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   64th IFLA General Conference
   August 16 - August 21, 1998

To be or not to be: Public Libraries and the Global Knowledge Revolution

Abstract:

Paper

1. Introduction

Now, knowledge has been placed in the spotlight of the international arena. We are told that the developed world is entering an era called "The Knowledge Economy" (or Knowledge-based Economy), that a "Knowledge Revolution" is occurring which may have significant impact upon not only developed but also developing countries. Ironically, however, many libraries seem to be indifferent in this revolution. The key question for the library community today, therefore, is to be or not be participating in the global Knowledge Revolution on a pro-active basis.

To answer this question, the paper will provide analyses and evidence to show that the "Knowledge Revolution" can be another renaissance for the library community. The library can be an integral part of the information highway, allowing people to access the untold wealth of knowledge available electronically from diverse sources. At the same time, the library can serve as a humane and people-centered place of rest and relaxation. It is a local base, plugged into both the global knowledge economy and the micro-realm of its immediate surroundings. In effect, it becomes a bridge linking powerful computer networks with even the most impoverished end-user.

2. The Coming of the Knowledge Revolution

2.1 Information and Knowledge

While the two terms "information" and "knowledge" tent to be used interchangeably, slight but significant difference remains. Discussion about the conceptual distinctions among data, information, intelligence and knowledge has taken place for a long time. A well-known model is pyramid-like, in which data is on the bottom, then information, then knowledge, and finally wisdom or intelligence at the summit. This simplified model shows that knowledge is a part of information, but not all information can be called knowledge. The rapid technological progress in information processing and the better understanding of both concepts reveal a need to separate knowledge from information [1]. This need can be seen in the divorce of the further two categories of knowledge: codified and tacit[2, pp.12-14].

Codified knowledge is sometimes called explicit and focal knowledge [3]. It is normally embodied in media, and can be transformed, transmitted and taught. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, may be in the mind of educated people, or in the form of skills and know-how needed to handle or improve codified knowledge. The last few years have witnessed the rapid advancement of science and technology in general and information technology in particular. People can process knowledge which is explicit, embodied and codified much easier and more cost-effectively than knowledge which is tacit. The access bottleneck has therefore been moved to that knowledge which is intangible, invisible and only in one's mind. The principles and regularities of this kind of knowledge flow are, to a large extent, unknown to us.

2.2 Knowledge-based Economy and Knowledge Revolution

The term Knowledge Economy can be traced back to early 1990s[4]. According to an OECD report issued in 1996, it is an economy directly based on the production, distribution and use of knowledge[2, p.7]. On the way to the Knowledge-based Economy, a radical paradigm transformation is occurring in economic and social systems, This shift has been driven, in the past few decades, by technological innovation. Advances in high technology areas are changing the basis of economic growth. The easy and inexpensive availability of massive digitized data and information has been instrumental in creating new products and services. The Knowledge Revolution is the process of paradigm shift on the way to Knowledge Economy. As the term "revolution" implies, the process and its related labor pains will touch, globally, all aspects of human life. A milestone in the serial activities concerning the Knowledge Revolution is the '97 Global Knowledge Conference held in Canada June 22-25 last year, sponsored by the World Bank and the Canadian government. Several government leaders and the Secretary General of the UN attended the conference.

2.3 National Knowledge Infrastructure

A National Knowledge System is defined as a " network of institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and actions motivate, create, access, assimilate, diffuse, and use knowledge for productive activity and promotion of public welfare"[5, p.7]. A similar concept, namely, that of a National Knowledge Infrastructure, appeared in the June 30 version of the outline of '98 World Development Report[6]. It is interesting to compare the key elements of the National Knowledge Infrastructure (NKI) with those of the National Information Infrastructure(NII), particularly their sequence (See Table One) . According to the provisional outline of the 1998 World Bank, knowledge networks are relationships of educated people and their organizations. There is an explicit difference between the two, In short, the NII is, to a large extent, a technological infrastructure, while NKI is a human infrastructure.

3. Public Library As a Part of Knowledge Infrastructure

3.1 Knowledge Revolution for Public Libraries: Curse or Blessing?

Especially in developing countries, public libraries seem to be less advanced in terms of computing capabilities than academic and company libraries. Public libraries have been less than enthusiastic about the advent of information age. Some librarians have felt that many traditional library jobs would be substituted by computers and network systems. In some pessimistic arguments, traditional librarianship as a profession has been sentenced to death. The only question left to determine is how soon that death will occur. Even optimistic commentators have viewed the role of the librarian in the information age as a passive intermediary who is a mere beneficiary of the achievements of other players. In both views, the librarian is not an active agent of knowledge creation and distribution in the ages ahead.

