The Information Technology in public libraries »just a tool, but what a powerful tool

Maija Bemdtson
Library Director
Helsinki City Library - Central Library for Public Libraries in Finland

The Information Technology in public libraries »

just a tool, but what a powerful tool!

Books and ICT - too!s for distribution of information

"What will happen to libraries when information is mainly produced, stored and distributed in digital format? Is the idea of the physical library so closely linked to books and printed media that libraries (as places) will disappear? Why do we need the nhysicai library when all information is already, or will soon be, available on the Internet?"

For years, questions like these have topped the agenda in discussion about the library sector. Since the Internet breakthrough in the mid-1990's, such questions have aroused increasing interest in the general political debate and even among library users.

In framing of a question like this we forget, however, a very important aspect, which is: what is the purpose of the public library? If we regard public libraries as institutions tha* support democracy and development in the society t>' "tiering t!ep: access ic inlorrr.ai.ion these kinds of questions hardly ever corses to 'nine Do we reai:v ne;ieve n-,^- >i. nneele are able to find the most relevant information vvifn help of trie different searc: engines in the growing information rush? Do we really think that the commercial companies t/vould have in their service the same continuity and the same impartiality as public institutions like public libraries?

Should the questions about the future of pub'le libraries be more like: "What kind of changes do we need in public libraries to be able to take care of our main purpose mentioned above? How can we in the best way use all the new tools which information and communication technology offer?"

This brings us to the heart of the problem. The new technology which today is available is just a new tool to produce, store and distribute Information. It aiso makes the communication more effective and rapid. That is why we should call n nowadays ICT, Information and Communication Technology and not only IT, information Technology. As means of communication this new technology is comparable with the book

The invention of printed books has once been at revolutionary as iCT is today. Books could be printed in many copies, the author could thus reach many readers who could use the book at the samo time and very far away from the author. In that way reading a book is distance use of an authors' ideas. Today we know how important this new Innovation has been but it took a long time before books really became an essential part In peoples' everyday life. This development was dependent on some other inventions as well as the change of tne whole society.

Books were property of few, mostly churches, monasteries and upper class, before the invention of new type of paper and the railway. The former invention extended the physical life of the book and made it cheaper and the latter made the mass delivery of books possible. But cf course these inventions would not have lead anywhere if not at the same time the number of literate people had increased. This again was connected with the change from the rural society into industrial society, which needed more educated people. The birth of public libraries took place during this period, too, namely from 1850's onward.

This example shows how many things influence the development. The book does not live in isolation outside the society, nor does ICT. The big difference in the development of use of books and ICT is the speed of change. The first book was printed in 1455 in Mainz, in Germany. The first Finnish book, actually in Latin, was Missale Aboense from 14S8, but the first book printed in Finland is from 1640! This means that it took 200 years before we had a printing machine in Finland! The same kind of slow development is connected with publishing novels. The first novel Don Quijote by Cervantes was printed in Spain 1605, but the first novel in Finnish was printed as late as "87C

Today radical technical changes can happen in a decade. In 1990 or so very few of us had heard anything about Internet and today most of us use it daily. When Helsinki City Library in 1994 opened the special IT library called The Cable Book Library it was one of the first, if not the first public library in the world to offer internet access to customers. Today nine out of ten Finnish public libraries offer Internet access and almost ah of them free of charge.

Trie same has happened with tne mobile phone Ten years, perhaps even five years ago very few of us had a mobile phone 'I odav sever cu a? ten :'~ Spain ?nr eiehf cut of ten in Finland have a mobile phone.

All these technical innovations have very soon become properly of many people and changed something in our personal lives as well m our working lives. The question is how deepgoing these changes are. Are they more on the surface than a real change of attitude and habits? Do we feei thai we have a paradigm shift in our way of living and working?

In this paper I ask the same question from all of us working in libraries. Does ICT offer us more possibilities for changes in the libraries than we are able to make? is it so that our attitudes and our mental ability do not follow the speed of technical development? As much as we wouid like to deploy our activities and services we are no* able to do it properly before a paradigm shift in our thinking.

ICT in the modern public library

Evan if I made some sceptical questions earlier, we all know that ICT has already changed tiie way libraries function. As information and knowledge institutions, public libraries in developed countries are probably among the institutions within the public sector that have been most actively involved in the digital revolution.

Perhaps it is useful to remind us all that the computerization of public libraries began in the late 70's and early 80's. The development from paper-based to on-line cataloguing was one of the first steps towards digitized convergence. Card catalogues were abolished in many countries in the late 80s or early 90s and replaced by on-line catalogues based on commercial library software and a Unix-server run by the library.

Ever since the emergence of the Internet, access to the catalogues is increasingly based on Internet protocol and the search interface has become a browser. For the libraries, changing the catalogue system meant making a number of administrative routines automatic, such as purchasing, circulation control, reservation of materials and recall notices.

in the mid-90's, the first generation of automatic lending machines was introduced, and despite initial difficulties, they proved valuable by relieving the staff of internal manual tasks. In recent years, robot-automated self-service systems with sorting mechanisms are also finding their way into the larger libraries.

From my own experience at Helsinki City Library I can tell that it has taken some five years to get the real benefit out from the automated lending machines, First we had the wrong kind of machines with a lot of technical problems. Due to that, and in fear of loosing their job (which never has been the real threat), personnel disliked the idea of self-service lending automates. This year at last we have gained some good results with self-service and in big libraries up to 30 percent of loans go out through the lending machines.

Parallel to the automation process aimed at facilitating handling of the physical media, an information digitization process has also begun. Sources of information and knowledge, which were hither+o available in analogue printed format (books and magazines), are now available in digital format, either as "hard copy" or on the Internet. ICT for libraries is not only about reengineering and streamlining workflow, it is also about libraries' core business, collection, storage, retrieval, dissemination and value addition of information.

The question of having material in digital format does not concern only the new material but also possibilities to digitize really old material, valuable rarities which can get "a new life". In a country like Spain with rich old collections this could mean a kind of revolution in using that material.

ICT in the modern library can be classified in various categories. Presented below is a typology aimed at classifying the public iibrary sectors in which modern IC1 has already gained footing. This category with explanations is collected from the publication of Maija Berndtson, Henk Das, Rolf Hapel: Virtual impact on the physical library: visions for "intelligent" change, which is published by Bertelsmann Foundation in their International Network of Public Libraries.

As a basic explanation for this typology it can be said that the first wave of technology from the late 70s to mid-80's concentrated on streamlining and reference Databases. Later it was full-text databases, Web-based Internet access for staff and customeis, and value-addea services derived from Internet possibilities. With the help of this typology you can see how far your own library has come in implementing ICT.

Streamlining Improvement Substitution
Full-text on-line databases
Web-based value added library services
Staff-related
On-line catalogue
Automated lending control
Automated purchasing and accession of media and materials
Client/server-based PC's replacing terminals
Intranet, data warehouse and workflow systems


ICT streamlines existing staff-related routines
The SCT-basbd tools aim to achieve smoother and more efficient workflows. They basically streamline routines, thus making personnel available for other work tasks. Automation cc manual processes is stil! very relevant in an environment that is based on physical niedi

ICT improves existing staff-related routines

The tools are very sophisticated creating opportunities to radically change the organization and workflow, and thus impact on organizational development. In order to advance, the concept of ^working smarter - not harder« requires advanced ICT toois in an environment such as the public library. Relatively few public libraries have implemented workflow-systems completely, although semi-workflow systems like Lotus Notes and other Intranet­like systems, often initiated by the municipal authorities, have found their place in many libraries.

ICT as a substitute for existing staff-related services

By introducing patrons to direct access to licensed material and services in the library, the traditional rcle of the librarian as an intermediary between information and users couid dimmish or disappear completely, in the future, 'ibrarsans couid re x circumvented « as much as libraries themselves, which has been the horror vision of lesearcn and university librarians for the last decade

ICT streamlines patron-related routines

Seif-service concepts are widely accepted by library management, especially of those libraries in which a substantial part of the work force is involved in moving physical media. But the self-service concept is also in keeping with one of the basic ideas of public
libraries, i.e., empowering users to make their own choices by providing them with the necessary resources.

ICT improves patron-related services

The library as a meeting place traditionally makes meetings and conference rooms available to the public. By equipping these facilities with state-of-the-art material, communication quality can be significantly improved. The »new« physical media such as CDs and multimedia CD-ROMs represents an enhancement of the library as a lending place. The material still needs to be purchased, processed, presented to the patrons. issued and reclaimed - just like any other physical material in libraries. The workstations connected to local area networks could provide access to multimedia CD-ROM content. The content would be purchased and controlled by the library

ICT as a substitute for existing patron-reiafed services

Internet-based workstations available to the public have probably been the mos; widespread and important of all new initiatives in public libraries in the last ten years Much effort has been dedicated to the creation of Internet infrastructure in the libraries. Time and money has been invested in workstations, local cabling, Internet suppliers and local systems administration. Thus libraries have enabled users to access the collections of the local library and other libraries, as well as the information resources on the Internet. In a sense, libraries have lost »control« of the information avai'able to the user. In some cases, full-text, on-line databases and e-zines have already substituted pnnted analogue information sources and CD-ROM media. This, however, is not the case for e-books, which have not yet taken over any signiucant share of the marke'.

Web-based services are not necessarily a substi+ute tor cthe! services, in most Web-based »Ask-a-question« services, the use of human labour is siii! required, just as in any-other reference service that is accessed directly, via fax, phone or e-maii. But in some cases, traditional services such as advisory ones are becoming interactive. There is little doubt that this development will continue and that we wih experience many sj't, interactive services, based on even more sophisticated procrams, in fhe future.

Networking is power

ICT is a powerful tool within a library or a library system but the spectrum of possioilities increases enormously when different libraries start networking. I am happy to say that one of the most delightful trends during the last few years in the library and information business in Finland has been the continuously intensifying cooperation between the libraries. This has been made possible by the technical development of information networks and by the increasing rolp of the libraries as an information delivery channel. For example, when customers search the Internet catalogues c:, the libraries, they do so because they need the information, and the name of fhe library or its host organization is irrelevant.

According to my colleague, deputy library director Sirkka Elina Svedberg, there are more facilities to practice cooperation within library networks today than ever before.

• Services can be rendered on the net itself, which supports independent library use.
* Networked library services are democratic: on the net it's possible to obtain the neededinformation regardless of the customer's whereabouts
• Collective professional know-how can be quickly reached by the colleagues nationwide.
• Duplication of efforts can be avoided.
The division of functions within the library network must be considered from a new point of view. It is important to organize the library network on the national level and to decide which services are to be rendered centrally, which locally and who are the essential doers in furthering projects concerning the whole library network.

