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5. Knowledge Management:

5. Knowledge Management:

Concepts are best defined from how people use them. According to Karl-Erik Sveiby[10], she tries to define Knowledge Management by looking at what people in this field are doing. Both among KM-vendors (researchers and consultants) and KM-users (what companies and other practitioners are doing) there seem to be two tracks of activities - and two levels.

IT-Track KM = Management of Information. Researchers and practitioners in this field tend to have their education in computer and/or information science. They are involved in construction of information management systems, AI, reengineering, group ware etc. To them Knowledge = Objects that can be identified and handled in information systems. This track is new and is growing very fast at the moment, assisted by new developments in IT.

People-Track KM = Management of People. Researchers and practitioners in this field tend to have their education in philosophy, psychology, sociology or business/management. They are primarily involved in assessing, changing and improving human individual skills and/or behaviour. To them Knowledge = Processes, a complex set of dynamic skills, know-how etc, that is constantly changing. They are traditionally involved in learning and in managing these competencies individually - like psychologists - or on an organisational level - like philosophers, sociologists or organisational theorists. This track is very old, and is not growing so fast.

Level: Individual Perspective. The focus in research and practice is on the individual.
Level: Organisational Perspective. The focus in research and practice is on the organization.

 

According to Hilda Nessar, she draws simple definition[11]:

“ Is the process through which organizations generate value for their intellectual and knowledge-base assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves sharing them among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices.”

So, there is no specific definition for knowledge management. Its purpose is to improve the performance of organizations, libraries or institutions. In the case of Documentation and Information Center, its purpose is to help researchers to obtain their information needs in their fields of interest.

One aspect of KM is human interaction, which may be from a professional to another in the same field or in different fields, or may also be through human interaction with a librarian. According to Butler[12], there are consistently three categories of knowledge within an institution: internal knowledge, customer knowledge, and market knowledge. If the institution or company knows that knowledge becomes valuable if it is used and re-used enhanced and learned from in order to create new knowledge.