It may partly explain why there is no significant presence of public libraries in the knowledge-related activities by World Bank. A database search on the official website of the GK'97 conference revealed, for example, that only seven librarians attended; there were more than 2000 other participants. Among these seven were six from universities or learned societies, plus one library network specialist from National Library of Canada, which is the host country of the conference. There are more than one hundred working sessions covering a broad spectrum of the theme, but the word "library" was mentioned only once within a phrase "digital library", in any of 97 rapporteur reports available on web after the conclusion[8]. While information revolution and information economy imply an emphasis on technology, the Knowledge Revolution emphasizes more human aspects of information provision. Accordingly, this presents more an opportunity than a threat to public libraries, because, ultimately, libraries are people-centered institutions.

The following characteristics of public library should remain as advantages in information age:

• Public library is the primary terminals reaching the wide range knowledge consumers, so that it understands the "whole market";
  
• The experiences of cataloging, indexing and classification of literature are in fact a basis of knowledge organization in a boarder sense;
  
• The physical space of public libraries, thought by avant-garde commentators as out of date, may constitute the natural premises to gather people together;
  
• Public libraries are the very unique in spreading information and knowledge lifetime to those people beyond the reach of information infrastructure.

3.2 Library: Key Link of the National Knowledge Infrastructure

Library should be, by nature, an essential part of the knowledge infrastructure. In some sense, knowledge management is just another name of librarianship[9]. As outlined in a vision statement of the Library of Congress of the USA, "The Library is in the unique position to be both catalyst and participant in the intellectual process that transforms information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom" [10]. The UNESCO Public Library Manifesto also designates public library "the local gateway to knowledge"[11]. But sticking to the tradition is far from enough for library to keep up with the technology-triggered Knowledge Revolution. Some librarians, mostly those from academic or special libraries have been early adaptive to the new change. A few "Knowledge Center" or "Knowledge Hub" have been established, or re-engineered, within university libraries. These centers differs from ordinary library not just by name but also by function. Knowledge Centers are making full use of computing and communication technology and re-positioning themselves as learning facilities, for example, University of California at San Francisco established a knowledge center collaborated with its library[12], Mitchell C. Brown proposed a "Knowledge bases"-databases that contain knowledge in library[13]. A serials of publications on the new role of librarians also noticed the trends, some called for a national knowledge strategy[14], some exploring the function of librarian as knowledge engineer[15, 16];

Library has been conceived as a part of "soft infrastructure" for business activities[17], which is a somewhat supporting role. With the concept of National Knowledge Infrastructure, library's function for the economic and social development can only be enhanced. The library in developing country will not always a black hole to swallow public funding, but can also make much more explicit contribution to the economy, it can be same essential, if not more, in the information age as in the past history of human being.

3.3 Public Library: towards a Knowledge Server

I would rather use server instead of hub to describe the function of library in the knowledge infrastructure. Hub is just a locus of communication, the word "server" would be more appropriate. As a server, the library converges social knowledge, adds value to it, produces new knowledge and diffuses it, as requested.

3.3.1 Interfacing knowledge with people

With the establishment of information infrastructure, the interface is needed more than ever between (i) machine and human being; (ii) codified and tacit knowledge; (iii) culture and economy; (iv)knowledge and its consumers; and (v) developed and developing world. Public library has been understood as public access point to information highway[18], but unlike other Internet Service Providers, which also provide access, public libraries can act as an off-line relay, by downloading and sending network-available information and knowledge to those out of the network reach, or by attracting people to the nearby libraries to access Internet. The library building can be a place for gathering educated people to communicate and create tacit knowledge, and interpret tacit knowledge into codified knowledge.

3.3.2 Organizing knowledge

The gray literature, digital materials and Internet resources are remolding the job of cataloging and indexing into a concept of knowledge organization. The new age may open a room for a higher level of knowledge organization, for instance, the building of "collection-on-web". While cataloging Internet has already been in agenda[19], the library collection on web may go further, it comprises network available information selected and re-organized by librarian, (who should be the best to do that!) in meeting the need of its own patrons: those who frequently visit the library server. The fact that the collection is in the local web sites may be much significant in developing countries, where the telecommunication infrastructure are always a bottleneck, the waiting time is often too long for users to endure. The web collection also permanently stores in library server the selected Internet resources, which are valuable to future users, and as we are aware, may be short-lived otherwise.