The Finnish Public Library Act of 1998 has been written according to the new conceot. The objectives of public libraries are defined as follows: "This act prescribes the library and information services to be provided by municipal public libraries, and the promotion of these services both nationally and regionally." Public libraries are obligated to cooperation in section 4 of the Public Library Act: "A public library shall operate in cooperation with other public, libraries, with research libraries and with libraries in educational establishments, as a part en the national ard international networks of library and information services.'

Cooperation between public and academic libraries is already important as it is. The best examples of this in established practice are the joint: Repository Library for research and public libraries and smoothly working inter-library loans. It must also not be forgotten that all types of libraries in Finland are open to all. In other words, we have a common Clientele, and the customers do use both public and academic and special libraries, each according to his or her needs.

Here fallows some examples s:.:^i t neiworkin-:1 beiwecr Mbrr:'e:s in Finland

Acquisition of electronic materia!

Purchasing nation-wide union licences for electronic materials was started in 1997, when the National Electronic Library FinELib, was founded. The National Electronic Library acquires Finnish and international resources to support, teaching, learning and research. FinELib negotiates user-rights agreements for electronic resources on a central.zed basis for its member organizations. Helsinki University Library, or, the National Library of Finland, is responsible for FinELib operations and development The National Library cooperates with universities, polytechnics, research institutes and public libraries and is involved in key national projects. In the beginning FinELib was only meant for academic libraries. From the year 2000 also public libraries have had the possibility to use the services of FinELib. Helsinki City Library co-ordinates the taking care of practical matters in acquiring union licenses for the public libraries, for example updating the IF>-addresses of the libraries.

Networked Library Services

Public Libraries are praiseworthy producers of networked library services in Finland, also nation-wide. The public library portal www.libraries.k produced by public libraries and funded by the Ministry of Education, offers information about library services in Finland, ways for information retrieval, knowledge about literature and music and children's materials. The services are meant both for library workers and for general public, and they are funded by a project budget of the Ministry of Education and produced by a unit called the Networked Public Library Services working in connection with Helsinki City Library,
(i
who also own the servers. As can be seen in the name of the domain, the idea is to develop this portal with all different types of libraries in mind. Priority in developing the library portal has been given to the search and information retrieval facilities, both contentually and technically. The ask-a-librarian reference service of the public libraries, in which the Library of Parliament participates, can be mentioned as a sign of the libraries' desire to develop joint services

Digitising

One form of cooperation are the projects for digitising the national cultural heritage. Digitising Finland's literary heritage is presently being planned under the leadership of the National Library, in cooperation with both the academic and the public libraries.

The digitised cultural heritage belongs to the national information mass, about which we should determine what parts of it must be in free use on the Internet to make sure that all the citizens have an equal access to information, and to make studying easier.

The tasks of Helsinki City Library, as the Central Library for Public Libraries in Finland, should also be taken into thorough consideration. Development and maintenance of tools needed in organizing library and information services of the country become more and mere important among the tasks of the Central Library on the national level. As the Library Decree puts it, one of the tasks of the Central Library is "to develop common methods and instruments necessary for organising library and information services". Former emphasis on inter-library loans has been replaced by such functions as the multi-cultural library, maintenance of www.libraries.fi in the Networked Library Services -unit, supervising the a-k-a-librarian service, maintenance of the national classification system, development and maintenance of the s'iatis'.icai daiabase, participating in preparing standards as weil ac representing public libraries in various projects and international activities.

Towards the hybrid library

Late in 2000 we in Helsinki City Library created Vision 2010 for cur library system. It is: The whole nations' "hybrid library", serving locally, acting nationally, esteemed internationally. The vision reflects among other things the abovementioned national tasks. The most frequent question concerning this vision is: what do you mean with the hybrid library?

As we know the word "hybrid" means kind of mixture. In biology we have concepts like crossbreeding or hybridization. Nowadays we also have hybrid cars that use both gasolin and electricity. In linguistics there are hybrid words, such as 'television' in which one part comes from Greek ('tele'), one from Latin ('visio').

In our vision what we simpiy mean with the hybrid libra'y is a library in which

To fulfil the idea and concept of the hybrid library is much more complex than just implementing of ICT and new media. Actually later on we have realised that the concept has not only a technical but a human aspect as well Likewise the changes we have undergone have happened little by little and perhaps without any careful overall view or plan what this development real means in our work and in services we offer for our customers

The interesting matter is that like all the other public libraries we in Helsinki have started creating the hybrid library before we talked about it. The concept of hybrid library has been possible to invent first after we have realised that we really are developing something new and different. In this part of my paper I try to go into more depth on the concept of the hybrid library with the help of some concrete examples.

The Cable Book Library

When Helsinki City Library in February 1994 opened The Cable Book Library in Nokia's old cable factory it was the first public library in the world with its own www-server. The Cable Book Library had very few books and it was specialized in all ways to IT. In The Cable Book Library we offered the customers the first workstations with Internet-access and the iibrary was also a producer of information on the internet.

The library became popular not only among the customers but it also became the object of pilgrimage of many librarians from Finland and abroad. Somehow it made the Internet visible and concrete and learned people to understand what IT might mean for libraries. So for ourselves, too. The Cable Book Library was the test pilot, which facilitated the implementing of IT in all of our libraries. Since several years each of the city library's 37 libraries has network stations available for customers to use. At the end of 2001 there were a total of some 300 of them. This means thai there is available one computer per 1800 inhabitants.

But the importance uf the Cable Book Library was more than that. In 2000 Helsinki City Library was the first iibrary in the world to receive the new Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Award called Access to Learning. The award was recognition for Helsinki City Library's outstanding practices in providing public access to computers and the Internet Besides the recognition the award also included a $ 1 million grant, which allowed us to develop new initiatives to expand existing public services, such as the information Gas Station.

Information Gas Station - IGS

The Cable Book Library looked and still looks like a normal library except for the focus on computers, which of course influences the image of the premises. In the way of working it still is a normal stationary library, the physical place where people go.

Our next step in the development woik has been a movable Information unit, e r.ew kind o<>

But iGS provides also individualized service for everybody. When iGS >s on tour it offers the possibility to meet a librarian personally at the station. The personal service provided by the iGS is not a traditional counter service where the librarian is a gatekeeper of information and sits behind his/her desk and screen. Instead, information is sought side by side and together with the customer, information seeking is at the same time both education in web literacy and guidance in the use of information sources IGS is run by a team of 10 persons chosen from the staff of City Library's different units. Two people work at the same time at the iGS, rest of the time they work in their own libraries where they can answer virtual questions, too. Thus the experience from the iGS transfers in a natural way to everyday life of library work and enrichens their own libraries.

IGS has been popular among the customers and besides that Helsinki City Liorary 'ias gained a great deal of positive publicity through the iGS. it has been a live commercial for the library, it could be also said that if the Cable Book Library made the Internet visible, the ;GS has made the reference service offered by libraries visible!

It has also been interesting to hear the staff experiences with iGS. A staff query was made in January 2002 and there are opinions like:

- slogan "ask anything" is good, but demanding
- work without books: effective way to learn how to utilize network resources
- often a book is the only source or fastest way to val:d information
- best way: "a hybrid library" with ai! materials - both digital arid rrirv'er;'
- I have fun in working at IGS - but oniy if I can go back to my own library with books after a week

- " book trap": a librarian's conventional solution is to see oniy books and own collections - and forget other resources. It is good training to rind yourself in reversed circumstances
- two-dimensional work (virtual / real) is a good combination: it could De frustrating to work alone with search results only and without real contact to customers
- at first I found SMS to be best service - now I feei that persona! service is most rewarding
- guidance on internet-search is one of the beet things we can do for the customers
- railway station experience proved us that we are needed also 'live - not only through the Net
All these opinions show that among the iGS staff members the idea ot hybrid library is already a reality, they like the two-dimensional work, virtual-real and they see: she benefits of having two kinds of materials, nrinted and cioital.
From intelligent to intellectual
The idea of the "intelligent" or "interactive" building has for some time been one of the buzzwords among ICT developers ana architects. An intelligent building is "a building that maximizes the efficiency of its occupants, while at the same time allowing effective management of resources with minimum lifetime costs". New research literature deals with trie notion of "built-in" computers and software that enhance and facilitate cooperation and learning environments. The vision of the 'intelligent", "interactive" or "cooperative" building represent a great potential for public libraries in different technical terms

That is also the aspect in the abovementioned report Virtua! impact on the Physical Library, Visions for "intelligent" change. To cut a long story short: in the report we mainly concentrate on explaining what kind of technical equipment and actions we need in the future libraries with different profiles, such as the Open Learning Center, the Cultural Cafe, the Community Center and the info Gas Station.

The human aspect of the hybrid library is connected with the concept "from intelligent to intellectual". Library as a building is intelligent, but through its customers and library personnel it turns intellectual. For me intelligent means the hardware, intellectual is the software.

This combination shows that we should not only think about the technical solutions in our libraiies but to take into focus tiie customer and 'he ntaf! and even their relation. This approach emphasizes customer orientation, for example in planning the library premises and buildings.

A good example of this kind of thinking comes from The Royal institute of Technology Library in Stockholm. In this learning institute the starting point in planning the totally new library building was the different learning modes of students and the question on how those modes should be reflected in the library interior. According to library director Gunnar Lager the needs were performance space, team space, reflective space, informal social space and last but not least, the support areas.

In support areas they included everything wnich vve normally use as starling points in planning library premises, namely books magazines, computers, copy machines etc. This case, even if it is not directly transferable into a public library, shows in a nutshell a total change, kind of paradigm shift, in planning of library premises in a very technical surrounding. The real technologists started the planning with the software, not with the hardware!

The other example about "the intellectual aspect" is my personal believe that with one small step, namely moving the customer and the librarian to sit sidp by side to look at the same screen while searching information would mean a real big change, in practice a paradigm shift. We have good experiences with this model in iGS surroundings in Helsinki City Library but do not think that is accepted among the personnel while we are planning information aesks for other premises!

