 66th IFLA Council and General
Conference
Jerusalem, Israel, 13-18 August
Code Number: 057-110-E
Division Number: VI
Professional Group: Management and Marketing- Part I
Joint Meeting with: Information Technology and Social Sciences
Libraries
Meeting Number: 120
Simultaneous Interpretation: Yes
Knowledge Management in Libraries in the 21st Century
Tang Shanhong
Library of Chinese Defense Science and Technology Information Center
(CDSTIC)
Beijing, China
E-mail: Tshong@263.net
Abstract
The knowledge economy is a new concept that has appeared worldwide in
recent years. As a sub-discipline of the knowledge economy, knowledge
management is a completely new concept and method of management. It works
for converting intellectual assets of workers and staff members in the
organization into higher productive forces - competition power and new
value. Knowledge management requires linkage of information with
information, information with activities and information with man - so as
to realize the sharing of knowledge (including tacit and explicit
knowledge). The conventional functions of a library are to collect,
process, disseminate, store and utilize document information to provide
service for the society. In the knowledge economy era, the library will
become a treasure-house of human knowledge, participate in knowledge
innovation, and become an important link in the knowledge innovation chain.
In the 21st century, the library will inevitably face the new subject of
knowledge management.
Paper
Introduction
Knowledge economy is a knowledge-based economy. In the knowledge economy
era, the management refers to effectively identify, acquire, develop,
resolve, use, store and share knowledge, to create an approach to
transforming and sharing of tacit and explicit knowledge, and to raise the
emergency and innovation capability by utilizing the wisdom of the team.
Since knowledge has become the driving force for social development, the
attention of the society to information and knowledge is rising and
people's demands for information and knowledge are increasing step by step.
This has provided a good environment for library development [1]. Moreover,
as information and knowledge has become an important productive factor for
the modern economic system, the society will inevitably require intensified
management of information and knowledge. How to manage knowledge will
become an important subject facing libraries in the near future. Knowledge
management in libraries should be focused on effective research and
development of knowledge, creation of knowledge bases, exchange and sharing
of knowledge between library staffs (including its users), training of
library staff, speeding up explicit processing of the implicit knowledge
and realizing of its sharing.
Characteristics of Knowledge Management in Libraries
The role of knowledge management in libraries will become more and more
important along with the development of knowledge economy. It is a new
management mode, boasts the following superiority and characteristics
incomparable with conventional management:
Human Resource Management Is the Core of Knowledge Management in Libraries
The most important resource in the knowledge economy system is the talents
who grasp knowledge. The talent competition has become the focus of market
competition in the knowledge economy era. In the knowledge economy era, the
libraries will attach importance to vocational training and lifelong
education of library staffs to raise their scientific knowledge level and
ability of acquiring and innovating knowledge. They also will and fully
respect the human value, guide and bring into play wisdom potentialities of
library staffs, take developing knowledge resources in the brains of
library staffs as an important way for rising work efficiency. An all-round
improvement of library staff's quality and positioning of the human value
will become important objectives of knowledge management in libraries.
The Objective of Knowledge Management in Libraries is to Promote Knowledge
Innovation
Knowledge innovation is the core of the knowledge economy society. As
bases for collection, processing, storage and distribution of knowledge and
information, libraries represent an indispensable link in the scientific
system chain, an important link in the knowledge innovation. Secondly,
libraries take part in scientific research process directly. The library
work is a component of knowledge innovation. Thirdly, libraries must pay
attention to diffusion and conversion of knowledge. They act as bridges for
turning the results of knowledge innovation into realistic productive
forces. Knowledge management in libraries is to promote relationship in and
between libraries, between library and user, to strengthen knowledge
internetworking and to quicken knowledge flow. In the knowledge economy
era, libraries will carry out researches on development and application of
information resources, construction of virtual libraries, protection of
intellectual property rights in the electronic era etc., thus founding the
base for knowledge innovation [2].
Information Technology Is a Tool for Knowledge Management in Libraries
Knowledge acquisition is the starting point of knowledge management in
libraries. The application of information technologies enlarges the scope
of knowledge acquisition, rises knowledge acquisition speed and reduces
knowledge acquisition cost. It is impossible to accomplish such important
tasks by using man's brains only in the modern society in which the
knowledge changes with each passing day. It will be possible to link
closely knowledge sources and knowledge workers by computer networks, thus
constructing knowledge networks in libraries based on realization of
single-point informatization [3].
The knowledge acquired must be accumulated and converged into knowledge
warehouses of libraries. The priority of information technologies in the
field of knowledge storage not only finds expression in quantity, but also
in retrieval, sorting and security of the knowledge. Information technology
is also indispensable in the application and exchange of knowledge and
other fields. It functions as a source and tool for knowledge innovation.
