This paper discusses the knowledge management challenge faced by Active Living by Design (ALbD), a Chapel Hill-based center focused on increasing physical activity through community design. ALbD is a small organization devoted to solving a critical public health problem: epidemic obesity. Obesity research is highly interdisciplinary, involving methods and data not only from public health, but from fields such as nutrition, city planning, transportation engineering, and architecture. The interdisciplinary work of finding solutions to the obesity crisis is new and rapidly evolving. Much of the available published information is scientific, focused on establishing clear research outcomes, while this organization emphasizes advocacy and practice. The complex requirements of this new and dynamic field created a challenging knowledge management problem for ALbD. On the one hand, no single library exists that effectively serves ALbD's diverse range of disciplines, and need for advocacy-oriented information. Nor did the organization have the resources to create a formally constituted and professionally staffed library of its own, even though accessible, high-quality information is central to its hectic daily work of advising communities around the country. It is an environment of time-pressured inquiry: ALbD's staff members need to find information quickly, share information with colleagues and partners, and incorporate retrieved information into their work practices and products.
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