In my opinion by sitting behind the screen the librarian still has the role of a gatekeeper instead of being a guice in trie information search During my more drastic moments I compare the existing situation with the system o- closed bookshelves. If in public libraries today we do not accept the system of closed bcoksiacks, where only the personnel has access to the material, then how can we accept that the librarian is the only one seeing the information on the screen'?
Librarian's role as an information specialist has undergone a change in the digital or virtual reference work, too. It is not only the change in practice from the traditional information service over to ihe digital service hut that we have goi commercial 24/7
in service. Ms Ann Lipow who is director for Library Solutions institute & Press in Berkeley in The United States organizes different kind of courses for reference librarians. One of the questions raised is "Are you ready for digital reference service?"

The purpose of Ann Lipow's courses is not only to train librarians in digital reference service but to also show them strengths of public information search compared with the commercial ones. For example the commercial information services do not always want to tell how the information was found, which makes the customer more dependent on the service. It is not in their interest that the customer becomes self-reliant in information search. It is just the opposite of the way that the librarian, as an information guide, would serve the customer
If we really want to take the new role in our core area, in the information service the librarians shouid be highly educated intellectuals who guide customers not only in the information search, but also in the critical evaluation of the materia! and the information sources. When turning libraries from intelligent buildings 'nto intellectual buildings, we could at the st me lime sweep away the honor vision that libraries and librarians would be "circumvented".

With these few examples I try to emphasize that at the same time when we implement new ICT solutions into libraries we shouid think about what kind of changes it means in our work. We have a lot of tools and even the knowledge about the new situation but it seems to be very hard to make deepgoing 'upside-down' changes. Are we missing the paradigm shift or do we simply fear changing things?

Conclusion

it is time to come back to the questions made in the beginning of this paper. iCT does not demolish libraries: the future of physical libraries is not under threat. Space for books and other "hard copies" will be needed a long time ahead, and even so space for computers for public use. There will be a shift, however, from collection oriented to customer-oriented use of the library premises.

Not even the increasing amount of information on the Internet does threaten the existence of the physical lioraries. On the contrary, the physical space and the possibility of social contact with a librarian is something more than the ordinary web-basea services offer. The public space and the persona! service are strengths, which distinguish libraries from most of the web-based service providers and which give the library user value-added services.

Actually ICT offers libraries the opportunity to go back to the roots to the idea of the Ancient Library of Alexandria. There all the known sources of knowledge were organized for the scholarly study and research, which gave birth to a new Intellectual dynamic. In the ancient library of Alexandria this possibility was given only to few, in the modern public libraries this possibility ■$■ open for all.

Sources and useful links:

Helsinki City Library wyyvvJibJiej J;
information G^s Station
Virtual Impact on the Physical Library
mvw.stittufifij.befteiSruaxin.de/ciocurn^

Finnish Public Library Statistics
National Repository Library
www. n rj f< href="http://www.iib.hei.fi/finelib/mair">www.iib.hei.fi/finelib/mair:. htm

Public Libraries in the Internet age: Indian scenario*

Public Libraries in the Internet age: Indian scenario*

Abstract:

In India majority of people live in rural areas and new technologies are not accessible from remote villages, therefore a wide gap has been evolved between the libraries of 'knowledge haves' and knowledge have-nots. Today Internet and web technologies open up new ways of interactive communication between public libraries and the civil society. The progress in the Information and communication Technologies (ICT) enable remote people can be connected by several technical options in a more affordable manner. Based on the widely accepted conceptualization of "ICT for development," this article suggested various ways where convergence technologies can be used to improve and promote the existing library services. An attempt is made here to make a proposal for ICT driven public libraries for Indian states with suitable library extension programs to help the entire rural as well as urban community especially unprivileged masses.

Key words: ICT, Public libraries, India, convergence technologies, library Extension Program

Introduction:

gateway to knowledge, provides a basic condition for lifelong learning, independent decision­making and cultural development of the individual and social groups" [12J. The public libraries happen to cover the widest population possible; their role in spreading

public libraries in our country are in an abject state without a constantly refreshing print collection and vibrant non print multimedia sources that lure illiteiate and senii literate folk due to various infrastructure, manpower and monetary constraints as well as lack of priority on the
Information and communication Technologies (ICT) are a diverse set of technological tools anu resources to create, uisseminate, store, bring value addition and manage information. In bridging the digital divide Public libraries have a major role to play. Quality of infrastructure., collection, iiiiorniation 1 ecnnology use, manpower, etc.. in public libraries of India is very poor, barring few facilities in cities. All these aspects were comparatively berter m research, academic and special libraries. Computerization will provide high speed of communication, online access, accurate and better service to iheir users. It is of vital importance that network is to be developed m such a way io reach to the remotest corner of the country.
this paper is based on a poster session presented by author in 69*" I.FLA Congress and council held during 1-9 August, 2003 at Berlin, Germany.
Public Libraries in the Internet age: Indian scenario*

Abstract:

In India majority of people live in rural areas and new technologies are not accessible from remote villages, therefore a wide gap has been evolved between the libraries of 'knowledge haves' and knowledge have-nots. Today Internet and web technologies open up new ways of interactive communication between public libraries and the civil society. The progress in the Information and communication Technologies (ICT) enable remote people can be connected by several technical options in a more affordable manner. Based on the widely accepted conceptualization of "ICT for development," this article suggested various ways where convergence technologies can be used to improve and promote the existing library services. An attempt is made here to make a proposal for ICT driven public libraries for Indian states with suitable library extension programs to help the entire rural as well as urban community especially unprivileged masses.

Key words: ICT, Public libraries, India, convergence technologies, library Extension Program
Introduction:
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gatewav to knowledge, provides a basic condition for lifelong learning, independent decision­making and cultural development oi the individual and social groups" [12]. The public libraries happen to cover the widest population possible; their roie in spreading
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public libraries in our country are in an abject stale without a constantly refreshing print collection and vibrant non print multimedia sources that lure illiteiate and semi literate folk due to various infrastructure, manpower and monetary constraints as weil as lack of priority on the
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Information and communication Technologies (ICT) are a diverse set of technological tools anu resources to create, uisscniinate, store, bring value addition and manage information, in bridging the digital divide Public libraries have a major role to play. Quality of irnfastnictwre. collection, miormation lecnnoiogy use, manpower, etc.. in public libraries of India is very poor, barring few facilities in cities. All these aspects were comparatively better m research, academic and special libraries. Computerization will provide high speed of communication, online access, accurate and better service to their users. It is of vital importance thai network is io be developed in such a way to reach to the remotest comer of the country.
This paper is based on a poster session presented by author in 69t" IFLA Congress and council held during 1-9 August, 2003 at Berlin, Germany.

Modernization and up-gradation of Public libraries in terms of staff proficiency and ICT application with the view of meeting informational, cultural and past time needs of unprivileged rural masses and increase their number as registered member. The information society is built on a foundation of collaboration and communication enabled by electronic networks. Public libraries in India should adopt latest convergence technologies and have well maintained infrastructure ably supported by professionally trained competent staff; and have motivation to work greatly towards removing cultural inhibitions among its users.

During recent years though several public library systems have developed but the irony of the situation is that neither any effective public library system providing meaningful library services to the enormous rural masses nor an integrated chain of library network has so far developed in the country. There is an urgent need that Public libraries in India must shift its focus from collection to connection. Although Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) was introduced in rural development in the year 1986. rurai Public libraries largely remained as a forgotten asset in the dissemination of information to the rural population. Secondly the IT policy formulated in the year 2000 shown little interest in the development of rural libraries. The scenario need to change, we the information professionals need to come forward and study the present system of operation and find a better solution to transform these reading rooms in to an information/knowledge centre where people, crippled with illiteracy or limited education, find value.

Current status:
On a Look at the existing library scenario prevailing in the country it appears that there are different
fvpes of public libraries prevailing in the different parts of the —............................................................... —
country. The condition of the majority of rural libraries is extremely P. ,i.: lit:-.a v aiii'i._;miserable. Many of them do not have their own buildings, some are ""v ,; ...located in small thatched huts and some share a room & time with their - " -', ,""'".'■institutions. Storage facilities are very poor & stock of reading materials !/■ t-,[u] ■,-_■ -., i:u>if.]is also insignificant. It is observed that out of 29 States and 6 Union ; '?..:]-] LJ:ri;-^9S:iTerritory Administrations, only II states, have so far passed librarv i ,>„ ,, ., >
legislation, enabling the concerned State Government to provide a '%* .._/ ii/j*'
public library system. There are twenty-eight state central libraries \ N/f liL*) ''
situated in different cities are funded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy library ' ■*• mjy1-
Foundation, Calcutta, established by Govt, of India. Presently RRRLF is !
working to spread library services all over the country in active
cooperation with state governments and Union territory administration and voluntary organizations (NGOs) working in this field.

The Public library1 scenario is not uniform in India. It has been difficult to collect authorized statistics on public libraries in the country, as the same happens to be under the purview of different agencies and they never disclose such information on a national scale foi various reasons. These figures force us to guess only about the number oi public libraries and there ;s no doubt to imagine the difficulties of facilitating information and library support to the mass of over a billion population, spread over 32 lakhs sq. km,, with a spectrum of literacy, intelligence, money, cultural and caste values. As states differ in size, population, literacy rate, status of books produced in the concerned regional language, economic growth, public library system also differ from state to state so far as its infra-structural facilities and patterns are concerned. Also there are administrative and maintenance problems such as the rural libraries in some states form a part of the public library system and in some other states they came under the jurisdiction of Adult Education Department or Public Relation Department. Wide-spread illiteracy is the greatest handicap for developing library services in some urban and rural areas in the traditional partem.

Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF)'s program of assistance is most helpful to the cause of public library services in the country. The program provides the best example of resource sharing between the centre and the state for the development of public library services at all levels. The Foundation has taken long strides in promoting library service in the country. During the last 28 years, the Foundation has covered, out of 60000 public libraries located in the country in a scattered way, more than 31000 libraries at different levels [10].

But many of these public libraries (approximately 70% may be rural) are mere reading rooms without much books or good infrastructure or trained staff. According to International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions (IFLA) standards, there should be one public library for every 3000 people [10], and thus with over 1 billion people India needs more than 3.43,000 public library units. India has around 568558 inhabited villages j i 1] and there may be just one public library for 8-10 of them. One of the IFLA standards stipulale with the nearest library unit should not be more than a mile away from the residential areas. The major constraints faced by the public library system to effectively disseminate information are manifold, essentially as a result of:

> A considerable percentage of the population is illiterate or functionally literate forcing
library to be of minimal use to them r Poor allocation for the infrastructure improvement and collection development for public libraries 'r Lack of enough sanctioned posts, forcing most of the services to be operated by voluntary non-professional staff causing sufficient deterioration on information organization and servicing r There is also a problem of educated professionals preferring to work m special and academic libraries than pubhc libraries >- Little emphasis on adoption Information & Communication Technology for public library systems and services.

