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Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries and Information Centres: A Case of University Libraries Priti Jain Department of Library & Information Studies University of Botswana Gaborone, Botswana [email protected] Published 27 December 2013 Abstract. In today's knowledge-based economies, appropri- ate Knowledge Management (KM) has proved a strategic man- agement tool to survive and thrive in the ever-changing global market. Therefore, increasingly, all types of organisations in- cluding tertiary institutions are adopting KM. This paper focuses on university libraries and presents the partial ¯ndings of a study carried out to investigate and explore KM practices in Southern African Development Community (SADC) university libraries. A structured questionnaire was used to carry out the study. The study revealed the main reasons for practicing KM to improve library services: to improve library services and productivity, produce more with less, avoid duplication of e®orts and leverage existing knowledge. The major challenges were identi¯ed as constant budget decline, lack of incentives, inadequate sta® training and expertise, a lack KM strategy, insu±cient infor- mation and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and a lack of knowledge sharing culture. Finally, the paper puts forward some recommendations and a framework for KM implementation in university/academic libraries. Keywords : Knowledge management; information management; library management; African libraries; university libraries; aca- demic libraries; SADC libraries. 1. Introduction Like all types of organisations, universities are going through fundamental changes and consequently, their mission, vision and functions are pragmatic in order to keep pace with the current knowledge economy. The success of an organisation depends on its e®ectiveness in managing both its tacit and explicit knowledge resources. The contemporary world calls for tertiary institutions to have appropriate Knowledge Management (KM) because producing, sharing and utilising knowledge is their central raison d' ^ etre and academic libraries are supposed play a key role in managing knowledge of their parent organisa- tions. Academic libraries exist to support their academic community; their development is tied with the develop- ment of their academic institutions' in this case universi- ties. Today, students and academia are expecting enhanced access and support to information services. \Academic research now has become much more endogenised and integrated into the economic cycle of innovation and growth. On the one hand, business looks upon academia as a source of scienti¯c novelty and technological break- throughs to fuel its innovation process. On the other hand, an ever increasing number of academic institutions are becoming fully aware of the economic potential of their research e®orts." (Oosterlinck, 2001, p. 4). The changes in the academic environment can be attributed to the evo- lution in education system, advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), changing user needs, social media, changes in scholarly communication, and information and knowledge explosion. As appropri- ately observed by Loh et al. (2003, p. 2), this change can be attributed to various factors \the heterogeneity of knowledge production, massi¯cation and democratisation of higher education, and the integration and assimilation of information technology into the academic environment". More and more \universities are looking into the pos- sibility of applying corporate KM systems" (Loh et al., 2003, p. 6). Academic libraries are established in \support of the mission of their parent institutions to generate knowledge, and people equipped with knowledge in order to serve the society and advance the well-being of man- kind" (Raja et al., 2009, p. 701). Hence, whatever is im- portant to the university must be important to its library and all planning activity needs to be geared towards this (Rydberg-Cox, 2010). Academic libraries are to support three main institutional activities teaching, learning and research of their academic community; they need to Journal of Information & Knowledge Management, Vol. 12, No. 4 (2013) 1350034 (13 pages) # . c World Scienti¯c Publishing Co. DOI: 10.1142/S0219649213500342 1350034-1 J. Info. Know. Mgmt. 2013.12. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by 162.216.0.98 on 06/11/14. For personal use only.

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Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries andInformation Centres: A Case of University Libraries

Priti JainDepartment of Library & Information StudiesUniversity of Botswana Gaborone, Botswana

[email protected]

Published 27 December 2013

Abstract. In today's knowledge-based economies, appropri-ate Knowledge Management (KM) has proved a strategic man-agement tool to survive and thrive in the ever-changing globalmarket. Therefore, increasingly, all types of organisations in-cluding tertiary institutions are adopting KM. This paper focuseson university libraries and presents the partial ¯ndings of a studycarried out to investigate and explore KM practices in SouthernAfrican Development Community (SADC) university libraries.A structured questionnaire was used to carry out the study. Thestudy revealed the main reasons for practicing KM to improvelibrary services: to improve library services and productivity,produce more with less, avoid duplication of e®orts and leverageexisting knowledge. The major challenges were identi¯ed asconstant budget decline, lack of incentives, inadequate sta®training and expertise, a lack KM strategy, insu±cient infor-mation and communication technology (ICT) infrastructureand a lack of knowledge sharing culture. Finally, the paperputs forward some recommendations and a framework for KMimplementation in university/academic libraries.

Keywords: Knowledge management; information management;library management; African libraries; university libraries; aca-demic libraries; SADC libraries.

1. Introduction

Like all types of organisations, universities are going

through fundamental changes and consequently, their

mission, vision and functions are pragmatic in order to

keep pace with the current knowledge economy. The

success of an organisation depends on its e®ectiveness in

managing both its tacit and explicit knowledge resources.

The contemporary world calls for tertiary institutions to

have appropriate Knowledge Management (KM) because

producing, sharing and utilising knowledge is their central

raison d'etre and academic libraries are supposed play a

key role in managing knowledge of their parent organisa-

tions. Academic libraries exist to support their academic

community; their development is tied with the develop-

ment of their academic institutions' in this case universi-

ties. Today, students and academia are expecting enhanced

access and support to information services. \Academic

research now has become much more endogenised and

integrated into the economic cycle of innovation and

growth. On the one hand, business looks upon academia as

a source of scienti¯c novelty and technological break-

throughs to fuel its innovation process. On the other hand,

an ever increasing number of academic institutions are

becoming fully aware of the economic potential of their

research e®orts." (Oosterlinck, 2001, p. 4). The changes in

the academic environment can be attributed to the evo-

lution in education system, advancement in Information

and Communication Technology (ICT), changing user

needs, social media, changes in scholarly communication,

and information and knowledge explosion. As appropri-

ately observed by Loh et al. (2003, p. 2), this change can

be attributed to various factors — \the heterogeneity of

knowledge production, massi¯cation and democratisation

of higher education, and the integration and assimilation

of information technology into the academic environment".

