READIT-2007 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

Opportunities for Librarians/Information Managers
in managing explicit knowledge in the internet era
D.Gayatri *
Abstract
The development of knowledge management in recent years has become the key concern for
librarians and libraries. Powerful new technologies for capturing,storing,retrieving and sharing
information are fast becoming the building blocks of a new knowledge infrastructure. In this paper a
knowledge management approach for a research institute is presented. It will also examine the role of
librarians/libraries in knowledge management and suggests that librarians/libraries in the digital and
knowledge age should be in charge of knowledge management in their respective organizations in
order to leverage the intellectual assets and to facilitate knowledge creation.
1. INTRODUCTION
The concept and name--“Knowledge Management”--was started and
popularized in the business world during the last decade of the 20th century. It was
the business world that first recognizes the importance of knowledge in the “global
economy” of the “knowledge age”. The applications of knowledge management have
now spread to other organizations including government agencies, research and
development departments, universities, and others. Managing knowledge has become
increasingly important in research organisations. By the process of knowledge
management (KM),companies organise the way in which they create and use their
institutional and collective knowledge.
Christine Tindall, Technical Director of KM in Ernest and Young Co.,
highlighted that “ One good librarian is worth 100 databases”. Her statement
emphasizes that, KM is about more than technology and databases. It is about
connecting people to experts, people to inform and the utilization of that information.
It is also about understanding how people learn and make it possible for them to do
so, how organizational structures and infrastructures affect the building of knowledge
and how organizational procedures, rewards and values affect the sharing of
knowledge. But at the heart of every organization is its need to manage the
information it owns and acquires, to utilize it for competitive advantage to interpret it
in a way that assists decision making to build a secure information based organization
to underpin the KM environment.
The skills of library and information professional are becoming a vital part of
the process. Information management can be leveraged to achieve a "knowledge
environment". Information professionals associated typically with IM have the
theoretical basis and practical skills to provide the essential elements of a knowledge
environment. However, they are rarely seen as relevant to creating a knowledge
environment
The management of information has long been regarded as the domain of
librarians and libraries. Librarians and information professionals are trained to be
experts in information searching, selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving,
repackaging, disseminating, and serving. However, professionals in information
technology and systems have also regarded information management as their domain
because of the recent advances in information technology and systems which drive
* IMA, IICT, Hyderabad. Email: gayatri.divakaruni@gmail.com
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