ICT driven Public Libraries -the need of the hour H.K. Kaul (2002) opined that "Our public library system in the country failed totally in bringing knowledge to the doorsteps of every individual. It is advisable for us to look at the problem afresh, especially when the computer and communication technologies have now become available to us at a minimal cost [5].

ICT does not include only the Internet but a gamut of other tools which could be used individually or in convergence with each other.The convergence technologies include community radios. Internet radio, local area networks, tele-centres, information kiosks, mobile phones, WAP applications etc. Use of convergence Technologies reduces the skew in knowledge distribution between rich and poor, educated and uneducated, rural and urban and men and women. ICT driven public libraries should act as intermediary centre with suitable awareness programs. As the nerve centre for improving literacy, awareness, welfare and cultural awakening, it is the intention to put public libraries in the right perspective to arrive at a single window integrated environment for information dissemination concerned with all aspects of human life
Fig-1: A proposed model of ICT- driven Public Libraries to empower unprivileged masses:

The emergence of Rural Digital Libraries in India:

The emergence of intranet based "Gyandoot" digital libiaries in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh have changed the lives of unprivileged rural communities "Gyandoof" is a unique form of G2C (Government to citizen) DI. activity to address the hardship imposed by transaction costs associated with government services. It connects 21 cyber cafes called "Suchanalavas" which provide services to about 10-15 gram panchayats. 20-30 villages and aggregate population of between 20,000-30.000 people. The Soochanalavas are located at the block head quarters, haat bazaars and Bus depot centers and also on the road side where people normally travel. These cyber cafes are operated by locai operator called Soochak, who is a local volunteer not a government person.
Figure 2: Government Network infrastructure to support rural digital libraries.
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-I
Factors inhibiting the development of Public Libraries:

Access to ICT in India continues to be marginal due tc high cost of connectivity resulting in their exclusion from the emerging global system. Despite advances in ICT the benefits have not reached the majority of the population particularly economically backward classes. The main reason why the public library movement has not yet reached the take-off stage is the acute paucity of funds, lack of priorities on the part of government, and absence of an integrated approach to social welfare and community development.

Lack of national policies promoting ICT as a tool for development
Governments have started framing IT policy and it may take time to put these policies into action. One thing is sure, at least by the indications given by some early starters, the involvement of public libraries is very small, it may be they are worried about the passive state of affairs in the system and the huge investments required to rejuvenate them. Being a multidimensional service facility. ICT introduction wili benefit the community in the iong ran. unlike many other single purpose service arms of the government.

Political Aspects

We are living in a time where everything is politicized and m a democracy, it's the numbers game which is dominant and all political parties try to make their social commitments in such a way they think would be in their best of interests. In many cases, such high profile wooing decisions taken with vested interests may not take the benefits to the people for whom it has been designed.

Linguistic Diversity

There are many languages and even in one place more than one language is spoken. More over, the information required might not be available in the language in which one is proficient. We need fast and good translation mechanisms to get over this problem.
Lack of resource is another serious bottleneck in developing library services.
The need of the hour to provide better library services is to make provision of free and compulsory public library service. In the wake of the slogan "Education for All" comes in the complementary battle cry of "Books for All". As a consequence of making education a fundamental right, free unhindered easy access to books and libraries also becomes essential. The right to have easy access to books is to be ensured. In the case of public libraries resources should be vast enough to cover print and non-print, text and pictorial, multimedia sources, films, and so on to attract all types of persons in the vicinity.
Inadequacy and problems in transfer of Funds '
Lack of a joined up approach ^
t
Public library authorities must develop strong and sustainable working relationships with other Information centers. Special Sc Academic libraries in the region to develop collaboration for promoting and modernizing public library services in the country.
Possible solutions:
There are many challenges to the implementation of ICT in Public libraries in India, in a country of one billion people where millions of Indians are connected to the Internet but millions more are not yet even connected to electricity. Despite of all these contrast Government of India is convinced that ICT application can help revolutionize life in rural regions for a minimum cost.
• Consolidation and expansion of Public Libraries network:
Government should take steps for providing public access to the Internet through public libraries, encourage developing communication access centers, that will play an important role in bridging the digital divide. There are proposals from the telecommunications ministry to open cyber-cafes and it would be a good idea to put them in public libraries wherever there is one nearby. Public library authorities have a responsibility to ensure that library and in formation networks are as comprehensively available as other public utilities and provided at reasonable cost. The number of public libraries network in our country should cross one lakh mark within a couple of years and then to-reach as per IFLA recommendations, by the year 2020. The new and existing libraries should be planned with the minimum infrastructure to access electronic information over national and international networks and to access local information in multiple formats. The social entrepreneurs who are actively working on ICT may undertake pilot projects to connect rural villages to Internet and established Rural Public libraries network.
Public libraries can help the disadvantage communities in several ways with the help of ICT:
Access to online banking to those communities where there are no longer branches or banking services.
~> Online health services
> Online Government disseminating information about benefits and simplifying the process of dealing with large bureaucratic governmental institutions.
r Online shopping
E-learning through Public libraries:
In a country like India e learning has more relevance especially for higher education. A large percentage of target population are beyond the reach of formal education channels due to various inherent weaknesses of the system and lack of infrastructure. The initiatives may further benefit the rural folk who are the victim to leave formal education channels either due to lack of facilities or due to lack of commitments.
• Work for target groups, Setting of collections of special materials, introducingspecialized information services
The public library has to serve as a cultural and educational centre of the community in which it is located. It has to serve as a school, college or university of the community. In a developing country like India, the public libraries should have a very vigorous extension program.
• Use of ICT in Library Extension Programs
Libraries must publicize their services in their iocal community. There is a feeling among a sectionof people that illiteracy may net need libraries. It must be asserted that illiterate people are notignorant people. Many of them are quite enlightened and are receptive to new ideas and currents ofthought. The whole lot of them could be further enlightened by public libraries through their
extension programs like lectures, discussions, film-shows, folk-dramas, exhibition, puppet-show and reading out books to them etc.
Public Libraries in India should begin its HIV/AIDS education service with a clearly defined concept on the part of the librarians to what the community needs in the way of library service with the best material collection the library can afford to iiii thai need. Realizing the seriousness of the problem libraries have to serve as powerful agencies for creating awareness and dissemination of relevant information among the people of the country. Till date only handful of organizations including NGOs are working in this area.

E-Governance/E-Commerce

An example of Public Libraries have embraced the E-government initiative is Gateshead Council's Library, London. People who live, work or study in Gateshead, and have access to the Web, can use Library service 24-hours a day, seven days a week through internet. " Gateshead's 66.000 library users can get access to the system by calling into or telephoning any local library with their existing ticket number,., unique personal Identification Number which will allow them full access to the 24-hour, seven days a wreek. library Internet Service"[I]

The PRAGAT1 project of Pravara village of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra aims to connect a hundred villages covering a population of more than 2.5 lakh with a wireless MAN solution (WMAN).It will empower rural population specially women and improve their quality of life. 'The seven lane program will help the villages in establishing local IT centers, dissemination of Information regarding Government schemes, marketing of Agricultural products, health care, education, agro-processing, economic development''[3]
o
Education and Training for Staff

Training are crucial in opening up online services for peopie using public libraries. Staff working in public libraries must be encouraged to attend continuing education programs and skill enhancement to use ICT technologies to the fullest extent in delivering public library services. The public libraries must be under the control of a full time library professional and they should get allowances and service conditions comparable to the counterparts in academic, research and special libraries. What is needed most a competent librarian who can organize the services in a balanced manner for all sections of the community served by the library.
• Creating virtual opportunities for rural communities
Know Net (iitip./V'www .know net .org) is a virtual network for recognizing, valuing and sharing local knowledge. It has created some simple and easy to use online resources to enable communities and individuals to 'ake full advantage of ICT revolution. KnowNet initiative is a virtual help point have a two way communication system for extracting and hosting information on the net with its entire activities being carried out through the help of remote volunteers.
Developing regional consortia for licensing and procurement

Conclusion:

Public libraries ate often talked about as the possible solution to information poverty as they are in a position to provide free access to the internet for their communities. Public libraries in India should use new Information and communication technologies to create online world, which will further transform our lives.Christopher Edwards in his article has rightly pointed out " Providing access to information has traditionally been about buildings, based around institutions offering services to onsite users. Building tomorrow's libraries will not simply be a matter of installing rows of computers with Internet access: our users will increasingly expect to be able to access material from where they live and work. Providing access will increasingly be about developing electronic information services such as Interne! portals and acting as a broker between content providers and remote users" [8]

Acknowledgement:

Author is very much thankful to Martina Bartel, Max Mailer B ha van, New Delhi, for providing Travel grant towards attending the IFLA 2003 Berlin conference and present the poster session.
References:
l.Anne Grimshaw (Compiler] "Records, document and content management in local Government: a look at the some of the latest e-govemment initiatives' Information Management & technology, Jan-Mar 2003,pl4-20& 31.
2.Aashish Sharma & William Yurcik "The emergence of Rural digital Libraries in India: The Gyandoot Digital Library intranet" published in the conference proceedings of the AS1S Annual Conference(ASIS 2000) Chicago IL.USA, November 2000. Available at http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/May-01/sharniayurcik.html}
3. Akhtar Pasha "Wireless MAN for rural development". Network magazine, Sept.2002, p.42-45
4. Marina Fors and Alfredo Moreno. " The benefits and obstacles of implementing ICTs strategies for development from a bottom up approach" Asiib proceedings, vol. 54,no 3.2002,pp 198-206
5Kaul.H.K "Knowledge Centres: The key to self employment and poverty alleviation" Delnet newsletter, vol.9, no.2, December 2002, pp!7- 18.
6. Vikas Nath "Empowerment and governance through Information and Communication Technologies: Women's perspective" International Information and library review, 2001, vol.33 pp. 317-339
7 Kirsty Williamson & others "The role of the Internet for people with disabilities: Issues of access and equity for public libraries" Austrian library journal. May 2001 , pp i 57-174.
8. Christopher Edwards "Global knowledge: a challenge for librarians", IFLA Journal vol.27, no. 2 2001,pp.65-69
9. David stoker "Social exclusion, joined-up government, public libraries and the Internet" Editorial, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, vol.32,no.2, 2000,pp53-55
10. Bhattacharjee. R.. "Public Library Services in India: Systems and Deficiencies". CountryReport: India. http://www.ifla.org/VlI/s8/annuaI/cr02-in.htm
1 1. Manorama Year Book 1999. Kottayam, Malayala Manorama. p. 635.
12. UNESCO Public Library Manifesto, http://www.ifla.org/documents/libraries/ policies'iinesco.htm
13.Pierre Evald "Information Technology in Danish Public Libraries" Program.vol.30, no2, April 1996,pp. 121-131

Knowledge Management and the Role of Libraries, Hwa-Wei Lee

Knowledge Management and the Role of Libraries

Hwa-Wei Lee
Asian Division, Library of Congress
Washington, DC
U.S.A.
hlee@lc.gov

ABSTRACT: The development of knowledge management in recent years has become the key concern for librarians and libraries. This paper will review the development of knowledge management and will compare the differences between information and knowledge as well as between information management and knowledge management. It will also examine the role of librarians/libraries in knowledge management and suggests that librarians/libraries in the digital and knowledge age should be in charge of knowledge management in their respective organizations in order to leverage the intellectual assets and to facilitate knowledge creation. .