More and more \universities are looking into the pos-

sibility of applying corporate KM systems" (Loh et al.,

2003, p. 6). Academic libraries are established in \support

of the mission of their parent institutions to generate

knowledge, and people equipped with knowledge in order

to serve the society and advance the well-being of man-

kind" (Raja et al., 2009, p. 701). Hence, whatever is im-

portant to the university must be important to its library

and all planning activity needs to be geared towards this

(Rydberg-Cox, 2010). Academic libraries are to support

three main institutional activities — teaching, learning

and research of their academic community; they need to

Journal of Information & Knowledge Management, Vol. 12, No. 4 (2013) 1350034 (13 pages)#.c World Scienti¯c Publishing Co.DOI: 10.1142/S0219649213500342

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evolve in order to support institutional change and ad-

dress ever changing customer needs. KM is now a well-

accepted mode of providing the right information to the

right person at the right time. In this background, this

research was aimed to explore practices in Southern Af-

rican Development Community (SADC) universities.

2. Literature Review

This section reviews the relevant literature on KM in

academic libraries.

2.1. Concept of KM

Knowledge management literature has described KM

in various ways as the inherent capacity of organizations

to act (Sveiby, 1997); as a \justi¯ed belief that increases

an entity's capacity for e®ective action" (Nonaka, 1994,

p. 15); and a \conscious strategy of getting the right

knowledge to the right people at the right time" (O'Dell &

Grayson, 1998, p. 6). It has also been de¯ned as a \tool

to accomplish our goals faster and more e®ectively by

delivering the right knowledge to right person at the

right time and in the right context" (Ugwu & Ezema,

2010, p. 184). For the purpose of this paper, KM is de¯ned

as a process to create, acquire, share and apply both

tacit and explicit knowledge for the bene¯t of the uni-

versity and its entire user community, providing the right

information to the right customer at the right time and

in the right format to accomplish the parent institution's

goals.

2.2. Importance of KM in academiclibraries

Today, customers are paramount in all types of organi-

sations and libraries are essentially user-oriented organi-

sations. Their main objective is to provide the right

information in the right format at the right time to the

library customers. KM provides academic libraries nu-

merous opportunities to drastically change their approach

and service delivery abilities at both ends, among the in-

ternal employee community and also towards external

stake holders (Hadagail et al., 2012). According to

Roknuzzaman and Umemoto (2009), the major drivers of

KM are increased value of knowledge in the knowledge

economy; the library itself as a knowledge-based organi-

sation; the dynamic of technological advancement; and,

opportunities for improved library practices. Knowledge

generation and management is a collaborative process

and social networking applications have provided ample

prospects for both internal and external collaboration.

Incorporating networked knowledge networks, librarians

can create, manage and share tacit knowledge. Also,

librarians have inbuilt capabilities and desire to be

knowledge managers. For example, librarians have been

long collaborating by sharing catalogues through OCLC,

books and other articles through inter-library loan, and

their reference services through digital reference. Maury

(2012) views a library as a living force because of its

continuously evolving services to accommodate ever

changing user needs; a catalyst for innovations; and as a

learning and social place, where information and knowl-

edge transmit for teaching and learning.

2.3. Requirements on KM implementationin academic libraries

KM literature reveals the following requirements for KM

implementation in academic libraries:

2.3.1. Types of knowledge importantfor information professionals

In order to initiate and practice KM, academic librarians

require certain types of knowledge. According to Raja et al.

(2009) the following types of knowledge are important:

. Knowledge about library's information sources for

assets, products and services.

. Knowledge about where these sources are stored and

their usage.

. Knowledge about users including teaching sta®, re-

searchers, students and any other stakeholders.

. What is the current usage of these sources and how to

increase their usage?

. Creativity and ability to learn and adapt the new

technologies to provide better services and ability to

create, share, harness and utilise knowledge.

. Understanding of the knowledge creation process and

impact of knowledge.

. Information literacy skills, creating, ¯nding, sharing

and using information and knowledge.

. Understanding of the principles of \Organisation of

Knowledge" (Raja et al., 2009) and manage it for better

°ow and utilisation.

2.3.2. Important steps in KM implementationin academic libraries

To meet universities' mission, vision and goals, Tutu

(2012) suggested the following ¯ve steps for academic

libraries for managing KM in Universities:

. Establish the knowledge needs of the University:

As mentioned earlier, academic libraries exist to support

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the mission and vision of their parent universities; so,

¯rst and foremost libraries should establish the knowl-

edge needs of their parent universities, which are de-

¯ned by all activities conducted, and services o®ered by

the university, such as teaching, learning and research.

. Ascertain the relevant sources of the knowledge:

After the library has established the knowledge needs of

the university, the library should ascertain the relevant

sources of the knowledge ranging from print materials,

non-print materials to knowledge workers within and

outside the university.

. Acquire the knowledge sources: After ascertaining

the relevant sources, they should be acquired.

. Organise the knowledge sources: Acquired knowl-

edge sources should be organised to facilitate easy ac-

cessibility of the knowledge sources.

