Perceptions of Information Professionals about Knowledge Management in the Information Institutions of Bangladesh: An Exploratory Study

The main purpose of the study is to explore the perceptions of information professionals about Knowledge Management (KM) in Bangladesh. The study was conducted through survey using a pre-structured questionnaire. A short, well-structured both open and close ended questionnaire was sent 80 information professionals who had been working in different libraries of Bangladesh by post. The respondents were selected from each division of Bangladesh (30 respondents from Dhaka division, 10 each in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal and Sylhet division). We received 40 responses and the response rate was 40 percent. The results of the survey show that 90 percent of the information professionals of Bangladesh first read about KM in literature, but none had taken any courses on KM. 43 percent of the responded information professionals of Bangladesh agreed that KM is just another fad like Total Quality Management (TQM), 50 percent of the information professionals strongly agreed that KM is a new term for what information professionals were already doing. The government of Bangladesh as well as the higher educational institutions should provide better educational opportunities on KM

Rebuilding Evolution: A Service Science Perspective

This paper explores a simple idea and asks a simple question: What determines the speed limit of evolutionary processes, and might there be ways to speed up those processes for certain types of systems under certain conditions? Or even more simply, how rapidly can complex systems be rebuilt? To begin with, the universe can be viewed as an evolving ecology of entities. Entities correspond to types of systems - from atoms in stars to organisms on Earth to ideas in the heads of people. Service science is the study of the evolving ecology of service system entities, complex socio-technical systems with rights and responsibilities – such as people, businesses, and nations. We can only scratch the surface in this paper, but our explorations suggest this is an important research question and direction, especially as we enter the cognitive era of smart and wise service systems. For example, it takes a child multiple years of experience to learn language and basic social interactions skills, but could machine learning algorithms with the proper data sets learn those capabilities in a fraction of the time

Technology as Actors in Service Systems

Service systems are defined as dynamic configurations of resources (people, organizations, technology and shared information), interconnected internally and externally by value propositions with other service systems. Resources are constantly evolving, as are the capabilities and roles of resources in service systems. Cognitive technologies incorporate rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Therefore, their roles are on a trajectory of increasing agency and self-directed interactions with other resources and service systems. With this in mind, a framework for service systems in which AI- based cognitive assistants (CAs) become responsible actors is the current research challenge. Because AI- based CAs have already started to play different roles in service systems. One contribution of this research is to clarify that service system entities are responsible actors, and address the question: Under what conditions does a technology such as a Cognitive Assistant (CA) become a responsible actor

(A-LIEP 2011)Exploring the Skills and Competencies of Information Professionals for Knowledge Management in the Information Institutions of Bangladesh / Md. Abul Kalam Siddike and Md Shiful Islam

The aim of the study is to explore the views of information professionals for knowledge management (KM) in the libraries/information institutions of Bangladesh. Research Questions-This paper seeks to address the following research questions: How the information professionals of Bangladesh perceive the views of KM? What are likely to be the skills required by the information professionals of Bangladesh for KM in the libraries of Bangladesh? and what are likely to be the critical success factors for encouraging KM in the information institutions of Bangladesh? The methodology includes a quantitative approach. The study has been conducted through a survey using a pre-structured questionnaire. A short and structured questionnaire was sent to 50 information professionals who had been working in different libraries of Bangladesh through email and/or by post. The respondents were selected from 6 divisions of Bangladesh (25 respondents from Dhaka division, 5 each in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal and Sylhet division). We received 30 responses, for a response rate 60%. The results of the study show that that 93.24% of the respondents first read about KM in the literature, but none had taken any courses on KM. Only 6.76% of the respondents had attended a workshop on KM. Findings also yield that most of the professionals believe that communication skills, facilitation skills, coaching skills, mentoring skills, networking skills, negotiating skills, consensus building skills and team working skills are inevitable for KM in the libraries of Bangladesh. This paper also suggests some critical success factors for encouraging the information professionals to KM in the libraries of Bangladesh. It investigates the original views of the library and information professionals of Bangladesh regarding the skills and competences of information professionals for KM in the libraries of Bangladesh. The department of Information Science and Library Management of Dhaka University and Rajshahi University should introduce KM course(s) either in the graduate level or in the post-graduate leve

People’s Interactions with Cognitive Assistants for Enhanced Performances

When cognitive computing enabled smart computers are growing in our daily lives, there are not many studies that explain how people interact and utilize these solutions, and the impact of these smart machines to people’s performance to do things. In this paper, a theoretical framework for boosting people’s performance using cognitive assistants (CAs) was developed and explained using the data analysis from 15 interviews. The results show that people interaction with CAs enhance their levels of cognition and intelligence that help them to enhance their capabilities. Enhanced capabilities help people to enhance their performance

Cultural exploration as alter/native route to national development: insights from Yoruba verbal arts

This paper interrogates Yoruba verbal arts and situates culture as a catalyst for development. It is suggested that the intricate resources of oral art, exemplified by Yoruba textual references, are viable ingredients for socio-cultural empowerment. To fully comprehend the dynamics of a society in constant change due to external and internal realities, one must reconsider culture in order to reposition the society. The multidimensional and multidisciplinary significance of Yoruba verbal art demonstrate that culture has a vital role to play in any meaningful socio-political advancement in the Nigerian body polity. The ideas conveyed in proverbial expressions, representing key cultural realities of the Yoruba people, offer insights and ideas for development and social good. The paper submits that a deeper exploration of the intricate resources of verbal art is a viable route to development

The concept of sustainable development in human civilisation: an introspective view

This article argues that, even though the issue of development has a profound and far-reaching impact on human lives, sustainable development, which considers human lives for today and tomorrow has a positive impact on human development. The principal goal of this paper is to critically examine the potential role of sustainable development, a concept rooted in the eighteenth-century idea of "natural balance" or natural equilibrium in developing a human civilisation. Not unexpectedly, such a lofty, global objective has raised questions in the minds of experts used to dealing with developmental issues in a usual, compartmentalised manner. While there has been some reflection as to what constitutes sustainable development, the same cannot be said for a sustainable society. Yet sustainability is critical for all nations today and the gradual implementation of measures for sustainable development strongly reinforces the quest for a sustainable society and for the development of human civilisation

The role of frequency in the elementary foreign language classroom

Researchers state that the number of times a learner encounters a word may contribute to its acquisition (Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985Pigada & Schmitt, 2006Rott, 199

Trends in Malaysian ELT research presented at the Melta conferences 2005-2009

Research activities in the English language as taught at the various levels in Malaysia have been dynamic over the last two decades. The number of conferences held over the years in the country on English language alone is a good indication of this. This shows that awareness of a dominant second language is strong not only in the government policies over the years but also amongst the general population. The current paper reports on the types and topics of research that have been carried out on the English language and linguistics from 2005 to 2009 in Malaysia at the MELTA conference to see how our perceptions and reception of the English language have grown or changed over the years. Abstracts from the MELTA conference of the said years formed the data of the study and were analysed for general distribution of common topics. A discussion is provided to link past research to potential future research in the relevant areas of English language teaching in Malaysia