3.3.3 Consolidating information

The consolidation of information can be seen as a role of interface either. It is deemed as important for developing countries to make information more "usable". The concept is not new[20], but may be new for public libraries, our own experiences tell that if public library will play a more direct role in the local development, it can not just stop at the mere technical processing of literature, some further manipulation may be needed. In many cases, the users ask for an answer to specific questions beyond the reach of ordinary reference service. There is a long argument as how far the librarians should go to collect, compile and synthesize information to meet these specific needs, this is not only a problem of fee-or-free, but also on the border of library service. In the Knowledge-based Economy, the line of demarcation between library and other information services must be more ambiguous. On the other hand, network and the digitalization of information will reduce the cost of consolidation dramatically, a cost-sharing mechanism can be arranged more easily. 3.3.4

3.3.4 Networking global knowledge

Localism is both the strength and weakness of the public library. With the global networking of library community and other information servers, local library can go global. Knowledge networking is not just a problem of Internet, but of international collaboration of knowledge institutions. Some proposals on the international cooperation have been raised, for examples, on the cross-cultural cooperation on knowledge exchange [21], and for decision-makers in developing countries [22]. Based on the traditional relationship of Inter-library loan, it is not difficult for library community to collaborate on knowledge networking.

Not only scientists and government decision-makers but man-in-the-street as well may need information elsewhere even abroad. There is a story in China about a farm girl who suffered a strange disease, she eventually cured with the help of a Listserv in Internet, through which tens of international doctors provided their knowledge and advice about the disease which was only documented in another country some years ago. Every time when I told the story in lectures and meetings, I was asked by the audience how to do that. In that case, the disease is so strange and serious that worth publicizing in news media, and the help came from information professionals of a medical research institution. Of course, most information seekers will not so lucky, the case and these questioners make me believe that local public library should and can be catalyst in this global knowledge networking.

4. Public Libraries in Knowledge Revolution: the Chinese Case

China is an economy with a dual structure. A few industrializing provinces and cities in the coastal areas are catching up quickly to the developed world, while for many other regions, poverty and illiteracy are still the urgent problem. Both, however, are facing the same dilemma concerning information and knowledge. The following story explains what the public library system in China has done and is going to do as an integral component of the knowledge infrastructure of this particular country; and how the cooperation of library community can help in this process.

4.1. Knowledge Project: Disseminating Information and knowledge to the Unserved

The Knowledge Project in China was launched as an ordinary library promotion campaign, just like similar programs in other countries such as South Africa[23]. In 1994, it was first proposed by a provincial library of Guangxi Zhuang Nationality Autonomous Region (a Province de facto). The Province is one of the least-developed ones in China. Public libraries of the Province suffered from the serious shortage of funding. The backwardness of economic development is to blame, but long-term factors are also involved.

The project was thus proposed by the Provincial library and supported by the local governments in order to push knowledge flow through the library system. Specific measures included establishing a steering group; organizing book-reading and other related activities; pairing township library with a local company which would donate RMB5000(about US$600) a year to the paired library; and soliciting contributions from local and overseas donators[24].

In three years of implementation, the Project achieved some results. More than RMB500,000 yuan and 1.5 million copies of books were donated to the public library system of the Province. Owing to the "pairing policy", 115 village and township libraries were established[25]. The Project was extended to the whole nation of China in early 1997. The steering committee for the National Project was formed by several State Ministries. The nationwide Knowledge Project is aiming at fostering national civilization and social progress by encouraging book-reading and knowledge dissemination through the public library system. The Guangxi Knowledge Project is totally a local initiative. The particular significance of the Project is to bring information and knowledge to those unserved otherwise. This is a huge challenge, and, in fact, can be looked upon as a positive step in accomplishing the coming Knowledge Revolution. But the project in Guangxi Province also reveals some critical problems yet to be solved.

First, the vicious cycle engendered by a lack of information is hard to break. Can the library alone change the poor performance of local enterprises in a few years? Some enterprises felt unsure if the pairing could be continued. Second, the Knowledge Project in the original form has a clear limitation in that there is difficulty in understanding and applying modern information and communication technology(ICT) to concrete situations. This ignorance of ICT results in not only slow progress, but also the absence of up-to-date information, which may be of great importance to the local economy, and which would make progress sustainable. Until recently the Knowledge Project had not paid enough attention to take the advantage of Internet. Now the provincial library, together with other ten city and county public libraries, built up the network linkage and tapped information highway via the CERNET(China Education and Research Network) node in University of Guangxi. Before discussing further the need for improvement, let us look at the other side of the coin.

