Application of Knowledge Management in Library and Information Centre

 

Sunita

 

Librarian, A.I.Jat H.M. College, Rohtak (Haryana)

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Knowledge management is one of the hottest topics of debate among libraries through there is a dispute on the nature of Job involved in the KM when performed in a library environment in comparison to the environment of the industrial houses university libraries have also started to take care of certain issues related to specialized area of knowledge.

 

The management of information has long been regarded is the domain of librarians and libraries. Librarians and information professionals are known its be expert in information searching, selecting, acquiring, organization, preserving, repacking disseminating or delivery. Libraries have been performing the most vital role as storehouses of human thoughts aspiration, wisdom its knowledge and art, science the dawn of civilization.

 

Knowledge becomes more valuable to the humankind. All that we do all that we make all that we earn are to be treated as knowledge. This knowledge is always altered by new knowledge and also by technological developments thus there is a growing need to become easier with use of knowledge and for the same it is necessary to manage the knowledge effectively so that it can be used with its full benefit. Hence, we see the rise of knowledge management which has come out as one of the important sub category of general management the term knowledge management has been used in many subject fields for years long the term KM is recently discussed in the field of library and information science.

 

What is Knowledge?

Knowledge has been defined in a number of way and there are a number of perspectives on its nature. There are different types of knowledge, each requiring a different management approach Kafantaris gave the meaning of knowledge in relation to data and information as “data is a set of discrete objectives or facts of events but would not be instructing organization.

What to do. Data when analysed, synthesized and summarized can become information, which when compared in different situations such as connections, consequences of daily life, social interaction and thoughts and views can become knowledge.¹

 

It is evident from literature that knowledge is an intrinsically ambiguous term and therefore, defining it precisely is difficult. It is because different disciplines use the term to denote different thing. Despite the difficulties in defining knowledge it is well agreed that knowledge is expertise, experience and capability of staff integrated with processes and corporate memory.

 

Types of Knowledge

1.     Explicit

§  Knowledge that is codified recorded, or actualized into some form outside of head.

§  Books, periodicals, Journals maps, photographs audio, recording.

§  Webpage, website portraits.

2.     Tacit

§  Knowledge from experience and insight not in a recorded form but in our heads, intuition.

§  Intellectual capital

§  Does not mean much unless, packaged in useful ways.

§  Technology and global environment is redefining “Useful Ways.”

 

Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is relatively a new concept it is viewed differently by different people from different background and hence its definition also vary.

 

Definition

The definition of knowledge management is confusing as there are many definitions of the term. Some of the definitions are cited here with some interpretations.

The simplest definition given by Devanport² as knowledge management is the process of capturing, distributing and effectively using the knowledge.

 

According to Duhan³ “knowledge management is a discipline that promotes and integrated approach to identifying capturing evaluating retrieving and shoring all of an enterprise information assets”.

 

As a formal definition from American productivity center knowledge management is a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at right time and helping people share and put information into action in way that strive to improve organizational performance. This definition on is very similar to S.R. Rangnathan definition for library Reference services.⁴

 

Knowledge management is a set of processes of elicitation, transformation and diffusion of intellectual capital primarily residing as tacit knowledge in individuals that led to innovation, knowledge, creation and replenishment of the organizations core competency throughout and enterprise so that it can be shared and thus reused. It helps organizations to find, select, organize, disseminate and transfer important information. It also helps to provide expertise necessary for activities such a problem solving dynamic learning strategic planning and decision making.

 

The National Knowledge Commission

Realizing the important of information in the knowledge society, the Government of India has set up an advisory body in 2005, called. national knowledge commission which has five focus areas namely – easy access to knowledge, emphasis education at all levels creation of knowledge, application of knowledge to all sectors, and better delivery of services in all sectors. The NKC has also recognized public libraries as important elements in the knowledge economy.

 

The national knowledge network is expected to facilitate creation, acquisition and sharing of knowledge resources among the large participating institutions corttaborative research: country wide classrooms etc. and help the country to evolve as knowledge society in the years to come.

 

Information Technology and KM            

The information technology has a great role over the K.M. Library acquires and store information with the help of it treating knowledge as tangible asset, KM employs IT to acquire and store information as products of library or the organization and make delivery to its users or customers. for this purpose some specific KM programmes need to be taken as under.

a)      Establishing of repository data based and retrieval systems.

b)      Gathering information from customers.

c)      Creating and maintaining employee talent and skill profiles.

d)      Creating and maintaining virtual or physical platforms for sharing and disseminating information.⁵

 

McCune⁶ has argued the some technology backups are essentially needed for the application of KM which can be shown as :

1)      Connectivity

2)      Storage

3)      Locators

4)      Learning vehicles

5)      Recent developments

 

A good KM system is always acts as ever growing dynamic system. Knowledge is a resource and it is not consumed when used, it can be again and again as and when required, over the ages or time even in the changed environment. As knowledge is disseminated, individual may develop it, identify a new knowledge and finally return to the system. and thus the knowledge repository grains over time. This is very similar with the Ranganthan firth Law of Library science.

 

Need for KM in Libraries

Libraries from the very inception have been played the pivotal role to act as storehouses of knowledge and key enables to spread learning in the society and is development. In all libraries librarian generally cater three services to their clientele

a)      Reference Services

b)      Reading Room Services

c)      Circulation services for long years back manually by hand operation.