. Disseminate/share knowledge: Finally, organised

sources should be disseminated using library catalogues

and social media.

2.3.3. Knowledge management process

Based on KM processes that exist in a Library and In-

formation Sciences (LIS) environment, Che Rusuli et al.

(2012) suggested a six-step conceptual framework for

knowledge implementation in academic libraries: Knowl-

edge Creation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge capture,

knowledge sharing, knowledge record and knowledge

preservation. The strength of this conceptual model is

the addition of two KM gaps found in the current KM

Practice, \Knowledge Record" and \Knowledge Pre-

serving", which are vital to complete the whole KM cycle.

Mottaghi-Far (2012) suggested ¯ve ways to apply know-

ledge and add value for parent organisations: Turning

traditional libraries into electronic ones; empowering

librarians to be able to cope with change; upgrade the

status of the academic libraries and librarians' in the uni-

versity; developing informed university members; and,

contributing to the creation of critical thinkers and inde-

pendent users. Using a subject-user-centred library KM

approach, Xin Qu (2011) provided a knowledge service

management framework and recommended four strategies:

. Strengthen academic library collections: Using

\book the best use" principle, university libraries should

reinforce the collection by choosing the most relevant

knowledge resources for the library customers.

. Construct a high-quality team of subject libr-

arians: There should be a subject librarian and the

subject librarian assistant to work closely with subject

teachers and students in order to provide subject

knowledge services.

. Share subject knowledge services and protect

the academic quality of service: University library's

subject knowledge services should be rationally ar-

ranged based on a uni¯ed standardized service mecha-

nism of discipline and knowledge. There should also be a

uni¯ed standard of a network information input, data

organization, information retrieval and standardization

of search results.

. Establish the concept of personalized service in-

novation: Libraries should adopt a personalized service

innovative concept by providing user-centric personal-

ized services.

Nazim and Mukherjee (2011) established the major

tools of KM as: professional education and training pro-

grams, communities of practice, information technology

and knowledge sharing. Focusing mainly on the knowledge

about, from and for Faculty recently, Daneshgar and

Parirokh (2012) suggested a conceptual Customer Know-

ledge Management (CKM) model as an analytical tool for

improving current services and creating innovative services

through appropriate management of client knowledge

in academic libraries. An initial integrated CKM model

had three main components: KAC (knowledge about cus-

tomers); KRC (knowledge from customers); and, KFC

(knowledge for customers). According to this model,

librarians collect information \about" and \from" their

faculty customers, particularly during interviews (also re-

ferred to as outreach librarian interviews with academics).

The captured customer knowledge is shared and disse-

minated to all librarians and library decision makers for

understanding their customers and applied to the current

services in order to create new and updated services. This

knowledge is made available to customers for their utili-

sation and generates new customer feedback to be used by

the librarians for the evaluation of library services. Results

of this evaluation together with the customers' feedback

are then used as new KAC and KRC, and the cycle con-

tinues. The ¯rst stage in organising customer knowledge

was categorisation of customer knowledge taxonomy to

provide a formal and explicit shared conceptualisation of

customer knowledge. After several direct interviews with

customers, surveys and data mining, sta® meetings and

discussions, the authors designed a ¯nal version of the

CKM model with some modi¯cations. In the ¯nal inte-

grated CKM model, major knowledge capture phase is

renamed as \the communication phase". There is explicit

incorporation of the term \technology" as the major en-

abler of the knowledge acquisition and application phase,

and, explicit incorporation of the term \strategies" as the

major directive for knowledge utilisation and evaluation.

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Thus, the model has four main phases, (i) Communication,

(ii) Utilisation and Evaluation, (iii) Knowledge Sharing

and Dissemination, and, (iv) Knowledge Acquisition and

Application (Daneshgar and Parirokh, 2012, pp. 15–18).

2.4. Latest trends in KM in academiclibraries

The most common recent trends towards KM implemen-

tation in academic libraries are:

2.4.1. Adoption of web 2.0 and social media

With the dawn of web 2.0, libraries have completely

transformed their ways of interaction with the library

users. Today, instead of users physically coming to the

library, the library delivers services to users via the uni-

versity library website. Blogging, wikis and Twitter can be

used as knowledge creation tools by both users and libra-

rians (Kim and Abbas, 2010). Librarians can use all of

these web 2.0 applications and tools for dissemination and

exchange of knowledge and current awareness services.

Web 2.0 provides interactive collaboration tools to improve

knowledge exchange and productivity. KM practitioners

use them to bring people together in order to share and

develop ideas. Communities of Practices (CoPs) can

bene¯t from these kinds of tools to stimulate interest and

encourage collaboration. Blogs are commonly used in aca-

demic libraries. There are several services where one can set

up a blog for free or for a small fee, or specialised applica-

tions can be acquired for these purposes. A blog allows a

person or a group of people to post information and receive

feedback. For example, libraries can set up a blog restricted

to library sta® replacing previous notebook or bulletin

board systems for conveying information. Libraries can

also use a public-facing blog to communicate with their

patrons and keep everyone involved and informed with

library activities.Wikis can be employed to store and edit

frequently used and updated university documents such as

policy and procedure manuals and can be used as project-

management tools as a work space for asynchronous com-

munication. Tagging is a popular, user-centred subject

tool, that enables web searchers to add tags that operate in

the same way as subject headings. The librarians can ¯nd

relevant websites' tag them and save the information.