4.2 Re-engineering Shanghai Library

The relative prosperity of Shanghai makes it a city that represents the second face of China. The 1997 GDP per capita of the city is over US$3000. A recent survey found that in China's three biggest cities, among which is Shanghai, 33 per cent of the population uses computers, either in the office or at home. One fourth of these users, or over 8% of the population, can get access to the Internet through some means[26]. At the end of 1996, Shanghai Library moved to its new premises, which cost approximately US$7,500,000. By traditional indicators, such as extent of book collection and floor space, the new Shanghai Library is the second largest public library in China, second only to the National Library in Beijing. In a comparatively advanced information environment, however, Shanghai Library is nevertheless facing different challenges. When more and more information is digitized and could be processed easily by machine and reach end users without libraries, when an advanced information infrastructure "Info-port" is under construction, when Internet Content Providers are replacing some of library functions, librarians must ask themselves the following question: what is our niche in the competitive "knowledge market". Top managers have identified that there is a pressing need for the library to become re-engineered and actuated as a "knowledge center" rather than a book museum equipped with computers[27]. Behind the magnificent building and its state-of-the-art LAN-based integrated management system, there is an in-depth re-thinking of how the library should position itself at the threshold of the new millennium. Accordingly, a series of innovations have been implemented, some of these innovations may be thought to be radical and unorthodox by traditional library theorists:
• Subsidiary research units have been established to catalyze research by both in-house and contract experts;
  
• Established the designated Training Center to teach knowledge handling for information professionals and users;
  
• Organizing comprehensive cultural and academic activities to facilitate brain storming;
  
• Alerting the society-at-large by reporting new developments elsewhere in the world;
  
• Advising and consulting for business, based on both library collection and Internet search
  
• Building up a mechanism to support law-making of People's Congress and policy-making of local government

The purpose of all these efforts is to make a more direct contribution to local economic and social progress. In addition, these efforts are intended to prove the value of the library to society, while keeping basic service free to patrons.

4.4 The Need for Cooperation of Library Community and other knowledge institutions

The Knowledge Project and the case of Shanghai Library are in the same country, but both libraries involved may not be aware of some important and relevant events and ideas in other side. Although Shanghai Library, as well as other libraries in the comparatively rich regions in China, donates books from time to time to the libraries in poorer region, more achievements can be made if these libraries are perceived as partnerships in the knowledge networking. Shanghai Library, for example, may be in the position to help public libraries in Guangxi in the exploitation of Internet resources, it is possible that at the expenses of transporting the donated books, recipient libraries can benefit much more.

On the other hand, the re-engineering of Shanghai Library should have obtained more momentum if we had known earlier the World Bank actions and the methodology of knowledge assessment. There is a great room for collaboration of libraries and other institutions worldwide. In most situations, not the library but the professional organizations and other knowledge institutions are the source of information and knowledge, just as in the story of that farm girl mentioned above, but library can help the end users to find and reach these sources, so that the collaboration of the whole knowledge institutions are so important.

5. Library and Knowledge Revolution: Conclusions

1. In the last few years, with the ever-growing availability of technological tools that enable easy and inexpensive transmission, distribution and transformation of codified information, the third millennium of human existence will witness an era in which knowledge will become vital, and the tacit knowledge will be the bottleneck.

2. The focus of the international community on the Knowledge Revolution is both necessary and timely. It is critical that the library community understand the opportunity presented by the process of paradigm shift. They should be not onlookers but full stakeholders in this revolution.

3. The experiences of China are a case study to show that public libraries can be a critical player in the social knowledge chain. As the world moves toward the information age, libraries can make contributions to the economic and social development in both less-developed and comparatively rich areas. The Chinese case tells us that some of current efforts are lacking, and will continue to be insufficient without the full use of available telecommunications and network infrastructure. The lessons from China also reveal that cooperation with library community and other knowledge institutions may greatly upgrade the current efforts.

4. A global collaboration of libraries can make a tremendous contribution in enhancing and facilitating knowledge networking. Public libraries, with their traditional relation to ordinary people at large, can have a unique role of channeling latest information and knowledge to those out of the other terminals. IFLA, as a representative body of the international library community, should undertake the responsibility to alert and organize the librarians all over the world, particularly those in the developing countries to participate pro-actively the global Knowledge Revolution.