1. Introduction

The concept and name--“Knowledge Management”--was started and popularized in the business world during the last decade of the 20th century. It was the business world that first recognizes the importance of knowledge in the “global economy” of the “knowledge age”. In the new knowledge economy, the possession of relevant and strategic knowledge and its unceasing renewal enables businesses to gain competitive advantage. The applications of knowledge management have now spread to other organizations including government agencies, research and development departments, universities, and others.

The management of information has long been regarded as the domain of librarians and libraries. Librarians and information professionals are trained to be experts in information searching, selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, repackaging, disseminating, and serving. However, professionals in information technology and systems have also regarded information management as their domain because of the recent advances in information technology and systems which drive and underpin information management. One of the clearest evidences of this is that the positions of “Chief Information Officer” (CIO) in many organizations are generally held by information technologists instead of librarians. In fact, most of the work of CIOs has to do with developing and managing the IT infrastructure and systems, not the managing of information per se.

With the growing interest in knowledge management, many questions have been raised in the minds of librarians regarding: the difference between information and knowledge; between information management and knowledge management; who should be in charge of information and knowledge management; would librarians and information professionals with appropriate education and training in library and information science be most suitable for the position of “Chief Knowledge Officer” (CKO) in their organizations; and what libraries can do in implementing knowledge management.

This paper attempts to answer these critical and pressing questions from the librarians’ perspective.

2. Is there a difference between information and knowledge?

Daniel Bell defines knowledge as “a set of organized statements of facts or ideas, presenting a reasoned judgment or an experimental result, which is transmitted to others through some communication medium in some systematic form.”¹ As for information, Marc Porat states, “Information is data that has been organized and communicated.”²

Stephen Abram sees the process for knowledge creation and use as a continuum where data transforms into information, information transforms into knowledge and knowledge drives and underpins behavior and decision-making.³ Below are simple definitions of Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom—all of them are available within every organization:

• Data: Scattered, unrelated facts, writings, numbers, or symbols.
• Information: Selected, organized and analyzed data.
• Knowledge: Information combined with user’s ability and experience that is used to solve a problem or to create new knowledge.
• Wisdom: Forward looking and thinking based on one’s values and commitment. The differences between information and knowledge can be summarized as:
• Information is visible, independent from action and decision, different in format after processing, physical product, independent from existing environment, easily transferable, and duplicable.
• Knowledge is invisible, closely related to action and decision, different in thought after processing, spiritual product, identified with existing environment, transferable through learning, and not duplicable.

In the business world, two types of knowledge have been noted. They are explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Jan Duffy defines explicit knowledge as “knowledge that is documented and public; structured, fixed-content, externalized, and conscious” and tacit knowledge as “personal, undocumented knowledge; context-sensitive, dynamically-created and derived, internalized, and experience-based; often resides in the human mind, behavior, and perception.”⁴ This set of definitions can be applied to all other human endeavors and intellectual activities.

3. The rise of knowledge management

As early as 1965, Peter Drucker already pointed out that “knowledge” would replace land, labor, capital, machines, etc. to become the chief source of production.⁵ His foresight did not get much attention back then. It was not until 1991 when Ikujiro Nonaka raised the concept of “tacit” knowledge and “explicit” knowledge as well as the theory of “spiral of knowledge” in the Harvard Business Review that the time of “knowledge-based competition” finally came.⁶ In his latest book, Building Organizational Intelligence: a Knowledge Management Primer, Jay Liebowitz stated:⁷

“In today’s movement towards knowledge management, organizations are trying to best leverage their knowledge internally in the organization and externally to their customers and stakeholders. They are trying to capitalize on their organizational intelligence to maintain their competitive edge.”

“The thrust of knowledge management is to create a process of valuing the organization’s intangible assets in order to best leverage knowledge internally and externally. Knowledge management, therefore, deals with creating, securing, capturing, coordinating, combining, retrieving, and distributing knowledge. The idea is to create a knowledge sharing environment whereby sharing knowledge is power as opposed to the old adage that, simply, knowledge is power.”

4. Some definitions of knowledge management

Because knowledge management is still a relatively new concept and viewed differently by different writers from different focuses, its definitions vary. In her article, “What is knowledge management?” Jennifer Rowley offers her definition below:

“Knowledge management is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets of an organization with a view to furthering the organization’s objectives. The knowledge to be managed includes both explicit, documented knowledge, and tacit, subjective knowledge. Management entails all of those processes associated with the identification, sharing and creation of knowledge. This requires systems for the creation and maintenance of knowledge repositories, and to cultivate and facilitate the sharing of knowledge and organizational learning. Organizations that succeed in knowledge management are likely to view knowledge as an asset and to develop organizational norms and values, which support the creation and sharing of knowledge.”⁸

Rowley’s definition was based on the four different types of perspectives on knowledge management identified by Thomas H. Davenport et al in their study of a number of knowledge management projects. From the analysis of the projects’ objectives, Davenport et al were able to categorize them into four broad types of perspectives:⁹

1. To create knowledge repositories, which store both knowledge and information, often in documentary form. These repositories can fall into three categories:
• Those which include external knowledge, such as competitive intelligence.
• Those that include structured internal knowledge, such as research reports and product oriented marketing materials, such as techniques and methods.
• Those that embrace informal, internal or tacit knowledge, such as discussion databases that store “know how”.
2. To improve knowledge access and transfer. Here the emphasis is on connectivity, access and transfer.
• Technologies such as video conferencing systems, document scanning and sharing tools and telecommunications networks are central.
3. To enhance the knowledge environment so that the environment is conductive to more effective knowledge creation, transfer and use. This involves tackling organizational norms and values as they relate to knowledge.
• Increase awareness on sharing knowledge embedded in client relationship and engagements.
• Provide awards for contributions to the organization’s structured knowledge base.
• Implement decision audit programs in order to assess whether and how employees were applying knowledge in key decisions.
• Recognize that successful knowledge management is dependent upon structures and cultures.
4. To manage knowledge as an asset and to recognize the value of knowledge to an organization.

Others, however, sought to take a process view to define knowledge management.

For example, Jan Duffy defines it as “a process that drives innovation by capitalizing on organizational intellect and experience.”¹⁰ Gartner Group defines it as “a discipline that promotes an integrated and collaborative approach to the process of information asset creation, capture, organization, access and use.”¹¹

Below is a set of knowledge management processes proposed by P. Galagan:¹²

• Generating new knowledge.
• Accessing knowledge from external sources.
• Representing knowledge in documents, databases, software and so forth.
• Embedding knowledge in processes, products, or services.
• Transferring existing knowledge around an organization.
• Using accessible knowledge in decision-making.
• Facilitating knowledge growth through culture and incentives.
• Measuring the value of knowledge assets and the impact of knowledge management.

From both the project perspectives and the operational processes described above we can gain a general understanding of the current scope and contents of knowledge management.

5. Knowledge management in libraries

While the business world is changing in the new knowledge economy and digital age, libraries of all types are undergoing drastic changes also. The new role of libraries in the 21st century needs to be as a learning and knowledge center for their users as well as the intellectual commons for their respective communities where, to borrow the phrase from the Keystone Principles, “people and ideas interact in both the real and virtual environments to expand learning and facilitate the creation of new knowledge.”¹³

As a learning organization, libraries should provide a strong leadership in knowledge management. Unlike those business organizations whose goal for knowledge management is for competitive advantage, most public, academic, and research libraries, with the exception of company libraries (which may be known or called corporate libraries, special libraries, or knowledge centers), have a different orientation and value. Instead of competition, internal use only, and little sharing of knowledge with others outside, the most important mission of public, academic, and research libraries is to expand the access of knowledge for their users. Charged by this mission, libraries should aim their knowledge management goal high. Below are examples of what libraries can do to improve their knowledge management in all of the key areas of library services.

5.1 Knowledge resources management

Because of the exponential growth in human knowledge in a variety of formats, libraries need to develop their resources access and sharing strategies from printed to electronic and digital resources in concert with their mission and charges. Restricted by limited funding, technology, staff, and space, libraries must carefully analyze the needs of their users and seek to develop cooperative acquisition plans to meet these needs. The changing concept from “ownership” to “access” and from “just in case” to “just in time” should be the goal of a sound resources development strategy.

An integrated online public access catalog (OPAC) with both internal and external resources as well as printed and other formats of knowledge should be developed and maintained. Useful websites and knowledge sources should be regularly searched and selected from the Internet and included in OPACs by hard links. A system for the reviewing and updating of these resources should be performed.

Going beyond explicit knowledge, libraries should also develop means to capture all that tacit knowledge that is of importance to their users, their organizations, and to the internal operation of libraries. The web site of each library should serve as a portal for all sources of selective and relevant knowledge and information whether explicit or tacit, whether on site or remote, and in all formats.

