Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries Essay -- Knowledge Manageme

Introduction Knowledge has become a key resource in the present information and knowledge era. Knowledge management is a concept that has emerged explosively in business organizations during the 20th century. The application of knowledge management has now spread to other organizations as well including academic libraries. Knowledge management has been regarded as strategically important for organizations to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors, to add value to their products and to win greater satisfaction from their customers. Knowledge management is as important for libraries as for business. However in academic libraries there will be the absence of competition and money making concern. As it is already known libraries have had a long and rich experience in the management of information. Much of such knowledge and skills of librarianship can be applied to knowledge management. But unfortunately libraries with the exception of special libraries have not paid much attention to k nowledge management. However, the environment in which academic libraries operate today is changing. Knowledge management is a viable means in which academic libraries could improve their services in the knowledge economy. According to David Blair, â€Å"Knowledge management is not so much the management of tangible assets such as data or information, but the active management and support of expertise†. Expertise exists in people and much of this kind of knowledge is tacit rather than explicit. Some of it is expressible and some of it is not. Knowledge is always restricted to people and validated in the context of application. A well-known distinction in this respect is that between explicit and tacit knowledge. Basically, tacit knowledge i... .... â€Å"Knowledge Management: Hype, Hope or Help?† Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53 (12):1019-1028. 2. Broadbeht, Marianne (1996). â€Å"The Phenomenon of Knowledge Management: What Does it Mean to the Information Profession?† http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1998/broadben.html 3. Kim, Seonghee (1999). â€Å"The Role of Knowledge Professionals for Knowledge Management†. 65th IFLA Council General Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, August 20-28. http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla65/papers/042-115e.htm 4. Shanhong, Tang (2000). Knowledge Management in Libraries in the 21st Century. 66th IFLA Council and General Conference, Jerusalem, Israel, August 13-18. http://cdigital.uv.mx/bitstream/123456789/6221/2/Shanhong.pdf 5. Townley. C.T. (2001). â€Å"Knowledge Management and Academic Libraries†. College & Research Libraries, 62(1): 44-55.