When another librarian is asked that same question he/she

will have access to the shared work. In a large library, this

might include the subject specialist or material selector in

that subject area, and others who consider themselves

experts in that subject matter. If a person searches for a

topic, the results will include not only sites that have been

tagged with the topic, but also people in the organisation

who have tagged themselves with it (Nelson, 2008). Thus,

there are powerful web applications for academic libraries

for knowledge sharing and content management. All aca-

demic librarians need to appreciate the value of social

media for connecting people to information and knowledge

as well as connecting people to people. That is why (Koina,

2002) emphasised, \we need to promote ourselves and our

skills more to our lay management. We do have a lot to

o®er in the changing world — we just need to make sure

other people can see that too". Together with KM system

to improve information and knowledge usability, the ap-

plication of social media is improving the e®ectiveness and

the adoption of KM in academic research environment.

2.4.2. Use of virtual/online reference services

Academic libraries serve hundreds of users every week,

accumulating tacit and explicit knowledge. It is not possible

to remember and recall everything when answering a ref-

erence query. It is quite challenging to serve customers

when information is available in mufti-formats and comes

from di®erent sources. To facilitate the capture and storage

of this reference knowledge, to be shared and re-used sev-

eral times and to provide 24 hour services, KM tools such as

virtual/online reference services are designed and used in

academic libraries. There are numerous virtual/online ref-

erence services, for example KnowItNow24� 7, an online

reference service, Ask A Librarian o®ers help 24 hours a

day, seven days a week, by phone, email and using a live

online reference service. Question Point, is a virtual refer-

ence service, generally in real-time, where patrons employ

computers or other Internet technology to communicate

with reference sta® without being physically present. This

is how today reference librarians have become more ef-

fective as information mediators in academic libraries.

2.4.3. Digitisation of library collection

To manage library information and knowledge that could

be shared and re-used, almost all academic libraries have

initiated digitisation of library collection to disseminate

the right knowledge at the right time and in the appro-

priate format. The University of Toledo has initiated nu-

merous digitisation projects, such as digitising special

collections, developing virtual exhibits and converting

tacit to explicit knowledge and an in-house digital library

to house university-speci¯c collections including photo-

graphs of university administrators, the faculty and fa-

cilities (Sabharwal, 2010). Today, Toledo libraries have a

Digital Resource Commons (DRC), Ohio DRC, which is

an initiative of OhioLINK and its member libraries. The

DRC is a service that collects, preserves and distributes

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digital material (The University of Toledo, 2012). Build-

ing a personal digital library through the digitisation of

library collections is an important KM system that allows

\the hyper textual linking of related texts, full text

searching of holdings and the integration of KM, data vi-

sualisation and geographic information tools with the texts

in the digital library" (Rydberg-Cox et al., 2000, p. 1).

2.4.4. Institutional repositories

Institutional repositories (IRs) are other fast growing tools

to manage institutional knowledge at university libraries.

An institutional repository is a digital repository main-

tained by an institution, a tool for collecting, storing and

disseminating scholarly outputs within and without an

institution. Because of their inherent scholarly nature, IRs

are also considered a benchmark of digital scholarship

(Jain et al., 2009). Being knowledge-intensive institutions,

most academic institutions have recognised the importance

of IRs to preserve scholarly knowledge and improve

scholarly communication. \Digital Repositories, one of the

components of KM systems hold content-explicit know-

ledge and are concerned with managing, maintaining and

distributing this content" (Doctor and Ramachandran,

2007, p. 1). Certainly, IRs are part of KM focusing on

one aspect of institutional knowledge, which is scholarly

research outputs of its academia (Jain, 2011). In this way,

\repository managers truly become knowledge managers,

presenting a picture of the role of repositories in the ins-

titutional knowledge-processes" (White, 2009, p. 8). In

mostcases, IRs are managed by librarians or at least they

play key roles in IR management. These are some KM

initiatives, most academic libraries have initiated towards

KM implementation.

3. Research Findings

The following section presents the scope, methodology and

the major ¯ndings of the study.

3.1. Scope and context of the research

SADC was established in April 1980 by the governments

of nine Southern African countries. Currently, SADC has

a membership of 15 Member States, namely; Angola,

Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Leso-

tho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,

Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United

Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe (SADC,

2012). The study was aimed at all SADC university li-

braries. However, it was not possible to determine the

total number of libraries.

3.2. Limitation to the research

This study had the following two major limitations:

(1) In the absence of availability of information on the

Internet, it was very di±cult to establish the total

number of university libraries in the SADC region.

This had a serious impact on collection of data because

contact details for potential participants were di±cult

to trace. Using the e-mail address from the net several

questionnaires were posted to potential participants

through e-mail, most of them bounced. Only some

contact details were correct on the internet. Other

participants were contacted using personal network.

A total of 50 questionnaires were sent via e-mail.

(2) The second limitation was that no theoretical frame-

work was used to carry out the study. The questionnaire

was designed based on the general literature in the

¯eld of KM contextualising in library situation.

3.3. Research purpose and objectives

As mentioned in the introduction, the main purpose of

this study was to explore KM practices in university

libraries in SADC countries. To ful¯l this purpose, the

study pursued the following objectives:

. Ascertain the reasons for practicing KM;

. Identify the activities undertaken to practice KM in

libraries; and,

. Determine the challenges associated with KM practice.

3.4. Methodology

A structured questionnaire was used to carry out the

study, including largely quantitative questions except two

qualitative questions. In one, the participants were asked

to de¯ne KM. In the second qualitative question, partici-

pants were requested to list the activities undertaken by

them to practice KM in their libraries. The qualitative

(open-ended) questions were analysed separately, by

identifying and grouping key responses into themes, after

which related/associated themes were further grouped

into variables for frequency counts. A total of 50 ques-

tionnaires were sent via e-mail, of which only 25 were

completed and returned (at 50% response rate).