The term “portal” has been defined by Michael Looney and Peter Lyman as “a means of gathering a variety of useful information resources into a single, one-stop Web page, helping the user to avoid being overwhelmed by infoglut or feeling lost on the Web.”¹⁴

In the current digital and networked knowledge age, the size of information resources on the Web is growing exponentially. No one really knows exactly how many Web pages are on the Internet because new Web pages are added every second. The latest statistics of Internet hosts numbered close to two billion and is growing fast at the speed of 25% from 1/2001 to 1/2002.¹⁵ Most of the frequently used Internet search engines have also expanded their index sizes by leaps and bounds. For examples, according to the November 11, 2004 report of the Search Engine Watch, Google claimed to have indexed 8.1 billion Web pages; MSN: 5.0 billion Web pages; Yahoo: 4.2 billion Web pages; and Ask Reeves: 2.5 billion Web pages.¹⁶ In a 1999 study by Lawrence and Giles, each search engine may cover only 15% of the Web resources at any given time. Combined coverage of search engines is estimated at 42 percent of the relevant resources..¹⁷ It is also very frustrating that many of the results found--in the tens of thousands of hits--are irrelevant. One has to comb the large number of findings in order to find the few relevant pieces of information. Still, information on the Web can be very useful if only we can employ advanced artificial intelligent tools to surf the Internet and to select, find, arrange, classify, and automatically deliver the needed information to each user based on his/her special interests and needs. Many such new knowledge management systems are under development and testing and hold promise for greatly enriched knowledge resources, improved user services, and the more efficient use of knowledge for creation and decision-making.

Universities and research organizations are themselves knowledge reservoirs. These highly valued intellectual assets, regardless of whether they are explicit or tacit, should be inventoried, archived, indexed, frequently updated, and made accessible in digital form.

In addition, the traditional, time-honored methods of cataloging and classification are barely adequate to handle the finite number of books, journals, and documents, but are inadequate to deal with the almost infinite amount of digital information in large electronic databases and on the Internet. Using the Dublin Core metadata and the Cooperative Online Resources Catalog (CORC) has been a new approach to capture Web information by cooperative efforts. Other new methods such as data mining, text mining, content management, search engines, spidering programs, natural language searching, linguistic analysis, semantic networks, knowledge extraction, concept yellow pages, and such techniques in information visualization as two-dimensional or three-dimensional knowledge mapping, etc. have been a part of recent developments in knowledge management systems.

5.2 Resources sharing and networking

Libraries have had a long tradition of resources sharing and networking. These have been greatly expanded by the rapid development of computer, telecommunication, networking, and digital technologies since the 1960s. In the U.S. it is very common for libraries to be a member of several consortia at the same time for various types of cooperative work and resources sharing. The best examples of these are the OCLC Online Computer Library Center and OhioLINK (Ohio Library and Information Network).

The CORC project of OCLC should be especially useful for libraries to cooperatively capture digital resources of all types, describe them in a standard format, and make them easily searchable by users.

The successes of most of these examples in resources sharing and networking are largely the result of the full cooperation and participation of all member libraries without selfishness. Large and major libraries must take the lead in such an endeavor. Supports in policies and funding from the government or parent organizations are also critically important. Experiences indicate that all libraries, regardless of size and specialties, have been benefited by library cooperation and resources sharing.

5.3 Information technology development

To facilitate the implementation of knowledge management, a well-designed and operational knowledge management system should be in place. Latest information technology should be used as an enabler. In this regard, the library director should consider him/her self as the chief knowledge officer of the entire organization and should work together with the CIO, heads of the planning department, the computer and information technology center, the human resources management department, the finance department, etc. to design and develop such a system. Such a knowledge management system should be built on existing computer and information technology infrastructures, including upgraded intranet, extranet, and Internet, and available software programs to facilitate the capture, analysis, organization, storage, and sharing of internal and external information resources for effective knowledge exchange among users, resource persons (faculty, researchers, and subjects specialists, etc.), publishers, government agencies, businesses and industries, and other organizations via multiple channels and layers. In recent years, many of the newly developed information technologies for database and information/document management can be utilized in knowledge management; such as, data warehousing, data mining, text mining, content management, knowledge extraction, knowledge mapping, groupware, and information visualization, etc. It was observed by Hsinchun Chen that “since the mid 1990s, the popularity of search engines and advances in web spidering, indexing, and link analysis have 12Knowledge transformed IR systems into newer and more powerful search tools for content on the Internet.”¹⁸

5.4 User services

The utmost goal of knowledge management is to provide users with a variety of quality services in order to improve the communication, use and creation of knowledge. As much as possible these services should be tailored to the interest and needs of each user. Information about each user can be obtained by analyzing the records of user registration, surveys, circulation and interlibrary loans, frequently asked reference questions, and the use of e-journal and digital resources, etc. User satisfaction and needs should be collected through periodic users’ surveys. The findings should be used for the planning and redesign of library services. It is very important, however, that user’s privacy should always be protected.

Some of the manual services such as “new publication alert” and “selective dissemination of information,” which libraries have been providing, can now be done automatically by employing the “push technology” with great efficiency and convenience. Each library user can also set up his/her virtual “MyLibrary” enabled by library systems and networks for collecting and organizing resources for personal use and to stay informed of new resources provided by the library.¹⁹

The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) has defined MyLibrary-like services as the number one trend “worth keeping an eye on.” It further stated that “Library users who are Web users, a growing group, expect customization, interactivity, and customer support.

Approaches that are library-focused instead of user-focused will be increasingly irrelevant.”²⁰

5.5 Human resources management

A great amount of expert knowledge is possessed by library staff and users, both in and outside the libraries. In university and research communities such expertise is abundant and should be inventoried, indexed, and updated regularly and be made searchable and accessible through electronic databases created and maintained by libraries. The knowledge and accumulated experiences of library staff members form the intellectual assets of any library and should be valued and shared. An organizational culture for sharing of knowledge and expertise should be established with appropriate rewards and incentives. Those staff members who share their tacit knowledge and experiences through writing, publishing, lecturing, tutoring, or mentoring should be appropriately recognized and rewarded. An organizational culture which emphasizes cooperation, sharing, and innovation can only be established by strong leadership and commitment from the library director and a shared vision by the library staff. As a learning organization, libraries should allocate annual funding to provide continuing education and staff training to all staff members. Knowledge must be renewed and expanded to prevent it from becoming stagnant.

Libraries should also encourage the transfer of knowledge and experience from experienced staff to new staff members. A mentoring system should be in place to help newcomers to learn from experienced library staff. Informal seminars and brownbag sessions where staff can interact and exchange “lessons learned”, “best practices” and other specific experience and knowledge should be scheduled at regular intervals and at convenient times. Special interest groups and chat rooms can be created through intranet. Since many valuable experiences have been accumulated over time, libraries should pay attention to favorable working conditions and environment, which will contribute to better staff retention.

6. Conclusion

In the business world, knowledge management has been regarded as strategically important for organizations to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors, to add value to their products, and to win greater satisfaction from their customers. In the library world, there is a lesson to be learned from the business world. Knowledge management is as important for libraries as for the businesses minus the competitive, proprietary, and moneymaking concerns. In fact, libraries have had a long and rich experience in the management of information. Many of such knowledge and skills of librarianship can be applied to knowledge management.

For any library to succeed in implementing knowledge management will require a strong leadership and vision from the top administration, which can influence the organization’s knowledge sharing efforts in a positive way. As libraries enter the knowledge age of the 21st century, we should not take a back seat in the development of knowledge management. Instead, armed with our professional knowledge and experiences, we should be in the driver’s seat.

Information technology and systems can provide effective support in implementing knowledge management. Librarians should work together with IT professionals and others to develop the appropriate knowledge management systems.

Furthermore, knowledge management should never be viewed as a way to control the process of knowledge creation. In his book, Enabling Knowledge Creation, Georg Von Krogh et al made a strong argument for supporting knowledge creation rather than controlling it. In the process of knowledge creation, every library should strive to be an enabler and facilitator by mobilizing all its efforts and resources.²¹

The best knowledge creators are academics. Knowledge creation is best performed by universities. As a learning and knowledge organization, universities should empower their libraries to develop campus-wide knowledge management systems. It is now time for libraries to reposition themselves in the central stage of and as a leading player in knowledge management.

---

Notes

¹ Bell, Daniel. (1973). The Coming of Post-industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New York: Basic Books. p.175.

² Porat, Marc. (1977). The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Telecommunications. (Publication 77-12):1.

³ Abram, Stephen. (1997). “Post Information Age Positioning for Special Librarians: Is Knowledge Management the Answer?” Information Outlook (June 1997):20-21.

⁴ Duffy, Jan Duffy. (2000). “Knowledge Management: To Be or Not to Be?” Information Management Journal 34,no.1:64-67.

⁵ Drucker, Peter. (1993). Post-capitalism Society. Oxford, Great Britain: Butterworth-Heinemann.

⁶ Nonaka, Ikujiro. (1991). “The Knowledge-Creating Company,” Harvard Business Review (Nov.-Dec. 1991):96-99. Also, Nonaka, Ikujiro and Takeuchi, Hirotaka. (1995). The Knowledge-creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. New York: Oxford University Press.

⁷ Liebowitz, Jay. (2000). Building Organizational Intelligence: A Knowledge Management Primer. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. p.1.

⁸ Rowley, Jennifer. (1999). “What is Knowledge Management?” Library Management 20,no.8:416-419.

⁹ Davenport, Thomas H., DeLong, D.W., and Beers, M.C. (1998). “Successful Knowledge Management Projects,” Sloan Management Review 39,no.2:43-57.

¹⁰ Duffy,Jan. (1999). Harvesting Experience: Reaping the Benefits of Knowledge. Prairie Village, KS: ARMA International. Also from her article, “Knowledge Management: To Be or Not to Be?” Information Management Journal 34,no. 1:64-67.

¹¹ Bair, Jim. (1999). “Knowledge Management is About Cooperation and Context,” Gartner Advisory Services Research Note (May 14).

¹² Galagan, P. (1997). “Smart Companies (Knowledge Management),” Training and Development 51,no.12: 20-25.

¹³ On September 24-25, 1999, eighty academic library leaders met during a two-day Strategic Issues Forum of Academic Library Directors held in Keystone, Colorado, organized jointly by the Association of Research Libraries and OCLC. Three basic principles were declared as the expanded vision for libraries in the digital knowledge age of the 21sr century. The three principles are called the Keystone Principles.

¹⁴ Looney, Michael and Lyman, Peter. (2000). “Portals in Higher Education: What are They, and What is Their Potential?” EDUCAUSE Review 354:30. Available online from http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm00/article004/looney.pdf

¹⁵ http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/ops/ds/host-count-history.php

¹⁶ http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/041111-084221

¹⁷ Lawrence, S. and Giles, C.L. (1999). “Accessibility of Information on the Web,” Nature 400:107-109.

¹⁸ Chen, Hsinchun. (2001). Knowledge Management Systems: A Text Mining Perspective. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona. p.18.

