Posted by Denham on August 09, 2003 at 17:19:39:

In Reply to: Knowledge Management in US libraries posted by Christina on August 04, 2003 at 11:27:05:

Hi Christina,

Here are some thoughts and links on libraries and KM.

You may wish to contact the Special Library Association - SLA who has been active in this field for the past 6 or more years and has a KM division

My impression is US libraries have been very slow to accept basic KM concepts - they mainly operate back in the information age, their main concern is with building, maintaining and preserving a 'collection' rather than fostering knowledge transfer, learning, building relationships and facilitating tacit knowledge exchange.

Most libraries operate at the extreme end of the tacit ==> explicit continuum, they have a rather poor appreciation for the value of ephemeral exchanges, are more concerned with information protection than building social capital and have little experience designing and operating knowledge spaces. Slow adoption of internet opportunities, little empathy for help outside of pointers to their holdings, very narrow focus on explicit information, poor understanding of the social nature of learning and knowledge seeking behaviors.

There have been many wake-up calls, but the library community (in general) seems to prefer to cling to the past rather than embrace the opportunities of the current knowledge era.

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Follow Ups:

• Re: KM in US libraries phx000 11:15:46 08/11/03 (2)
  • Knowledge spaces Denham 21:08:50 08/11/03 (1)
    • Re: Knowledge spaces Ross Hall 03:50:10 08/19/03 (0)

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