The purpose of any sampling is to secure a sample

which will represent the characteristics of the entire pop-

ulation. In this study, purposive sampling was used

because the aim of the study was to explore KM practices

by collecting data from each University Library Director

of SADC university libraries. It was assumed that one

questionnaire from each library would represent the whole

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library and therefore there was no need to repeat the

survey with other library sta® members.

As it was largely quantitative data and it was not a

large amount of data, data analysis was done by simple

frequency counts and cross tabulation, and, comparing

responses across demographic variables.

3.5. Ethical issues

Anonymity was guaranteed to all the participating

libraries and librarians, hence, no library names are dis-

closed in the paper.

3.6. Results

Out of 25 participating libraries, only 15 (60%) claimed to

be practicing KM and considered themselves knowledge

managers. Of the 15 KM practicing university libraries, in

8 of them KM is owned by libraries; in 3 jointly by library

and the information and technology (IT) unit; in 1 by

library and the human resource management, while in 1

KM responsibility lay with the IT unit and 2 did not an-

swer the question. From the participants' de¯nitions of

KM, it was apparent that they understood the concept of

KM. Some of the participants de¯ned KM as, \A sys-

tematic way of gathering, organising, managing, dissemi-

nating and use of information and knowledge", \sharing

and retaining knowledge and expertise in the organisa-

tion", \a systematic retrieval, storage and dissemination

of relevant information to the strategic advantage of an

organisation". Table 1 presents the number of partici-

pating libraries countrywise.

Participants were asked to indicate the reasons for ini-

tiating KM in their libraries; Table 2 presents the responses:

Participants were asked to list the activities under-

taken by them to practice KM in their libraries; Table 3

reports the responses:

Participants were asked to list any challenge, they

encountered in KM practice within their libraries. Table 4

lists the identi¯ed challenges:

4. Discussion

Of 25 participating libraries, only 15 (60%) claimed to be

practicing KM and preferred to be called knowledge man-

agers. Not all libraries were practicing KM, still they par-

ticipated in the survey. This indicates that all information

professionals were conversant with KM concept and its

bene¯ts and volunteered to participate in the survey to

appreciate the concept of KM. Also, they de¯ned the con-

cept of KM appropriately. This ¯nding seems to corro-

borate with Roknuzzaman and Umemoto (2009) ¯ndings,

studying the perceptions of library practitioners the authors

noted that although all libraries were not practicing KM,

the majority of them appreciated the importance of KM,

agreeing that a well-planned and visionary KM project can

promote decent library practices in a digital environment.

Of the 15 KM practicing university libraries, only in 8

Table 1. Participating libraries N ¼ 25.

SADC countries No. of participating libraries

Botswana 1Lesotho 1Malawi 1Namibia 1South Africa 14Swaziland 1Tanzania 2Zambia 3Zimbabwe 1

Table 2. Reasons for practising KM N ¼ 25.

Reasons % Yes No

To improve library services and productivity 96 24To produce more with less due to ¯nancial

constraints88 22

To leverage the existing knowledge 80 20To make informed decisions 76 19To manage information explosion 72 18To establish best practices 68 17To manage rapid knowledge decay 64 16To avoid duplication of e®orts 52 13

Table 3. KM initiatives undertaken in SADC university li-braries N ¼ 25.

Activities % a No

Strong partnership with other libraries, e.g. jointresearch projects, library consortia and inter-library lending

60 15

Adoption of Web 2.0 & Social Media, e.g. wikis,twitter, blogs, tagging, Facebook

60 15

Digitization of library collection 60 15Use of virtual/online reference services 52 13Central knowledge repositories for the whole

university48 12

Identi¯cation of the expertise in libraries 44 11Internal knowledge capture systems in place 40 10Sta® training in knowledge management 20 5Communities of Practice 20 5Identi¯cation of knowledge gap 12 3Existence of written knowledge management

strategy/policy8 2

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of them KM is owned by libraries, while librarians and

information professionals should be seen in the forefront

in University KM projects. Conventionally, information

management has always been regarded as the domain

of librarians and libraries and librarians are trained in in-

formation searching, selecting, acquiring, organising, pre-

serving, repackaging, disseminating and serving their

customers. Information professionals should not take a back

seat in the initiation of KM projects. Instead, armed with

professional knowledge and experiences, one should acquire

the driver's seat (Lee, 2005). Gakuya (2012) further em-

phasised that librarians/libraries in the digital and knowl-

edge age should be in charge of KM in their respective

organisations in order to leverage the intellectual assets and

to facilitate knowledge creation. Therefore, \The academic

libraries are called upon to play a crucial and leading role

over other types of libraries by transforming their informa-

tion management skills, techniques, practices and resources.

Such transformations at the present age create new func-

tions for professional librarians, and if they do their best, it

will promote the quality of library services" (Mottaghi-Far,

2012, p. 1476). All of this calls upon university librarians to

take a strong leadership in KM initiatives.

