThe NPS Home Page

17. Dudley Knox Resources Page

18. Dudley Knox NetSearch Page

19. NPS KP Page

20. Challenges in NPS KP development • Funding issues • Maintenance of spiders • Constantly changing array of potential relevant information sources • Availability of systems personnel • Resistance to contributing Office documents • Delays in upgrading or implementing new internal databases, e.g., financial and course management

21. What we did right • User assessment thorough and still accurate • Desire for customizable interface • Requirements: ease of use, ease of access, training, good system performance • Restructuring of NPS Schools and Institutes creates opportunities for pilot testing • Expectations of the campus community remains positive • Integrator performance excellent • Hardware procurement timely and allows for scalability • Separate NGL and NPS KP implementations allow appropriate targeted development

22. Future Direction • Integrating the development of the NGL and the NPS KP into the Department of the Navy knowledge centric organization • People, technology, and social relationships to make things work