Knowledge Management and Innovation: The Transformation of 21st Century Library Services

Nerisa Kamar (Lead Presenter)Nerisa Kamar (Lead Presenter)KM/Knowledge Services Consultant for Sub-Sahara AfricaKM/Knowledge Services Consultant for Sub-Sahara AfricaSMR InternationalSMR International, , Nairobi Kenya Nairobi Kenya

Guy St. ClairGuy St. ClairPresident and FounderPresident and FounderSMR International, New York NYSMR International, New York NY

IFLA WLICIFLA WLICCape Town, Republic of South AfricaCape Town, Republic of South Africa14 August, 201514 August, 2015

Librarians?Or Knowledge Services Professionals?

Changing Trends in the Profession

Introduction

The role of libraries has notably shifted from what is generally thought of as “traditional library services” (that is, reactive service delivery) to the current proactive and – in many cases – interactive or integrated library service delivery status, as in the popular “embedded” library and research services in many organizations with specialized libraries.

What is Knowledge Management (KM)?

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• KM is the systematic management of an organization's knowledge assets for the purpose of:– creating value– meeting tactical & strategic requirements.

• It consists of the initiatives, processes, strategies, and systems that sustain and enhance the storage, assessment, sharing, refinement, and creation of knowledge.

• KM therefore implies a strong tie to organizational goals and strategy, and it involves the management of knowledge that is useful for some purpose and which creates value for the organization.

Transitioning from KM to Knowledge Services

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• Knowledge services:– Converges information management, knowledge

management, and strategic learning– Enables KD/KS

• Knowledge asset management

– Combination of processes, people, and technology for managing information assets at all levels

Knowledge Services is putting knowledge management to work –

It’s the practical side of KM

Knowledge Services Defined

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Knowledge services is the management and service-delivery methodology that converges information management, knowledge management, and strategic learning into a single over-arching function.

Information Management

Strategic Learning

Knowledge ManagementKnowledge

Services

Knowledge Services

Strengthened Research

Contextual Decision-Making

Accelerated Innovation

Successful Knowledge Asset Management

Strategic Learning

Information Management

Knowledge Management

Roles

Knowledge Services Professional

Knowledge Facilitator / Consultant

Knowledge Coach

Knowledge Thought Leader

Knowledge Services

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Approaches

From Reactive to

Proactive to

Interactive and Integrated

KM/Knowledge Services in The Organization

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The Organization

Executive

Product Development

Research

Marketing

Sales

Client Relationship ManagementCommunications/Public Relations

Planning

Legal

Human Resources

Accounting/Financial Services

The Organization

Knowledge Work inToday’s Business/Research Environment

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The work of most employees in the business/research environment is knowledge work.

The new workplace environment requires a new kind of knowledge work - the work of conversation (sharing), analysis, and synthesis.

Knowledge Services Implementation

• Identify a knowledge-sharing problem (“gap”) or innovation under consideration– What is the “desired effect”?– What do you want to do?– Why?

• Conduct the knowledge audit– Investigate organization’s knowledge 'health‘ or supportive

environment for innovation – Establish findings and preliminary recommendations

• Develop the knowledge strategy– Provide a “road map” for selecting recommendations for

implementation– Prepare implementation plan

The Knowledge Culture

The Knowledge Culture: An accumulation of shared beliefs and values about what constitutes knowledge and the role of knowledge in society and, in this case, in your organization

The Librarian/Strategic Knowledge Professional in the Knowledge Culture: Maintains beliefs and values about knowledge that build on and connect with an understanding of the organization of information, knowledge, and strategic learning, and how those disciplines converge for the benefit of an organization, a group, a community, or a society

Guy St. Clair, “Epilogue”SLA @ 100: From Putting Knowledge to Work to Building the Knowledge Culture

—A Centennial History of SLA (1909-2009).(Alexandria VA USA: Special Libraries Association,2009)

Organizational Success is Achieved Through the Development, Implementation, and Utilization of a Knowledge Culture.

The Challenge: How to Communicate and Differentiate the Strategic Value of Knowledge?

The Knowledge Culture: Why?

1. Society (locally or globally) requires attention to knowledge, to how knowledge is developed, shared, and to how it is used once it has been developed and shared

2. In a knowledge culture the success of every interaction rests on the quality of the knowledge developed and shared

3. Society cannot grow, expand, and evaluate its success without attention to the quality of the knowledge that supports society’s development.

Knowledge Strategy Development:The Essentials

• Management commitment• Desire for quality (on the part of all stakeholders)• Leadership responsibility• Service excellence• Leadership positioning for the specialized library/knowledge

services center- Guy St. Clair

Beyond Degrees: Professional Learning for Knowledge Services(Munich: K.G. Saur 2003)

Library webpages mash ups

• Mashup is a web application that uses content from more than one source to create a single new service, displayed in a single graphical interface.

• Mashable bodies of knowledge creates a unique opportunity to embrace openness, develop methods, standards and tools to enhance towards an open universe of knowledge and knowledge sharing.

• popular types of mashups Google Maps (maps.google.com)

A Knowledge Services ExampleEmbedded Librarianship: Knowledge Services at Work

Literacy curriculum development & delivery

• Information literacy provides a foundation for life-long learning.

• Develop and deliver the learning support strategies which will be significant culture change agents in an organization.

• leads to increased communication, improved services and the cooperative leveraging of knowledge/information resources in an organization.

• pedagogical guides to facilitate the successful delivery of information literacy content in organizations.

Development of institutional repositories

• The Institutional Repository (IR) is an information system whose initiatives capture, preserve, and make digitally accessible the intellectual & scientific output

• To sustain-requires embedment of IR in the institutional knowledge management culture.

• Need - embed standard operating procedures and policies, practices, rules, to knowledge databases in the form of best practices.

• This knowledge can then be used as repositories of the shared, organization wide “structural intellectual capital” (Stewart, 1997).

Knowledge Services as Catalyst:Creating Knowledge Value in the Organization

“Knowledge services is about Knowledge Catalysis, the creation of knowledge value through knowledge development, knowledge sharing, and knowledge utilization (KD/KS/KU)—finding and leveraging opportunities to produce strengthened research, contextual decision-making, accelerated innovation and successful knowledge asset management .”

Dale StanleySenior Consultant and Marketing and Operations Manager

SMR InternationalNew York NY USA

Conclusion

• In the 21st century, librarians, information professionals, and strategic knowledge professionals function in a workplace environment that is vastly different from that of previous generations

• The workplace (and society at large) require attention and leadership in strengthening knowledge sharing

• Practitioners in librarianship are the “natural” professionals for leading the way to the knowledge culture.