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The Knowledge Base Smashes Records in 2024!

Quick Summary

  • The UC Davis Knowledge Base (KB) achieved a new record in 2024, recording 2,668,477 views, which is a 73 percent increase over the previous year.
  • This significant increase reflects a steady rise in use by Aggies, driven by an expansion of content to over 5,400 articles.
  • The success is also attributed to expanding community feedback, which helps ensure that the documentation and guides remain accurate and relevant.

Congratulations to the Service Management Office! The Knowledge Base (KB) closed out 2024 with an impressive new record. The central digital repository, featuring public and university procedures, guides, training materials, and other documentation, had 2,668,477 views in 2024. That’s a 73 percent increase over 2023, which was previously a record year.

The Knowledge Base officially went live in February 2014, following a soft launch in 2013. Here’s a look at the views over the past ten years. You can see a steady rise as more and more Aggies look to the KB for answers.

Knowledge Base Views by Year

 

In the graph above, there are a couple of surges in views over the past decade. The first surge came in 2020, which was, of course, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a time when Aggies were searching for university updates and policies. The second surge occurred in 2023, when the Finance and Business offices began their move to Aggie Enterprise. The KB was used extensively to document changes and instructions to make the transition easier.

Growing Knowledge

The Knowledge Base ended its first official year (2014) with just 328 articles. Ten years later (as of December 31, 2024) the KB had 5,475 articles. There are also currently 38 active Knowledge Bases, which include one public KB and the rest for departments or groups and have limited access. For instance, IET has its own Knowledge Base, called IET Internal. Like other internal KBs, you need UC Davis credentials to gain access.

One of the drivers behind this expansion in Knowledge Base articles and bases is an increasing amount of community feedback. Not only are Aggies accessing the KB in higher numbers, but they’re engaging with the content and playing an active role in shaping it. There was an 18 percent increase in feedback in 2024 over the previous year. Diving deeper, feedback with comments rose by an impressive 111 percent!

“The growing engagement with community feedback on articles helps ensure the content is accurate and up-to-date,” said Tobi Paton, Knowledge Manager and Business Systems Analyst in IET Client Success, who compiled the stats for this article.

Learn More About the Knowledge Base

The public Knowledge Base is available to everyone, even folks outside of UC Davis, at kb.ucdavis.edu. Only ServiceNow users can create a KB article, but anyone can suggest one. Articles are created based on the Knowledge Base Style Guide, so the content has a consistent look and unified voice.

If you have any questions about the Knowledge Base, including starting your own internal KB, contact the Service Management Office at itsm@ucdavis.edu.