4.1. Reasons for practicing knowledgemanagement

The study identi¯ed the main reasons for KM adoption as:

to improve library services and productivity (96%), to

produce more with less (88%) because of ¯nancial con-

straints, leverage already existing knowledge (80%), make

informed decisions (76%), manage information explosion

(72%), establish best practices (68%), manage rapid

knowledge decay (64%), and, to avoid duplication of

e®orts (52%). KM has the potential to improve library

services as well as a library's overall productivity in nu-

merous ways by providing time and cost e®ective and

customer-focused 24 hour library services in a consistent

manner. By managing KM systems, each customer can

receive the same answers for similar queries; which would

be impossible to monitor without KM systems. De¯nitely,

KM is a good solution to produce more with less by uti-

lising the scarce ¯nance resource in managing only the

most relevant information. As Wen (2005) succinctly ob-

served that during early and mid 2000s, budgets in aca-

demic libraries were stagnant at best and declining in

general. Academic libraries have felt the pinch from both

sides with less budget and more demand. Thus, librarians

are threatened of being marginalised by internet-based

information services as well as students' and faculties' own

information gathering e®orts. It is critical for academic

libraries to operate more e±ciently with reduced ¯nancial

and human resources and produce more with less.

Often organisations do not know what knowledge they

already have. Because of this, even the large global cor-

porations are spending money on training and deve-

lopment to gain knowledge that they already have

(Goodman and Schieman, 2010). KM leverages the

existing knowledge within an organisation. Through needs

assessment, knowledge mapping and knowledge auditing,

hidden organisational knowledge are visible and usable.

With too much information to digest, a person is unable to

locate and make use of the information one needs, and this

information overload can hinder information usefulness to

the individual (Israel, 2010). Today there is information

explosion and consequently, evolution of knowledge. New

information and knowledge is generating faster than ever

before. In such a °uid situation' it is imperative to keep

update in skills and knowledge at both individual and

organisational levels in order to make informed decisions. As

academic libraries support the mission, vision and objectives

of their parent institutions, they need to continuously de-

velop in order to manage changing needs of their parent

institutions and support teaching, learning and research

activities by managing the valuable knowledge. KM is one

such tool that can help in managing information explosion

by providing tools and technologies to manage the infor-

mation that is most critical and essential for an organisa-

tion. Information explosion also has negative impact on

knowledge sharing. Thus, academic librarians need to

\renovate the existing library environment and promote a

knowledge-sharing culture by initiating communities of

practice, management of best practices, change mana-

gement, organisational learning, and use of appropri-

ate knowledge-sharing technologies" (Roknuzzaman and

Umemoto, 2009, p. 654). KM would equip each person with

informed decision making capabilities by providing the right

information and knowledge. KM emphasises the identi¯ca-

tion of best practices because tried and tested solutions and

Table 4. Challenges in KM N ¼ 25.

Challenge % Yes No

Constant budget decline 88 22Inadequate sta® training 76 19Lack of KM strategy 72 18Insu±cient Technology 68 17Lack of incentives 60 15Limited expertise in KM 56 14A lack of knowledge sharing culture 56 14A lack of cooperation among juniors and seniors 32 8To track the materials from departments is time

consuming24 6

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practices are always superior to newly-introduced ones.

Because of long-term experience, best practices are time and

cost-e®ective, they provide operational excellence, enhance

performance capabilities and reduce training needs. Aca-

demic libraries should continuously look for best practices.

Knowledge sharing is one of the most critical compo-

nents of KM. Often, academic library practitioners are

doing similar things in their own isolated silos and con-

tinue doing their personal research on how to serve their

customers. Using KM applications, duplication of e®orts

can reduced, best practices can be shared, training needs

can be minimised, and all information services can be

provided time and cost-e®ectively. An integrated CKM

approach proposed by Daneshgar and Parirokh (2012,

p. 17), is vital for improving library services through

appropriate management of library customers.

4.2. KM activities initiated in SADCuniversities

Several questions were asked to investigate the current

KM practices in SADC university libraries. The ¯ndings

revealed 60% (15) libraries had strong partnerships with

other libraries. Most common partnerships are joint re-

search projects, library consortia and inter-library loans

for resource sharing. Through these partnerships and

collaboration, libraries build strong relationships with

other libraries where ideas, processes, work °ows, and

mutual training are shared, investigated and documented.

In terms of new technology, only 52% (13) of the

libraries acknowledged themselves as well-equipped with

knowledge-enabling technologies. Other libraries lacked

adequate technologies, e-textbooks, laptops, tablets, PCs,

e-Readers, mobile based websites, and smart phone

applications. One participant noted, \The intranet of the

library is not functioning as it should. The library needs a

proper Intranet as well as a document management sys-

tem". ICT is key facilitator to KM, adequate ICT infra-

structure is vital.

Only 48% (12) universities had a central knowledge

repository for the whole university, while 40% (10) of the

libraries had a system in place to capture the internal

knowledge of their sta® and some of the mechanisms to

capture knowledge were identi¯ed as LibStats system,

intranet, DSpace and IRs. In a few libraries it was man-

datory for academic sta® to submit copies of their research

publications to the library. A few libraries also recorded

workshop proceedings on DSpace. Identi¯cation of the

expertise was exercised in 44% (11) participating libraries

and 40% (10) libraries had a system in place to capture

internal knowledge of their sta® members. Only 20% (5) of

the libraries had a provision for training in KM, and

incentives were provided in four libraries. According to the

participants incentives could be modest honorarium,

promotions and opportunities to attend conferences for

professional development. In some libraries, incentives

were built into the performance evaluation systems and

top achievers received a ¯nancial bonus. A knowledge gap

exercise was conducted only in three libraries, and the

knowledge gaps were identi¯ed as: lack of ICT, manage-

ment and leadership skills. Training opportunities are

provided based on the identi¯ed skills gaps under the

personal development plan of each sta® member. Only two

libraries had written KM strategies, which basically

entailed what knowledge should be collected aligned with

the library management's vision and strategy. KM strat-

egy is the ¯rst and foremost condition for KM imple-

mentation, which describes how an institution will

Fig. 1. A framework for KM implementation in a university library.