References

1. In : Building the European Information Society for us all, the final report by EU High-level Expert Group April, 1997, Available {URL: http://ispo.cec.be/hleg/Building.html}, November 27, 1997

2. The Knowledge-based Economy, OECD/GD(96)102, Paris 1996, pp46. A pdf file of the report is available, {URL: http://www.oecd.org/dsti/}, October 13, 1997

3. Sveiby, Karl E. Tacit Knowledge, available {URL: http://www.sveiby.com.au/polanyi.html}, December 29, 1997

4. For examples, The Knowledge Economy: The Nature of Information in the 21st Century. Nashville/Queenstown: Institute for Information Studies, 1993-1994 Annual Review, December 1993 and see also: in Tapscott, D., Digital Economy, Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence, McGrraw-Hill, New York, 1995, pp.44-48

5. Prospectus for National Knowledge Assessment, Committee on Knowledge Assessment, Office of International Affairs, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington D.C. 1996, an executive summary is available on web, {URL: http://www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/technet/prospect.htm}, December 24, 1997

6. World Bank. Knowledge for Development, June 30, 1997 version of provisional summary, available {URL: http://www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/technet/wdr98/world.htm}, Jan 5, 1998

7. National Information Infrastructure: Agenda of Actions, U.S. Government Report, September1993, an electronic version is available {URL: http://sunsite.unc.edu/nii/NII-Agenda-for-Action.html}, Jan 10, 1998

8. The official website of the Global Knowledge '97 is {URL: http://www.globalknowledge.org/}

9. Koenig, Michael E.D. "Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management", IFLA Journal 22(4): 299-301 (November 1996).

10. The Library of Congress in the Year 2000: A Vision, Management and Planning Committee, The Library of Congress, Washington DC, June 29, 1988:VIII

11. UNESCO Public Library Manifesto, November 1994

12. See {URL: http://www.fsu.edu/~fsus/general/depart.html}

13. Brown, Mitchell C. Knowledge Management: A Library Perspective, available: {URL: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/sci/chem/SLA/presentation.html}, December 29, 1997

14. Etheridge, L. S. National knowledge strategies and the library of the future. FID News Bulletin, 44 (7/8): 142-5, Jul/Aug 1994

15. Lancaster, F. W. From custodian to knowledge engineer: the evolution of librarianship as a profession. Journal of Information, Communication, and Library Science 1 (4): 3-8, Summer 1995

16. Poulter, Alan, et al. LIS professionals as knowledge engineers, in: Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 29, Chapter 9: (1994)

17. Library 2000: Investing in a Learning Nation, Report of the Library 2000 Review Committee, SNP Publishers Pte Ltd., Singapore, March 1994: 91-3

18. Shiu, Julia. Libraries as public access point to the information highway: A Draft Position Paper, Canada's Coalition for Public Information. January 1997, {URL:http://www.uccb.ns.ca}, October 31, 1997

19. For example, there is "cataloging Internet" project in University of Toronto, see {URL: http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/library/cir/}, December 26, 1997

20. Saracevic, Tefko. Processes and problems in information consolidation, Information Processing & Management, 22(1): 45-60, 1986

21. Miwa, Makiko. International Cooperation of information Consultants: Towards the Effective Exchange of Electronic Information, International Forum on Information and Documentation, 22(1):29-36, January 1997

22. New Methods for International Collaboration in Science, Technology, and Innovative Policy: the IDRC-IFIAS Knowledge Brokering Initiative, Draft, August 1997, available {URL: http://www.worldbank.org/html/fpd/technet/gk-methd.htm}, December 27, 1997

23. Gericke, Elizabeth M. Serving the Unserved in the Year 2000, 63rd IFLA General Conference, Booklet, 48-58

24. Mai, Qunzhong. The Knowledge Project: an important action for the impoverished areas to develop library undertakings, The Journal of the Library Science in China, vol.22(serial no.105): 21-24, 13, September 1996 (In Chinese language)

25. Li, Xiaobing. Survival and development of village and township libraries, Library World, no.3, 1997: 39-41, 45, September 1997 (In Chinese language)

26. Wen Hui Bao, July 18, 1997, p.10 (In Chinese language)

27. Miao, Qihao. Automation, Digitalization and the beyond: Re-engineering Shanghai Library, In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Academic Libraries in the 21st Century, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, September 1996: 32-39