Librarians are better positioned to understand knowledge management concepts, since they are most directly involved in how people share and access knowledge. Organizations will need to find out in what ways knowledge is communicated and rewarded. Grefsheim said that in 1988 John Hopkins University established a knowledge management Welch Medical Library Llaboratory. Now there are a number of agencies, such as DTIC, which already have worked out successful knowledge management techniques. Weed said that the Labor Department Policy Office is sponsoring knowledge management seminars and is interested in assembling a thesaurus of knowledge management terms.
Labor is also interested in establishing a framework for managing knowledge management.
Grefsheim said that it is important to obtain support and appreciation from top management on how library resources and effective knowledge management can improve their agencies. Bursik said that various offices in the U.S. Geological Survey are creating data bases of scientific expertise, since more emphasis will be placed on working on projects. Tarr said that more emphasis should be placed on content and on in-depth discussions among federal librarians. Grefsheim suggested that libraries should organize information in such a way as to provide easy access to the user, and to explore knowledge management concepts in more detail. Tarr suggested a dialogue to assess what policies are currently in place, such as OMB policies, etc.