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manage its knowledge better for the bene¯t of that insti-

tution, employees and other stakeholders.

All of the above ¯ndings seem to imply that even

though 60% of the libraries claimed to be practicing KM,

some of the libraries did not seem to be practicing KM

fully. All the discussed activities are vital for practicing

KM in libraries, and the absence of them signi¯es in-

complete KM implementation or no KM at all. This could

be attributed to resource implications, or library sta®s'

willingness to adopt KM or both of these. At the same

time, students, faculties and university administration

have greater expectations from academic libraries. To

provide the right information at the right time is more

critical than ever before to ful¯l the mission and vision of

their parent institutions.

4.3. Challenges associated with knowledgemanagement practice

The study identi¯ed the major challenges in practicing

KM as: constant budget decline 88% (22), inadequate sta®

training 76% (19), lack of clearly de¯ned guidelines/KM

strategy 72% (18), insu±cient technology 68% (17), lack

of incentives 60% (15), limited KM expertise 56% (14) and

a lack of knowledge sharing culture 56% (14). Budget

decline challenge is similar to Nazim and Mukherjee

(2011) study, who described budget decline a two-way

problem ¯rst, a reason not to adopt and initiate KM, and

second, due to lack of adequate resources it is a challenge

to practice KM. Budget has an impact on everything,

including insu±cient tools and technologies, a lack of re-

ward system, poor training plans and a lack of expertise in

KM. With a stagnant or dwindling library budget, it is

more crucial for academic libraries to increase their oper-

ational e±ciency in order to come over this challenge.

When libraries face tight budgets or budget reductions, it

is only too natural for the library administration to hesi-

tate to invest in a KM system (Wen, 2005). Hence, su±-

cient budget is central to successful KM implementation.

It is evident from the study that only 20% participating

libraries had training facilities and 76% identi¯ed a lack of

training as one of the major challenge in KM practice.

Townley (2001) points out that training and support for

the adoption of new knowledge and behaviors are perhaps

the most important and costly part of any KM applica-

tion. As learning organisations, libraries should be allo-

cated annual funding to provide continuing education and

sta® training to all sta® members (Lee, 2005). Knowledge

must be renewed and expanded to prevent it from be-

coming stagnant. As university libraries play a leading

role in today's changing world in generating ideas and

advancing societies, they need to be knowledgeable

enough in order to cope with the rapid changes and strong

competitive environments (Daneshgar and Parirokh,

2007). A lack of training leads to limited expertise and

consequently poor performance and poor library services.

Su±cient training is important for KM implementation

and adequate expertise.

A lack of clearly de¯ned guidelines on KM implemen-

tation was recognised as a challenge by the participants as

only two libraries had a KM strategy in place. This seems

to be a problem world-wide. In UK only 12 UK universi-

ties had a KM strategy (McKnight, 2007). Establishing

principles for KM implementation are fundamental to KM

success. A KM strategy is an overall plan to implement

KM, which is based on the real needs and problems in a

particular organisation. It describes how an organisation

will manage its knowledge better for the bene¯t of the

organisation, employees and other stakeholders. A KM

strategy should stipulate the overall KM vision aligned

with organisational strategic plans. It should also consist

speci¯c objectives, action plans, budget, mentoring and

training plans, associated challenges, and, an evaluation

plan to measure the expected outcomes of KM initiatives.

ICT enables KM initiatives in two ways: by connecting

people with information/knowledge contents and by con-

necting people with people. It connects people with con-

tents by providing the means to capture, discover, organise,

store, retrieve and disseminate information/knowledge.

People are connected with people using web 2.0 and other

collaborative software such as, electronic communication

tools, electronic conferencing tools, collaborative manage-

ment tools and work °ow management systems. That is

why, \a good IT infrastructure is not a su±cient condition

for the success of KM but a necessary condition for it"

(Arora, 2002, p. 248). Insu±cient technology cripples the

successful implementation of KM in academic libraries.

Lack of incentives was identi¯ed yet another critical

issue and a challenge by the participants. Rewards are

good motivators to KM adoption and building organisa-

tional trust among librarians. Research indicates that

the more sta® received rewards, the more they trusted

the organisation and were ready to collaborate, and had a

more positive attitude towards KM (Constant et al., 1994;

Aharony, 2011). Organisations need to put in place ap-

propriate incentives and training plans in order to motivate

library sta® for knowledge sharing. A lack of knowledge

sharing was yet another challenge in the study, which is the

¯rst cultural roadblock in KM implementation. Only a few

libraries shared knowledge through communities of prac-

tices (CoPs), SDIs and SubjectPlus. A number of libraries

use Quarterly Library Newsletter, Face book, Intranet

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LibStats (statistics programme), Roadshows on best prac-

tice, IRs, Faculty Newsletters and a few use web 2.0

applications such' as, wikis, twitter and blogs. The ¯ndings

of this study support Parirokh, Daneshgar and Fattahi

(2008) study, who had established that KM and knowledge

sharing issues had not been institutionalised in the majority

of academic libraries. The above authors foresee that

knowledge-sharing capabilities of academic libraries will

eventually become one of the major critical success factors.

