(draft)
A knowledge base (KB) is a singular place to track resources/titles (items). The act of tracking items extends beyond the item itself and includes:
- the ability to associate and record relevant information about that item,
- the ability to perform actions upon the item, and
- the ability to populate public facing systems with the data in the KB.
Associating and recording relevant information about that item includes associating licensing information and documents, troubleshooting information, administrative and statistical logins, and associated contact(s) and pertinent information/notes about the item.
Perform actions upon the item includes the ability to "tracked" an item with various statuses, and control exists over what information is recorded and shared with regard to the item(s).
Populate public facing systems with the data in the KB includes the action of auto-populating front-end systems and services based upon the data in the KB, such as MARC records, OpenURL systems, database pages, e-journal pages, Web discovery systems, and possibly patron authentication.
Additionally, a knowledge base must be searchable, allowing for its information to be retrieved and actively used.