 

These pivotal roles of libraries and librarians have been dramatically changed during 1990s onwards, because of tremendous development of IT and its attachment to libraries. For the IT development, a new dimension a new environment is now taken place in the field of the library services for the augmentation of library automation. The library environment has now basically changed the approaches of library users, their information requirement. The librarian today is expected to access, assess and classify the knowledge being generated throughout the world and integrate it with the information available in particular library. To manage the users’ requirements various information needs and all the approaches to information library system should be so organized that it would be able to meet the new challenges. the Basic role of the librarians information professionals remains the same in the new environments as previous.

 

Thus the role of librarians extends beyond the conventional librarianship. they need to have the understanding of subjects beyond superficial level they must have know how internet technologies, which help in disseminating the information within an organization and provide accessibility to all pertinent library and other organization to render services for its clientele crossing geographical location.

 

KM for University Libraries

KM should be applied to university libraries with the aim to enhance and improve the traditional library operations, to install a culture of sharing knowledge and to achieve the primary goals of the university library, to satisfy the library clientele by serving his requirement. KM will help to acquire the following deserved outcomes of the university library:

1.      To enhance satisfaction of the library clientele.

2.      To attract new library clientele.

3.      To increase public faith throughout the university organization.

4.      To strive to meet and manage the rising expectations of library clientele.

5.      To be able to justify the spending of allotted funds for library by the university.

 

The university library has to perform so many day-to-day activities to run the library smoothly. In the university library, those library activities are well categorized under different job areas and specific designated professionals are engaged for the jobs/tasks. As large number of library activities and services offered to the end users or clientele there is an immense possibility to adopt KM programme structures in university libraries for its managerial betterment. The following KM cycle may be accepted for the university library, which may be sketched in figure 1.  

 

The KM process of University library should have the above six stages or steps to be followed one after another. KM process of a library needs to follows this cyclic order. As knowledge is forever and it is always usable and reusable at any time by any end user of library organization. The above steps of the knowledge Management process of the university library be explained thus:

1.      Capture Knowledge

2.      Refine Knowledge

3.      Create Knowledge

4.      Store Knowledge

5.      Disseminate Knowledge

6.      Manage Knowledge

 

For the implementation of KM in any university library the followings are essential:

§  By recruiting the best people for the library jobs.

§  By exposing library professionals to the complexity of real problems to stimulate and cultivate professional know-how technologies

§  To retain library professionals to react fast in problem solving techniques.

§  To boost library professionals’ problem solving abilities by capturing knowledge in systems and software.

§  To overcome library professionals’ reluctance for sharing information.

 

CONCLUSION:

It is not easy to implement KM process to any organization. There are some barriers for the implementation of KM process.⁷ Turban and Aronson,⁸ O’Dell and Grayson and Vass⁹ have identified those barriers for the implementation of KM processes thus:

1.      Ignorance not knowing who has the right information required for the job; ignorance about the KM benefits.

2.      Lack of time of find out and absorb the best participation recommended; and time lag taken to implement best practices recommended across departments.

3.      Lack of relationship between the source and recipient of knowledge absence of personal tie, credible and strong enough to justify listening and helping one another, i.e. culture does not encourage knowledge sharing.

4.      No skill in KM techniques.

5.      No commitment from senior manger on KM.

6.      No funding for KM; Lack of appropriate technology for KM.

 

All the above barriers are common to any organization and are also true in case of university library organizations, which may be uprooted by active  participation and tactful management of the librarian of the respective  university.  It is true that university library and readers are very much interested for searching webs for their purpose.

 

It can be clearly seen that the environment in which academic libraries operate today is changing. It is both faced with challenges and opportunities through open by the information and communication technologies particularly the internet and academic libraries need to respond to these challenges in order to better serve the needs of the entire academic community. Knowledge management is viable means in which academic libraries could improve their services and become more responsive to the needs of the users in the university.

 

It is important for academic libraries to encourage libraries to constantly update their skills and competencies in this changing environment. With a concerted effort, knowledge management will help to increase libraries operational efficiency and cater to the even increasing needs of their client.

 

References:

1.     Kafantaris Yasmin, The Importance of Tacit Knowledge, Managing Information, 2002, 9 (9): 54-55

2.       Davanport, T.H.: Coming Soon: the CKO. Information Week 1994. p.95.

3.       Duhon, B.: It’s all in our heads. Inform 12(8), 1998. p.9-13.

4.       American Productive Center : What  is  knowledge management? Aslib Proceedings. 54(3):  2002, 188-197

5.       Luthans, Fred: Organizational behaviour, 9^th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill 2002.

6.       McCune, C.: Thrust for the Knowledge. Management Review. April 1999 p.12 as stated by Luthans, Fred: Organizational behavior. 9^th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. p.44.

7.       Turban, E. and Aronson, J. Decision Support System and intelligent systems. Delhi: Addision Wesley, 2001.

8.       O’Dell C. and Garyson, C.J.: If only we knew what we know. New York Free Press, 1998. as stated by Teng, Sharon and Hawanmedeh Suliman: Knowledge Management in Public Libraries. Aslib Proceedings. 54(3), 2002. p.188-197.

9.       Vass, L. Brainstorming. PC Week, 16(22) 1999. As stated by Turban, E. and Aronson, J. Decision Support System and intelligent systems. Delhi: Addision Wesley, 2001. p. 357.