¹⁹ Cohen, Suzanne and others, “Personalized Electronic Services in the Cornell University Libraries,” D-Lib Magazine 6,no.4:1-2. Available online from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april00/mistlebauer/04mistlebauer.html

²⁰ “Technology and Library Users: LITA Experts Identify Trends to Watch,”(Chicago: LITA, 1999). Available online from http://www.lita.org/committe/toptech/trendsmw99.htm

²¹ Krogh, Georg Von, Ichijo, Kazuo, and Nonaka, Ikujiro. (2000). Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation. New York: Oxford University Press.

---

Originally published on the 3rd China-US Library Conference website (http://www.nlc.gov.cn/culc/en/index.htm).
Copyright © 2005 Hwa-Wei Lee

---

Knowledge Management and the Role of Libraries

Hwa-Wei Lee
Asian Division, Library of Congress
Washington, DC
U.S.A.
hlee@lc.gov

ABSTRACT: The development of knowledge management in recent years has become the key concern for librarians and libraries. This paper will review the development of knowledge management and will compare the differences between information and knowledge as well as between information management and knowledge management. It will also examine the role of librarians/libraries in knowledge management and suggests that librarians/libraries in the digital and knowledge age should be in charge of knowledge management in their respective organizations in order to leverage the intellectual assets and to facilitate knowledge creation.

1. Introduction

The concept and name—"Knowledge Management"~was started and popularized in the business world during the last decade of the 20th century. It was the business world that first recognizes the importance of knowledge in the "global economy" of the "knowledge age". In the new knowledge economy, the possession of relevant and strategic knowledge and its unceasing renewal enables businesses to gain competitive advantage. The applications of knowledge management have now spread to other organizations including government agencies, research and development departments, universities, and others.

The management of information has long been regarded as the domain of librarians and libraries. Librarians and information professionals are trained to be experts in information searching, selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, repackaging, disseminating, and serving. However, professionals in information technology and systems have also regarded information management as their domain because of the recent advances in information technology and systems which drive and underpin information management. One of the clearest evidences of this is that the positions of "Chief Information Officer" (CIO) in many organizations are generally held by information technologists instead of librarians. In fact, most of the work of CIOs has to do with developing and managing the IT infrastructure and systems, not the managing of information per se.

With the growing interest in knowledge management, many questions have been raised in the minds of librarians regarding: the difference between information and knowledge; between information management and knowledge management; who should be in charge of information and knowledge management; would librarians and information professionals with appropriate education and training in library and information science be most suitable for the position of "Chief Knowledge Officer" (CKO) in their organizations; and what libraries can do in implementing knowledge management.

This paper attempts to answer these critical and pressing questions from the librarians'
perspective.

2. Is there a difference between information and knowledge?

Daniel Bell defines knowledge as "a set of organized statements of facts or ideas, presenting a reasoned judgment or an experimental result, which is transmitted to others through some communication medium in some systematic form."1 As for information, Marc Porat states, "Information is data that has been organized and communicated."-

Stephen Abram sees the process for knowledge creation and use as a continuum where data transforms into information, information transforms into knowledge and knowledge drives and underpins behavior and decision-making- Below are simple definitions of Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom—all of them are available within every organization:

• Data: Scattered, unrelated facts, writings, numbers, or symbols.
• Information: Selected, organized and analyzed data.
• Knowledge: Information combined with user's ability and experience that is used to solve a problem or to create new knowledge.
• Wisdom: Forward looking and thinking based on one's values and commitment. The differences between information and knowledge can be summarized as:
• Information is visible, independent from action and decision, different in format after processing, physical product, independent from existing environment, easily transferable, and duplicable.
• Knowledge is invisible, closely related to action and decision, different in thought after processing, spiritual product, identified with existing environment, transferable through learning, and not duplicable.

In the business world, two types of knowledge have been noted. They are explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Jan Duffy defines explicit knowledge as "knowledge that is documented and public, structured, fixed-content, externalized, and conscious" and tacit knowledge as "personal, undocumented knowledge; context-sensitive, dynamicaily-created and derived, internalized, and experience-based; often resides in the human mind, behavior, and perception."- This set of definitions can be applied to all other human endeavors and intellectual activities.

3. The rise of knowledge management

As early as 1965, Peter Drucker already pointed out that "knowledge" would replace land, labor, capital, machines, etc. to become the chief source of production.- His foresight did not get much attention back then. It was not until 1991 when Ikujiro Nonaka raised the concept of "tacit" knowledge and "explicit" knowledge as well as the theory of "spiral of knowledge" in the Harvard Business Review that the time of "knowledge-based competition" finally came.- In his latest book, Building Organizational Intelligence: a Knowledge Management Primer, Jay Liebowitz stated.-

"In today s movement towards knowledge management, organizations are trying to best leverage their knowledge internally in the organization and externally to their customers and stakeholders. They are trying to capitalize on their organizational intelligence to maintain their competitive edge."

"The thrust of knowledge management is to create a process of valuing the organization's intangible assets in order to best leverage knowledge internally and externally. Knowledge management, therefore, deals with creating, securing, capturing, coordinating, combining, retrieving, and distributing knowledge. The idea is to create a knowledge sharing environment whereby sharing knowledge is power as opposed to the old adage that, simply, knowledge is power.'

4. Some definitions of knowledge management

Because knowledge management is still a relatively new concept and viewed differently by different writers from different focuses, its definitions vary. In her article, "What is knowledge management?" Jennifer Rowley offers her definition below:

"Knowledge management is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets of an organization with a view to furthering the organization's objectives. The knowledge to be managed includes both explicit, documented knowledge, and tacit, subjective knowledge. Management entails all of those processes associated with the identification, sharing and creation of knowledge. This requires systems for the creation and maintenance of knowledge repositories, and to cultivate and facilitate the sharing of knowledge and organizational learning. Organizations that succeed in knowledge management are likely to view knowledge as an asset and to develop organizational norms and values, which support the creation and sharing of knowledge."-

Rowley's definition was based on the four different types of perspectives on knowledge management identified by Thomas H. Davenport et al in their study of a number of knowledge management projects. From the analysis of the projects' objectives, Davenport et al were able to categorize them into four broad types of perspectives:2

1. To create knowledge repositories, which store both knowledge and information,often in documentary form. These repositories can fall into three categories:
o Those which include external knowledge, such as competitive intelligence.

o Those that include structured internal knowledge, such as research reports and product oriented marketing materials, such as tecliniques and methods.

o Those that embrace informal, internal or tacit knowledge, such as discussion databases that store "know how".

2. To improve knowledge access and transfer. Here the emphasis is onconnectivity, access and transfer.
o Technologies such as video conferencing systems, document scanning and sharing tools and telecommunications networks are central.

3. To enhance the knowledge environment so that the environment is conductiveto more effective knowledge creation, transfer and use. This involves tacklingorganizational norms and values as they relate to knowledge.
o Increase awareness on sharing knowledge embedded in client relationship
and engagements.

o Provide awards for contributions to the organization's structured
knowledge base.

o Implement decision audit programs in order to assess whether and how
employees were applying knowledge in key decisions.

o Recognize that successful knowledge management is dependent upon
structures and cultures.

4. To manage knowledge as an asset and to recognize the value of knowledge to anorganization.
Others, however, sought to take a process view to define knowledge management.
For example, Jan Duffy defines it as "a process that drives innovation by capitalizing on organizational intellect and experience."— Gartner Group defines it as "a discipline that promotes an integrated and collaborative approach to the process of information asset creation, capture, organization, access and use."™
Below is a set of knowledge management processes proposed by P. Galagan:~
• Generating new knowledge.
• Accessing knowledge from external sources.
• Representing knowledge in documents, databases, software and so forth.
• Embedding knowledge in processes, products, or services.
• Transferring existing knowledge around an organization.
• Using accessible knowledge in decision-making.
• Facilitating knowledge growth through culture and incentives.
• Measuring the value of knowledge assets and the impact of knowledge management.
From both the project perspectives and the operational processes described above we can gain a general understanding of the current scope and contents of knowledge management.

5. Knowledge management in libraries

While the business world is changing in the new knowledge economy and digital age, libraries of all types are undergoing drastic changes also. The new role of libraries in the 21 st century needs to be as a learning and knowledge center for their users as well as the intellectual commons for their respective communities where, to borrow the phrase from the Keystone Principles, "people and ideas interact in both the real and virtual environments to expand learning and facilitate the creation of new knowledge."—

As a learning organization, libraries should provide a strong leadership in knowledge management. Unlike those business organizations whose goal for knowledge management is for competitive advantage, most public, academic, and research libraries, with the exception of company libraries (which may be known or called corporate libraries, special libraries, or knowledge centers), have a different orientation and value. Instead of competition, internal use only, and little sharing of knowledge with others outside, the most important mission of public, academic, and research libraries is to expand the access of knowledge for their users. Charged by this mission, libraries should aim their knowledge management goal high. Below are examples of what libraries can do to improve their knowledge management in all of the key areas of library services.

5.1 Knowledge resources management

Because of the exponential growth in human knowledge in a variety of formats, libraries need to develop their resources access and sharing strategies from printed to electronic and digital resources in concert with their mission and charges. Restricted by limited funding, technology, staff, and space, libraries must carefully analyze the needs of their users and seek to develop cooperative acquisition plans to meet these needs. The changing concept from "ownership" to "access" and from "just in case" to "just in time" should be the goal of a sound resources development strategy.

An integrated online public access catalog (OPAC) with both internal and external resources as well as printed and other formats of knowledge should be developed and maintained. Useful websites and knowledge sources should be regularly searched and selected from the Internet and included in OPACs by hard links. A system for the reviewing and updating of these resources should be performed.

Going beyond explicit knowledge, libraries should also develop means to capture all that tacit knowledge that is of importance to their users, their organizations, and to the internal operation of libraries. The web site of each library should serve as a portal for all sources of selective and relevant knowledge and information whether explicit or tacit, whether on site or remote, and in all formats.

The term "portal" has been defined by Michaei Looney and Peter Lyman as "a means of gathering a variety of useful information resources into a single, one-stop Web page, helping the user to avoid being overwhelmed by infoglut or feeling lost on the Web."—

In the current digital and networked knowledge age, the size of information resources on the Web is growing exponentially. No one really knows exactly how many Web pages are on the Internet because new Web pages are added every second. The latest statistics of Internet hosts numbered close to two billion and is growing fast at the speed of 25% from 1/2001 to 1/2002.— Most of the frequently used Internet search engines have also expanded their index sizes by leaps and bounds. For examples, according to the November 11, 2004 report of the Search Engine Watch, Google claimed to have indexed 8.1 billion Web pages; MSN: 5.0 billion Web pages; Yahoo: 4.2 billion Web pages; and Ask Reeves: 2.5 billion Web pages.-- In a 1999 study by Lawrence and Giles, each search engine may cover only 15% of the Web resources at any given time. Combined coverage of search engines is estimated at 42 percent of the relevant resources..— It is also very frustrating that many of the results found—in the tens of thousands of hits—are irrelevant. One has to comb the large number of findings in order to find the few relevant pieces of information. Still, information on the Web can be very useful if only we can employ advanced artificial intelligent tools to surf the Internet and to select, find, arrange, classify, and automatically deliver the needed information to each user based on his/her special interests and needs. Many such new knowledge management systems are under development and testing and hold promise for greatly enriched knowledge resources, improved user services, and the more efficient use of knowledge for creation and decision-making.

