Recent Trends of Knowledge Management in Library and Information
Science
P.M. Manoharan
Pillai
Librarian, T.K.M.
Institute of Management, Kollam, Kerala
*Corresponding Author E-mail: pmmohanpillai@gmail.com.
ABSTRACT:
The Knowledge Management is a very familiar term. KM is a
discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, managing and
sharing all of an organization information assets
regardless of how or where they are located. KM is a business strategy that may
organize in public and private sector are adopting. The basis of KM is the
power of learning. KM helps to share nature and learn from others. KM is
defined as management of organizational Knowledge for creating business value
and generating competitive advantage. KM is the explicit and systematic
management of vital knowledge and its associated process of creating,
gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and exploitation.
The intention of this work is to examine and respond to an
assertion that Librarians are Knowledge managers. The view is taken that KM is
a rapidly developing area that has its roots in the medium term past and that
interest in it has increased somewhat meteorically mainly because of the
revolutionary rather than evolutionary changes that are occurring particularly
in the business and public sectors internationally. The
‘real’ KM courses that should be developed by the schools of information
science.
KEYWORDS:
Information Science, Strategic approach, Advanced Knowledge, Organizational
Knowledge.
KM has burst up on the information scene with suddenness and great
intensity within the past seven years. KM is a Computer based information
systems. Knowledge Management system can be used either for management or for
operational applications. KM attempts at the holistic application of the
complexities of human intellectual processes, including tacit knowledge,
learning and innovating processes, communication cultures, values and
intangible assets to assist decision making and control processes, It is highly
political socio-cultural and human implications. KM is a never ending process.
There is a need for significant changes in thinking, attitude, education, and
training before we can confidently face the KM future that awaits
in many important areas of the information and library professions. The context
in which KM has emerged is one of very significant change in organizational
management structures.
Information and library science education has concentrated up on
skills, techniques, processes and bibliographic and information resources
management. KM is seen as the discipline with in which information and library
science reside.
Strategies and approach:-
Knowledge is being recognized in an increasing measure as a primary source of
wealth production. The vast and deep impact on the social and economic
environment caused by technology and globalization has forced organizations
worldwide to make significant changes to their objectives, strategies and
organizational structures in order to adapt, survive and succeed in the 21st
century.
The organization should develop the capacity to collect, store and
transfer knowledge and thus continuously transform itself for corporate
success. The knowledge sub-system is designed for the acquisition, creation,
storage, transfer and utilization of knowledge.
Acquisition;
involves collection of existing data and information from within and
outside the organization via environmental scanning, consultation, networks,
staff suggestions, etc.
Creation of knowledge; is mainly through problem solving
innovative programme and conversion of implicit
knowledge to explicit knowledge.
Storing; is the coding and preserving of value
added knowledge for easy access.
Transfer and utilization refer to the mechanical, electronic and
interpersonal movement of information and knowledge throughout the
organization. A networked IT platform should be installed to support the
knowledge systems. The holistic approach to KM that encompasses organizational,
cultural and technological aspects.KM may be viewed as two-dimensional
perspective. First dimensions, consist of knowledge creation and innovation,
knowledge exchange, capture, reuse and internationalization. The Second
dimension consists of strategy, measurement, policy, content, process,
technology and culture.
Types of Knowledge:- A
typology of knowledge is ‘Core’, ‘Advanced’ and ‘Innovative Knowledge’. Core
Knowledge is the minimum level of knowledge required for daily operations.
Advanced Knowledge enables a firm to be competitively viable and
innovative knowledge enables a firm to lead the industry to which it belongs
and competitors. Knowledge is also categorized as ‘explicit’ and ‘tacit’
knowledge. Explicit knowledge is expressed in words and numbers and shared in
the form of data, scientific formulae, specifications, manuals and the like.
Tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalize, making it difficult
to communicate or share with others.
Another categorization of knowledge is ‘practical,
experience-based knowledge’ and ‘theoretical knowledge’ derived from reflection
and abstraction from experience. The era of the knowledge-based economy pushes
organizations to react speedily to the changing environment. KM should be the
key motivating force of nay business activity in this era of IT. KM includes
everything right from top management support, facilitating environment,
adequate infra-structure, intellectual resources, knowledge leadership and
proper management for the deployment of knowledge productivity. Organizational
Knowledge can be thought of as intellectual capital, including human capital,
social capital and corporate capital. Human resource capital includes
individual past, present and future as well as his/her expertise, education and
experience and virtual networks, relationships, interactions and language. Corporate capital in connection with intellectual property,
corporate financial and organizational processes.
About fifty years ago, the information and library science
professions enjoyed a relatively stable situation. The major interest served
were bibliographic or scholarly in nature and the consequent education provided
for the professional concentrated up on bibliography, bibliographic enquiry
techniques, administration of bibliographic resources, classification and
cataloguing and such aspects of financial administration as were appropriate to
the acquisition and preservation, conservation or retention of the resources.
The value of computers in information Storage, processing and access was clearly
recognized. Knowledge management practice seeks to gain leverage for an
organization.
India has had glorious past in pursuit of learning and has been a
magnificent treasure house of knowledge. The libraries at Nalanda
and Taxila have always been names to conjure with. It
is to admitted, however, that the development of libraries according to the
modern concept of librarianship has rather been of recent origin. The Indian
scenario will remain incomplete without mentioning the contribution of the
frail looking Indian-S.R.Ranganathan- who strode like
a colossus the library scene of India as well as the world.
CONCLUSION:-
Effective Knowledge management requires attention to both explicit
and tacit knowledge, to both hard and soft infrastructures. A
common pitfall in to fall in to the trap of viewing KM as primarily a
technological solution with a focus on information.
Organizations must take a wider perspective of the role of
knowledge. They need to manage information as an important resource, something
that few are doing well. However an organization’s most valuable knowledge is
human expertise and the process by which it is shared and enhanced. This is at
the heart of creating value through new products and services and enhanced
business processes. It needs a knowledge sharing culture that encourages free
flow of knowledge, open dialogue across organizational boundaries, and the
nurturing of knowledge networks.
An even more important characteristic for future success will be a
shift from knowledge management to knowledge leadership, where innovation and
development takes precedence over sharing what you already know. Knowledge
leadership provides a metaphor for the future that goes well beyond the
immediate fad of knowledge management.
REFERENCES:
1.
Daryl morey, Mark maybury, Knowledge management :Classic and contemporary
work, Oxford University press (2001)
2.
Stuart Barnes, Knowledge Management Systems: theory and
practice, Thomson Learning (2002)
3.
International Journal of Knowledge Management and
e-learning, International Science press (2010).
4.
Michael Grundstein,”The knowledge
engineering profession” (1990).
5.
Peter Senge,”A leader’s New Work;
Building Learning Organisatioons, Sloan Management
Review (1990).
Received on 03.01.2011 Accepted
on 27.01.2011
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Asian J. Management 2(2): April-June, 2011 page 49-50