Stimulating knowledge sharing and informal learning : The influence of social networking tools and techniques

In today’s high-velocity environment, organizations have to continually redefine their product offerings if they want to stay ahead in the competitive race. Lean budgets force organizations in particular the libraries who are cost-centres, to devise strategies that can manage change, leverage on knowledge and make the very most of the resources that are available. As globalisation facilitates collaboration, the techniques and tools of knowledge management (KM) contribute to information and knowledge sharing and delivery throughout the world. One way to do this was through cultivating communities of practice (CoPs), which are groups of people who share information, insight, experience, and tools about an area of common interest. Fostering these communities comprising of various strengths, skills and expertise to adapt the concepts of KM, knowledge workers were able to share their experiences, acquire new knowledge and know-how in enhancing operational efficacy and efficiency in delivering their library services. The paper seeks to explore the value created from implementing Kmaya (www.kmaya.com.my) an online community of practice that was designed to provide an informal learning platform for knowledge-seeking professionals in the library community in Malaysia

Knowledge management librarians: Evolving competencies in knowledge capture and dissemination in an academic environment

In this paper, we examine the roles and responsibilities of Knowledge Management (KM) librarians in a University and outline the skills and knowledge to illuminate and maximize the possibilities of the position, to provide new content in new mediums to an increasingly discerning user community. This relatively new position is being created as libraries strive to manage collaborative knowledge management technologies, upgrade the service model in reference, in particular enhancing the skills of ‘liaison officers’ when engaging with their patrons’ point-of-need preferences at their site, quality of knowledge, device choice, and their knowledge sharing and seeking behavior. We draw upon our own experiences in implementing a virtual knowledge sharing community in the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as well as referring to the latest literature on the topic. Our three-year implementation journey encompassing unforeseen problems and discussions in building workarounds, in how best to manage tacit knowledge amongst academic and non-academic staff, provided valuable insights, focusing in particular on KM training for all librarians, the development of an ‘unofficial’ knowledge management implementation curriculum (KMIC) and the formation of the IIUM KM Task Force to sustain KM initiatives in the academia. While many skills and experiences analyses have been conducted on other library positions, at the onset, the emerging KM librarian’s roles and responsibilities remained vague, leaving librarians interested in the position, unsure of what knowledge and skills to obtain. Hence, the need of a clear and robust KMIC policy framework was first seen to be crucial to sustain an effective KM implementation. Special emphasis was made in building the skills in intra-organisational cooperation and academic engagement for meeting the challenge of ‘capturing’ and codifying tacit knowledge and ultimately the successful cultivation of communities of practice in promoting a new form of ‘collective intelligence’ in the university