Contents of Knowledge Management in Libraries
As a completely new method of management, knowledge management in
libraries leaves much to be desired in its theoretical system. In my
opinion, knowledge management in libraries should include such respects as
follows:
Knowledge Innovation Management
Knowledge innovation management in libraries refers to the management of
the production, diffusion and transfer of knowledge as well as of the
network systems constructed by related institutions and organizations. It
includes three aspects, namely, theoretical innovation management of
knowledge, technical innovation management and organizational innovation
management.
Theoretical innovation management is to enrich and enlarge the theoretical
and practical research fields of library science and information science
through pursuing the latest development trends in library science the world
over. Technical innovation management is to manage the network systems
constructed by institutions and organizations that relate to the full
course of technical innovation. In their evolution from conventional
libraries to electronic libraries, or digital libraries, Libraries should
make technical breakthroughs and progress and build up technical facilities
to support knowledge management. Organizational innovation management is to
create a set of effective organizational management systems adaptable to
the requirements in the electronic library era to support and strengthen
knowledge management activities, by optimizing the functional departments
and operation procedures of libraries.
In these systems, it firstly requires that leaders who take charge of
knowledge management activities should undertake to formulate the
management plans and coordinate all knowledge management related
activities. Secondly, it requires establishment of special leading groups
of knowledge flow for accomplishing all tasks relating to knowledge
management activities. Electronic resources committees are established
composed of various types of specialists to take charge of evaluating,
procuring and creating the electronic resources on the one hand, and
coordinating activities of business departments and spurring them on to
close cooperation in such fields as procurement and organization of the
electronic information resources as well as providing services on the other
hand [4].
Knowledge Dissemination Management
Knowledge dissemination is of equal importance as compared to knowledge
innovation. Knowledge creators do not have much time and energy to look for
knowledge users. Though there are a multitude of knowledge users, it is
very difficult to acquire knowledge that already exists in the minds of
knowledge creators as restricted by various objective and subjective
conditions. Therefore, libraries may play the part of knowledge tosser, use
diverse media and channels to disseminate various new knowledge. In the
21st century, the Internet, with its mass information and extensive
contents, will provide people with the main approach to searching knowledge
and acquiring information. But now there emerge absurd, salacious, false
and uncivil information resulting from seeking for commercial profits and
political objectives on the Net. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen
knowledge dissemination management in libraries as follows:
- uninterruptedly strengthening the creation of libraries' own document
resources and deepening the development of document information resources;
- continuously raising the quality of libraries' staffs and
strengthening continuous engineering education of working staffs;
- giving full play to the special role of the expert system in knowledge
dissemination;
- making a comprehensive utilization of all media to ensure security of
operation of networks, and prevent online criminal activities and online
dissemination of inapropriate information [5].
Knowledge Application Management
In the 21st century libraries should also attach importance to provision
of services for people to acquire knowledge and achieve maximum functions
and efficiency of knowledge information. Therefore, knowledge services
based on high-speed information networks should be carried out by:
- Setting up virtual libraries or information centers for enterprises,
governments, public organizations and scientific research institutions. It
is difficult for an enterprise or a social organization to put sufficient
manpower, material and financial resources on information gathering,
organizing and developing. It is also impossible and unnecessary to spend a
large amount of funds on information resources for their own use. Libraries
can create virtual libraries or information centers for these organs
separately according to their respective information requirements by using
abundant information resources on the high-speed information networks.
- Setting up digitized knowledge services which is actually a
development trend of libraries in the 21st century. This presupposes:
creating step by step the users-oriented information service systems such
as information dissemination, information search and special supply of
information; quickening the creation of digitized libraries; studying the
methods, means and techniques of information distribution and search with
the Internet as the base and WEB technique as the core.
- Digitizing libraries' resources. The electronic libraries or digitized
libraries are the technical modes and development trends of libraries in
the knowledge economy era. The knowledge services of libraries in the
future will start with creation of databases comprising electronic journals
and books in different languages that have discipline features and can
operate on high-speed information networks. Great efforts should be made to
transform all existing large non-electronic information resources into
electronic information and integrate them into electronic libraries.
Human Resources Management
Human resources management takes it as its basic starting point to train
high quality specialized talents and to revitalize the library undertaking.
In practice, we should pay full attention to diversity and variation of
library staffs' requirements, strengthened management of different library
staffs by applying contingency management approach. That is, to some
people, rigid management method is applied, rigorous supervision and
control imposed, and quantity and quality requirements of work according to
regulations and procedures are made clear. And, to the rest of people, more
flexible management method is applied to let them participate in
decision-making and consultation and undertake more jobs so as to bring
their management abilities into full play and realize organizational and
personal objectives. Doing well in continuous engineering education of
specialized staffs, which should not only focus on the theory of library
science and related disciplines, but also cover the latest technical
knowledge. And strengthening professional ethics education [6].
