Knowledge Management:Can Librarians Do It?

Lee Chu KeongNanyang Technological University

Short Answer

Yes!But, some changes are needed!

discomfort

Changes That Are Needed

A shift in perspective on the concept of “knowledge”A shift in perspective on the concept of “silence”A shift in perspective on the concept of “intermediary”

Traditional Role of Libraries

Selection: Selecting and acquiring available information in the marketplace, based on user needs and quality standards, within the available budgetStorage: maintaining the availability of publications through long-term storage and preservationService: making the information resources available through facilities and procedures for on-site consultation, lending and document deliverySupport: giving the user guidance and assistance, including the development and maintenance of support systems such as catalogues, on-line help systems, websites, …

Traditional Role of Libraries

Selection: Selecting and acquiring available information in the marketplace, based on user needs and quality standards, within the available budgetStorage: maintaining the availability of publications through long-term storage and preservationService: making the information resources available through facilities and procedures for on-site consultation, lending and document deliverySupport: giving the user guidance and assistance, including the development and maintenance of support systems such as catalogues, on-line help systems, websites, …

Books

PeriodicalsCD-ROMs

Databasesdocuments

Knowledge: Perspective 1

“ As Object” vs “As Process”

Positivist Axioms knowability of the universe factual nature of scientific knowledge irrelevance of value judgment

Interactional environmental relational context

Knowledge: Perspective 2

“ As point” on a continuum

data information knowledgeadd value

contextualise categorise calculate correct condense

add value

compare connect evaluate understand implications

Knowledge: Perspective 3

“ As potential” of a very powerful sort

Information Sources

Information Sources

dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, almanacs,

handbooks, directories, atlases, gazetteers, biographies, abstracts & indexes – annual reports, patents & trademarks, statistical sources,

market research reports, white papers, stock data, company

information, …

Knowledge Sources

Knowledge Sources

human being(s)

!

Knowledge: A Public Good

non-excludable

non-rival[rous]

Goods are excludable if a person can be prevented from using it

Goods are rival[rous] if one person’s use of the good diminishes another person’s use

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine,

receives light without darkening me.

What IS Knowledge Sharing?

Knowledge sharing “takes place each time you communicate what you are doing, who you are, or what you know to one person or to many people”, and “covers a variety of activities – a talk with a colleague at the coffee pot, an educational situation, a document in a database, an email, an information board with notices, etc.”

Petersen & Poulfelt (2002)

Knowledge sharing involves networking to become acquainted with what others know.

Wiig (1999)

Knowledge sharing is the deliberate act in which knowledge is made reusable for one party through its transfer by another.

Lee and Al-Hawamdeh (2002)

Be Careful …

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.

Jefferson (1813)

Knowledge Sharing – Critical to Knowledge Management

KnowledgeGeneration

KnowledgeCodification

KnowledgeTransfer

Construction

Use

DisseminationEmbodiment

Individual Group OrganisationInterorganisational

Domain

AR

TIC

ULA

TE

DK

NO

WLE

DG

ET

AC

IT K

NO

WL

ED

GE

Appropriation [Dialogue] Extension

Art

icul

atio

n

Inte

rnal

isat

ion

[Reflection] Expansion

ASSIMILATION

DISSEMINATION

Why Share Knowledge?

To prevent the “reinvention of the wheel”To minimise loss of knowledge through various meansTo enable the spread of best practicesTo construct meaning togetherTo build social capital“The practical problem, however, arises precisely because these facts are never so given to a single mind, and because, in consequence, it is necessary that in the solution of the problem knowledge should be used that is dispersed among many people.”

Knowledge Sharing Types

Knowledge Sharing

Voluntary Mandatory

InformalFormal

chance hallway conversations;canteen talk; informal meetings;

conversations in the loo

Voluntary, Informal, Knowledge Sharing

A need to learn: to “size up” a person to increase understanding of a complex issue/phenomenon/problem to clarify conceptsA need to tell to inform to express opinion or standA need to get another opinion from “outside the box”A need to “short circuit”A need to teachA need to build or maintain relationshipsA need to self-aggrandize

Participation in knowledge sharing

Sharing Knowledge: Reasons

Silence

Attitude of most libraries: “Silence Please”!In knowledge management:

“Silence denotes a lack of knowledge sharing”

“Silence implies an unwillingness to share one’s knowledge”

Rethink the concept of silence!

The Framework

climate

organisation

channel

actor actorknowledge

Barriers Attributable to Actors

Communication & People SkillsAbsorptive CapacityReputationAppreciation of Importance of KnowledgeIncompatible PersonalityDisciplinary EthnocentrismStatus HierarchiesTechnophobiaCognitive Hinds & PfefferMotivation Hinds & Pfeffer

Barriers Attributable to Channel

DocumentInability of the actors to tailor the knowledge shared to the needs and situation of the userKnowledge is fixed, sometimes for posterityLow bandwidth (zero social presence)

Face-to-Face (Unmediated)Ability of the knowledge recipient to request customization, clarification, or elaboration of the knowledge shared

The richest form of knowledge sharing (High BW)The knowledge can be tailored directly and immediately, and made relevant to the needs of the user

Coincidence of both time and location is required in this mode of knowledge sharing

Often unrecorded (little or no permanence), therefore lending itself to distortion & attenuation

Face-to-Face (Mediated)Dependent of technology

Barriers Attributable to Knowledge Being Shared

TACIT vs EXPLICITSharing one’s expertise can be risky because of the difficulty involved in articulating preferences based largely on tacit knowledge user-interface specialists (simply “know”, but

cannot explain) nurses (“insistent inner voice”, hunch)

In organisations that insist on hard data, sharing one’s tacit expertise via opinions and intuitions can convey a lack of certainty or clarity, undermining one’s standing in the organisation

logicrationaleevidence

Barriers Attributable to Organisational Environment

Organisational structure

Reward system and incentives for knowledge sharing compensation for time & energy

Availability of time

Availability of knowledge sharing champions

Office layout (Third Space, storking)

Staff tenure or length of service

Management support

Organisational culture

Barriers Attributable to Climate

Barriers arising from “the larger picture”, which may affect the “relationship with the organisation”

Economic condition of the nation, governmental policies, and societal culture

When jobs are at stake, networks are withdrawn and individual knowledge is closely guarded as protection against termination (Bonaventura, 1997)

Foreign talent policy

Societal culture (e.g. collectivistic pressure)

Librarian as Barrier Breaker

Traditionally, libraries have perform an intermediary function between publishers (and other information producers) and end-users

Can libraries now reinvent themselves and be intermediaries between knowledge source and knowledge source?

Can libraries break barriers and build people-to-people links

Can libraries be knowledge intermediaries

Conclusion

Libraries and their librarians CAN do knowledge management

Rethinking / repositioning / new perspectives are needed

Three areas have been suggested:

Rethink the concept of “knowledge”

Rethink the concept of “silence”

Rethink the concept of “intermediary”