Knowledge management for the information professional.

Knowledge management for the information professional. Srikantaiah, T K, and Koenig, M E D, eds. Knowledge management forthe information professional. ASIS 1. ASIS - Application Software Installation Server.2. (language) ASIS - Ada Semantic Interface Specification. Monograph Series. Medford, NJ:Information Today for the American Society for Information Science,2000. 598p. US$44.50 hard ISBN ISBNabbr.International Standard Book NumberISBNInternational Standard Book NumberISBNn abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m157387079X IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MERELY THE LATEST IN A SERIES OF MANAGEMENTFADS, where MBAs have belatedly discovered what competent corporatelibrarians have known for decades, that knowledge is a vital resourcethat enables the organisation to function? Or is it a radically newdevelopment, applying a holistic view of an organisation'sknowledge to enable librarians, IT professionals and managers to realisethe potential of their organisation in the knowledge economy? This is aquestion that corporate librarians and those educating the informationprofessionals of the future must address. Knowledge management for the information professional bringstogether writers from management, IT and library backgrounds to create aresource that is intended to function as a textbook in LIS LIS - Langage Implementation Systeme.A predecessor of Ada developed by Ichbiah in 1973. It was influenced by Pascal's data structures and Sue's control structures. A type declaration can have a low-level implementation specification. graduatecourses and in business management programs. The authors include severalrecognised LIS figures, for example Debons and Koenig. The initialchapters trace the origins of knowledge: management: `by intranet out ofintellectual capital', Davenport's `information ecology',Senge's `the 5th discipline -- the learning organisation, BusinessProcess Re-engineering, etc. It is perhaps significant that thesechapter use the terms `buzzword' and `fad' frequently!However, the authors develop the basic message that knowledge managementis concerned with both tacit knowledge The concept of tacit knowing comes from scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi. It is important to understand that he wrote about a process (hence tacit knowing) and not a form of . (`knowing how', includingvalues, emotions and personal relationships) and the explicit knowledge Explicit knowledge is knowledge that has been or can be articulated, codified, and stored in certain media. It can be readily transmitted to others. The most common forms of explicit knowledge are manuals, documents and procedures. Knowledge also can be audio-visual. (`knowing that'-- document-based knowledge librarians have beentraditionally been concerned with). The tacit knowledge approach is notnew to LIS, and this is developed in a later chapter by Debons et al.,who explore the notion of `knowledge counselling' -- a technique ofcase-based, in-depth consultative reference work that has been advocatedin LIS for some time. The introduction develops a view of knowledgemanagement that puts its basis firmly in the synergies between thedisciplines of organisational learning, document management (includingLIS) and information technology. What makes this book valuable are significant contributions from anLIS perspective. Albert contributes a useful chapter on knowledgemanagement from an information professional point of view, expressingthe librarian's skepticism regarding knowledge management, but alsounderlining the point that information professionals will be animportant part of knowledge management, combining with other disciplinesto do so. This perspective is amplified in later chapters on specificknowledge management initiatives: Ryske and Sebastian discuss thetransition from library to knowledge centre, from being a provider ofinformation to being a provider of value; Dalrymple discusses thetriangular relationship of libraries, knowledge management, andevidence-based medicine evidence-based medicineDecision-making 'The use of scientific data to confirm that proposed diagnostic or therapeutic procedures are appropriate in light of their high probability of producing the best and most favorable outcome'.See Meta-analysis. (EBM EBM Evidence-Based MedicineEBM Electronic Body MusicEBM ecosystem-based managementEBM Evidence Based Medical (statistics)EBM Environmentally Benign ManufacturingEBM Expressed Breast MilkEBM Executive Board Meeting ); Platt gives examples of knowledgemanagement in a range of law library environments, including someinnovative hypertext projects of the 1980s. Koenig examines the productivity of knowledge management, based onthe literature on cost/benefit of information services See Information Systems. . This is a usefulliterature review, but at odds with other pieces emphasising theholistic approach holistic approachA term used in alternative health for a philosophical approach to health care, in which the entire Pt is evaluated and treated. See Alternative medicine, Holistic medicine. , since it concentrates on library services. Thischapter ties in with knowledge management only loosely at the end. It isa pity that this chapter does not refer and relate to the later chapterby Nelke, which describes a cost-benefit study of knowledge managementin Swedish corporations. Some chapters develop a very philosophicalapproach. For example, the chapter by Schmidt on ethics is mostly aboutmetaphor, and would be little help on the real ethical dilemmas ofknowledge management: privacy; the competing demands of private versuscorporate versus public interest; environmental concerns, etc.Gregory's chapter, `Knowledge management and building the learningorganisation', while not eschewing the use of grid diagrams belovedof management writers, provides a useful and focussed view of the roleof LIS professionals in learning organisations. Some chapters seem to make little attempt to relate their topic tothe overall concept of knowledge management. Black's chapter oninternet search engines has useful hints and a search feature table butappears to have been written in 1998, and has little reference toknowledge management. Fiddler addresses the important technical area ofvocabulary control, exemplified by a knowledge management mini-thesaurus(unfortunately including an error: `Wisdom USE IntellectualCapital' but `Knowledge USE Wisdom'). However, there isnothing on how to implement vocabulary control in a knowledge managementenvironment. Other chapters look rather like conference papers -- Tsaidiscusses a project in Java-based information mapping A method for communicating information in a structured manner. Developed by Robert E. Horn while at Harvard and Columbia Universities, it provides a standard approach for analyzing, organizing and visually presenting information based on the needs of the target audience. which is about thetechnology rather than implications for knowledge management. Overall the collection lacks coherence. Some chapters sound ratherlike stream of consciousness interspersed with extracts scavenged fromweb pages and could profit from more thorough editing. Authors do notappear to have read the other chapters or agreed on a common definitionof knowledge management. This could have been assisted by Appendix C, auseful classification of different management techniques that contributeto and relate to knowledge management. There is a bibliography of 600items, current to 1998. However, this does not include many referencesactually made in the chapters. There is also a detailed knowledgemanagement course syllabus which refers to a course with overlapping LISand business studies taught by Srikantaiah. For an LIS professional wanting to get up to speed on knowledgemanagement, or an LIS educator considering the development of aknowledge management course, Knowledge management for the informationprofessional is a valuable starting point, particularly as there islittle available that combines the perspectives of the management andLIS disciplines. However, an effective study of the subject would needto be supplemented by further reading in both the management and LISliterature. Alastair G Smith, Victoria University of Wellington