Technologies for Realizing Knowledge Management of Libraries
One of the aims of knowledge management in libraries is to promote the
knowledge exchange among library staffs, strengthen innovation
consciousness and abilities, arise the library staffs' enthusiasm and
abilities for learning, making the knowledge most efficiently applied to
business activities of the library, and rebuilding the library into a
learning organization. Therefore, the main train of thought in realizing
knowledge management of libraries is a rational design of the
organizational structure and business procedures of libraries, and cultural
fostering, as well as modernized information support, thus creating an
environment and incentive mechanism forinnovation, exchange, study and
application of the knowledge.
In the Field of Organizational Structure, Business Processes and Culture
of Libraries
(1) Introducing the CKO System
The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a conspicuously high management
position that has emerged successively in the government departments and
large organizations in Western countries since the 1980s. The Chief
Knowledge Officer (CKO) is the highest-ranking person in charge of
knowledge management, which has evolved from CIO along with the transition
of information research management into knowledge management. The CKO
system represents the latest development trends of the information
management system of the organizations, and marks the transition of
information management from the stage of information resources management
to that of knowledge management. [7].
(2) Realizing seamless combination of library business management
with knowledge management during the business process reorganization of
libraries
Knowledge management integrates itself with the whole process of knowledge
exchange, sharing, innovation and application of the organization, and
becomes the key driving force for the knowledge innovation, exchange and
application of the organization. The implementation of knowledge management
will inevitably give rise to organization of library business process. This
reorganization will also be the process of further combination of library
business management with knowledge management.
(3) Rebuilding the library culture by using the theory of knowledge
management
Knowledge management will inject new blood into the library culture. The
main contents include: mutual trust, open exchange, studying, sharing and
developing knowledge operation mechanism of libraries, enjoying the
knowledge management process [8]. In a word, to make full use of knowledge,
it is necessary to foster a new type of library culture suitable to its
requirement. This is high level requirement of realizing technology of
knowledge management.
In the Field of Information Technology
The main information technologies relevant to knowledge management
includes: Internet, Intranet and Extranet; storage architectures; database
management systems; metadata; data acquisition and gathering;
dissemination, messaging; push and pull; information retrieval; information
resources sharing; groupware; middleware; on-line analytical processing;
multidimensional analysis and data mining. How to convert data to the
object of knowledge management - knowledge is also relevant to some basic
information technologies, mainly including data processing, reporting,
networked communication, document management, information search and
retrieval, relational and object-oriented databases, electronic publishing,
work flow and help desks [9].
In addition, because of the differences in architecture, usage and
characteristics between information and knowledge, the storage and
management of knowledge are more complicated than those of information. The
storage architecture technology, database management system technology and
metadata are also the key technologies in knowledge management.
Conclusions
Economic environment and information environment is changing quickly
today. Knowledge management has become a powerful tool for promoting
innovation and realizing reengineering the various walks of life. It
occupies very outstanding position in the creation of the knowledge
innovation systems of a country. How for the library circles to meet the
challenge of knowledge economy and to build the knowledge management
systems of libraries is a subject that demands our urgent study and
solution.
References
- Wang Yunhua. Knowledge Economy and the Development of the Library,
Library Work & Research. 1999(6), 17-19
- Cao Yi. The Reorientation of Libraries in the Knowledge Economy Era,
Library Work & Research, 1999(3), 24-26
- Wang Delu. The Collection and Processing of Knowledge. February 4,199.
http://www.bsti.ac.cn/bsti_kmchina/gei
/048_001.htm
4,5,6. Sheng Xiaoping. Knowledge Management of Libraries in the 21st
Century, Library Magazine, 1999 (8), 29-32
7,8. Chen Rui. Thoughts and Technologies of Knowledge Management,
Information Knowledge in Libraries, 1999 (1), 10-13
9. Thomas H Davenport. The Future of Knowledge Management.
http://www.cio.com/archive/010196-dovenpor-content.html
Summary
Ms Tang Shanhong graduated from university in 1994,majored in information
management.
1994.7 - 1997.12 she worked in library in Nanjing.
Since 1997.12 she has been working in the Library of Chinese Defense
Science and Technology Information Center (CDSTIC), first engaded in
document indexing, now she is an engineer.
Mailing address:
26 FuCheng Road,
Beijing 100036, China
Tel/Fax: (010) 68456515
Email: Tshong@263.net
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