However, a knowledge sharing culture involves both orga-

nisation and library sta®. Organisation can support by

providing appropriate KM enablers such as, organisational

procedures, culture and technological infrastructures. On

an individual basis it refers to librarians' personal interests

and the degree of enthusiasm for sharing knowledge (Par-

irokh et al., 2008). Web 2.0 has transformed the entire

landscape of KM and sharing, unfortunately, many libraries

are still not exploiting the bene¯ts of web development. The

social media applications have improved the e®ectiveness

and increased the adoption of KM in an academic research

environment. Twitter can be used to create knowledge by

both users and librarians (Kim and Abbas, 2010; Silk,

2010). Virtual libraries are other powerful tools to share

knowledge. Libraries have abundance of opportunities to

create a knowledge-sharing culture using various venues

and by providing su±cient incentives and training oppor-

tunities to library sta®. Often librarians fail in locating and

managing the knowledge potential in the heads of their own

people (Selhorst, 2009). This needs to be changed. It is

important to locate and manage tacit knowledge of

employees, as tacit knowledge adds more value than ex-

plicit knowledge in gaining and sustaining an edge over its

competitors. Parirokh, Daneshgar and Fattahi (2008) sug-

gested numerous activities and strategies that can encour-

age knowledge sharing among librarians including research

projects, training programs, online newsletters, teaching

methods, knowledge-sharing policies and strategies, lead-

ership and dedication of time, group discussions, commu-

nication channels, formal procedures including publication

of manuals for sta® and documenting experiences. Thus,

academic librarians can adopt a new model knowledge

network model as opposed to a book ware house model.

Incorporating networked knowledge, librarians can move

away from explicit knowledge to both explicit and tacit KM

and sharing (Kuhlen, 2004). This necessitates that librar-

ians fully exploit the bene¯ts of web applications and other

new technologies to develop a conducive knowledge creat-

ing and sharing environment within and outside libraries.

Most of this study's challenges substantiate a recent

study carried out in India by Nazim and Mukherjee

(2011), who had identi¯ed some of challenges as: lack of

knowledge sharing culture, top management commitment,

incentives and rewards, ¯nancial resources and IT infra-

structure. This shows that most academic libraries in de-

veloping countries are confronted with similar challenges

which impede the successful KM implementation.

5. Conclusion

The overall purpose of this study was to investigate and

explore KM practices in SADC university libraries. The

study identi¯ed and discussed the main reasons to KM

implementation and associated challenges. From the

foregoing debate it can be concluded that KM is no more

an option, but a survival kit for university/academic

librarians. Empowered with modern ICTs, web applica-

tions and social networking interactive tools, academic

librarians can build on their inherent expertise. By

establishing connections and collaborations within and

outside their parent organisations they can come out of

their internal silos, integrate internal and external infor-

mation and deliver value added services to university

community and other stakeholders.

University library services are important guarantees in

improving the competitiveness of universities' libraries

(Xin Qu, 2011). Being part and parcel of learning in-

stitutions, university libraries can play a key role in

human, economic and national development. Therefore,

library services need to be revamped and enhanced. In

this competitive information environment when internet

search engines are readily available and accessible 24

hours, KM is a way forward, a way to survive and thrive

for academic libraries/librarians. With KM, academic

librarians contribute to the improvement of employees'

capacity in knowledge creation; it promotes and streng-

thens relationships and inter-networking between libra-

ries, librarians and users (Asogwa, 2012). Due to the

development of mobile and Web 2.0 technology, knowl-

edge creation, storage, retrieval and sharing have become

much more e±cient. Librarians can take leadership roles

in planning, establishing, organising, facilitating, archiv-

ing and evaluating social knowledge exchanges as well

as assume an entirely new role as academic librarians

and still remain relevant in this new information envi-

ronment Stranack (2012). Information professionals and

librarians need to buy into KM more seriously to increase

their operational e±ciency, prove their relevance and

value to their parent institutions in realising their overall

mission and vision and consequently, contribute towards

knowledge economy by providing the right information

to the right customer at the right time and in the right

format.

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6. Recommendations

To win over the challenges and institute a successful

KM implementation in university/academic libraries, the

author puts forward the following recommendations and a

framework for KM implementation in university/aca-

demic libraries:

. Formulation of a KM strategy: In order to initiate KM

in academic libraries, ¯rst and foremost, it is vital to

formulate a KM strategy mapping out a clear vision,

expected outcomes, an action plan, necessary resources

and an evaluation plan. A KM strategy should be based

on the real needs of the university and aligned with

university's overall strategic plan.

. Strong leadership: Being experts in information man-

agement and user-centred service provision, librarians

should take a lead in KM projects.

. KM priority for the parent university: Parent univer-

sities should consider KM as one of their top priorities

and allocate all necessary KM infrastructure including

su±cient budget and technological infrastructure.

. An integrated CKM approach: Since customers are

paramount in libraries, librarians should embrace an

integrated CKM approach for improved and innovative

customer services.

. Training: All librarians and information professionals

should be adequately trained to fully appreciate and

adopt KM.

. Speci¯c unit for KM: There should be a speci¯c unit to

coordinate and promote shared understanding of KM

and its successful implementation.

. Rewards and incentives: There should be appropriate

rewards and incentives to motivate librarians and infor-

mation professionals to successfully implement KM and

create a collaborative and knowledge sharing culture.

. Change of mind-set and set-minds: Finally, to revitalise

the library undertakings and ¯t into the modern in-

formation environment, university librarians should

change their traditional mindsets and rigid mindsets

(set minds). They should be proactive, self-con¯dent,

self-promoting, customer focused, well-researched, well-

prepared, and above all, persistent learners.

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