By Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen
On 8th July 2026, DIGIT Lab joined colleagues from across government, including the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), GOV.UK, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the Home Office, for a workshop on the development of the GOV Reuse Library. Held at the FORA Gridiron building in King’s Cross, London, the workshop explored how government teams could more easily find, organise and reuse existing digital services and knowledge.
The workshop was led by Professor Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen from DIGIT Lab, University of Exeter, alongside Emma Nicol and Nikola Goger from the Ministry of Justice, with support from Dr Karl Johnson, DIGIT Lab.
The GOV Reuse Library aims to help government teams find and build on existing digital services, components and knowledge, reducing the need to develop similar solutions from scratch as well as adopt best practice.
The morning began with a review of existing research on how people search for reusable resources, including user needs, common barriers and current user journeys. Participants discussed the experiences of three key user groups, considering what they look for, how they approach searches and where they encounter difficulties.
In the afternoon, Prof Ahmed- Kristensen drew on her research into knowledge reuse and ontologies, including previous work with Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems. She introduced approaches to organising knowledge around concepts such as products, functions, issues and processes [1]- the work is based on models of how engineers search for information as well as engineering theories, and discussed how these could be applied to the GOV Reuse Library.
This led to a discussion about how different people might look for the same information. Some may know exactly which digital component they need, while others may begin with a task, a problem they are trying to solve or a need for guidance. Understanding these different starting points could help shape a library structure that reflects how people actually search for and use information.
The workshop brought together research on knowledge organisation and reuse with the practical challenges of government digital service design. The discussions identified opportunities for further collaboration and for applying research-led approaches to improve how reusable knowledge and digital solutions are discovered across government.
- AHMED, S. (2005). Encouraging Reuse of Design Knowledge: A Method to Index Knowledge. In Design Studies 11016/j.destud.2005.02.005