Universities and research organizations are themselves knowledge reservoirs. These highly valued intellectual assets, regardless of whether they are explicit or tacit, should be inventoried, archived, indexed, frequently updated, and made accessible in digital form.

In addition, the traditional, time-honored methods of cataloging and classification are barely adequate to handle the finite number of books, journals, and documents, but are inadequate to deal with the almost infinite amount of digital information in large electronic databases and on the Internet. Using the Dublin Core metadata and the Cooperative Online Resources Catalog (CORC) has been a new approach to capture Web information by cooperative efforts. Other new methods such as data mining, text mining, content management, search engines, spidering programs, natural language searching, linguistic analysis, semantic networks, knowledge extraction, concept yellow pages, and such techniques in information visualization as two-dimensional or three-dimensional knowledge mapping, etc. have been a part of recent developments in knowledge management systems.

5.2 Resources sharing and networking

Libraries have had a long tradition of resources sharing and networking. These have been greatly expanded by the rapid development of computer, telecommunication, networking, and digital technologies since the 1960s. In the U.S. it is very common for libraries to be a member of several consortia at the same time for various types of cooperative work and resources sharing. The best examples of these are the OCLC Online Computer Library Center and OhioLINK (Ohio Library and Information Network).

The CORC project of OCLC should be especially useful for libraries to cooperatively capture digital resources of all types, describe them in a standard format, and make them easily searchable by users.

The successes of most of these examples in resources sharing and networking are largely the result of the full cooperation and participation of all member libraries without selfishness. Large and major libraries must take the lead in such an endeavor. Supports in policies and funding from the government or parent organizations are also critically important. Experiences indicate that all libraries, regardless of size and specialties, have been benefited by library cooperation and resources sharing.

5.3 Information technology development

To facilitate the implementation of knowledge management, a well-designed and operational knowledge management system should be in place. Latest information technology should be used as an enabler. In this regard, the library director should consider him/her self as the chief knowledge officer of the entire organization and should work together with the CIO, heads of the planning department, the computer and information technology center, the human resources management department, the finance department, etc. to design and develop such a system. Such a knowledge management system should be built on existing computer and information technology infrastructures, including upgraded intranet, extranet, and Internet, and available software programs to facilitate the capture, analysis, organization, storage, and sharing of internal and external information resources for effective knowledge exchange among users, resource persons (faculty, researchers, and subjects specialists, etc.), publishers, government agencies, businesses and industries, and other organizations via multiple channels and layers. In recent years, many of the newly developed information technologies for database and information/document management can be utilized in knowledge management; such as, data warehousing, data mining, text mining, content management, knowledge extraction, knowledge mapping, groupware, and information visualization, etc. It was observed by Hsinchun Chen that "since the mid 1990s, the popularity of search engines and advances in web spidering, indexing, and link analysis have 12Knowledge transformed IR systems into newer and more powerful search tools for content on the Internet."—

5.4 User services

The utmost goal of knowledge management is to provide users with a variety of quality services in order to improve the communication, use and creation of knowledge. As much as possible these services should be tailored to the interest and needs of each user. Information about each user can be obtained by analyzing the records of user registration, surveys, circulation and interlibrary loans, frequently asked reference questions, and the use of e-joumal and digital resources, etc. User satisfaction and needs should be collected through periodic users1 surveys. The findings should be used for the planning and redesign of library services. It is very important, however, that user's privacy should always be protected.

Some of the manual services such as "new publication alert" and "selective dissemination of information," which libraries have been providing, can now be done automatically by employing the 'push technology" with great efficiency and convenience. Each library user can also set up his/her virtual "MyLibrary" enabled by library systems and networks for collecting and organizing resources for personal use and to stay informed of new resources provided by the library.12

The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) has defined MyLibrary-like services as the number one trend "worth keeping an eye on." It further stated that "Library users who are Web users, a growing group, expect customization, interactivity, and customer support. Approaches that are library-focused instead of user-focused will be increasingly irrelevant."1Q

5.5 Human resources management

A great amount of expert knowledge is possessed by library staff and users, both in and outside the libraries. In university and research communities such expertise is abundant and should be inventoried, indexed, and updated regularly and be made searchable and accessible through electronic databases created and maintained by libraries. The knowledge and accumulated experiences of library staff members form the intellectual assets of any library and should be valued and shared. An organizational culture for sharing of knowledge and expertise should be established with appropriate rewards and incentives. Those staff members who share their tacit knowledge and experiences through writing, publishing, lecturing, tutoring, or mentoring should be appropriately recognized and rewarded. An organizational culture which emphasizes cooperation, sharing, and innovation can only be established by strong leadership and commitment from the library director and a shared vision by the library staff. As a learning organization, libraries should allocate annual funding to provide continuing education and staff training to all staff members. Knowledge must be renewed and expanded to prevent it from becoming stagnant.

Libraries should also encourage the transfer of knowledge and experience from experienced staff to new staff members. A mentoring system should be in place to help newcomers to learn from experienced library staff. Informal seminars and brownbag sessions where staff can interact and exchange "lessons learned", "best practices" and other specific experience and knowledge should be scheduled at regular intervals and at convenient times. Special interest groups and chat rooms can be created through intranet. Since many valuable experiences have been accumulated over time, libraries should pay attention to favorable working conditions and environment, which will contribute to better staff retention.

6. Conclusion

In the business world, knowledge management has been regarded as strategically important for organizations to gain a competitive advantage Over their competitors, to add value to their products, and to win greater satisfaction from their customers. In the library world, there is a lesson to be learned from the business world. Knowledge management is as important for libraries as for the businesses minus the competitive, proprietary, and moneymaking concerns. In fact, libraries have had a long and rich experience in the management of information. Many of such knowledge and skills of librarianship can be applied to knowledge management.

For any library to succeed in implementing knowledge management will require a strong leadership and vision from the top administration, which can influence the organization's knowledge sharing efforts in a positive way. As libraries enter the knowledge age of the 21st century, we should not take a back seat in the development of knowledge management. Instead, armed with our professional knowledge and experiences, we should be in the driver's seat.

Information technology and systems can provide effective support in implementing knowledge management. Librarians should work together with IT professionals and others to develop the appropriate knowledge management systems.

Furthermore, knowledge management should never be viewed as a way to control the process of knowledge creation. In his book, Enabling Knowledge Creation, Georg Von Krogh et al made a strong argument for supporting knowledge creation rather than controlling it. In the process of knowledge creation, every library should strive to be an enabler and facilitator by mobilizing all its efforts and resources.—

The best knowledge creators are academics. Knowledge creation is best performed by universities. As a learning and knowledge organization, universities should empower their libraries to develop campus-wide knowledge management systems. It is now time for libraries to reposition themselves in the central stage of and as a leading player in knowledge management.

Notes

1 Bell, Daniel. (1973). The Coming of Post-industrial Society: A Venture in SocialForecasting. New York: Basic Books, p. 175.
2 Porat, Marc. (1977). The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Telecommunications.(Publication 77-12): 1.
3 Abram, Stephen. (1997). "Post Information Age Positioning for Special Librarians: IsKnowledge Management the Answer?" Information Outlook (June 1997):20-21.
4 Duffy, Jan Duffy. (2000). "Knowledge Management: To Be or Not to Be?" InformationManagement Journal 34,no. 1:64-67.
5 Drucker, Peter. (1993). Post-capitalism Society. Oxford, Great Britain: Butterworth-Heinemann.
6 Nonaka, Ikujiro. (1991). "The Knowledge-Creating Company," Harvard Business Review (Nov.-Dec. 1991):96-99. Also, Nonaka, Ikujiro and Takeuchi, Hirotaka. (1995).
Ihe Knowledge-creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Liebowitz, Jay. (2000). Building Organizational Intelligence: A Knowledge Management Primer. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, p. 1.
8 Rowley, Jennifer. (1999). "What is Knowledge Management?" Library Management20,no.8:416-419.
9 Davenport, Thomas H., DeLong, D.W., and Beers, M.C. (1998). "SuccessfulKnowledge Management Projects," Sloan Management Review 39,no.2:43-57.
10 Duffy, Jan. (1999). Harvesting Experience: Reaping the Benefits of Knowledge. PrairieVillage, KS: ARMA International. Also from her article, "Knowledge Management: ToBe or Not to Be?" Information Management Journal 34,no. 1:64-67.
11 Bair, Jim. (1999). "Knowledge Management is About Cooperation and Context,"Gartner Advisory Services Research Note (May 14).
12 Galagan, P. (1997). "Smart Companies (Knowledge Management)," Training andDevelopment 57,no. 12: 20-25.
13 On September 24-25, 1999, eighty academic library leaders met during a two-dayStrategic Issues Forum of Academic Library Directors held in Keystone, Colorado,organized jointly by the Association of Research Libraries and OCLC. Three basicprinciples were declared as the expanded vision for libraries in the digital knowledge ageof the 21sr century. The three principles are called the Keystone Principles.
14 Looney, Michael and Lyman, Peter. (2000). "Portals in Higher Education: What areThey, and What is Their Potential?" EDUCAUSE Review 354.30. Available online from
http:/7www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm00/article004/looney.pdf
15 http://www.isc,org/index.pl?/ops/ds/host-count-history.php
16 http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/041111 -084221
17 Lawrence, S. and Giles, C.L. (1999). "Accessibility of Information on the Web,"Nature 400:107-109.
18 Chen, Hsinchun. (2001). Knowledge Management Systems: A Text Mining Perspective.Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona, p. 18.

19 Cohen, Suzanne and others, "Personalized Electronic Services in the CornellUniversity Libraries," D-Lib Magazine <5,no.4:1-2. href="http://wvvw.dlib.org/dlib/april00/mistlebauer/04mistlebauer.html">http://wvvw.dlib.org/dlib/april00/mistlebauer/04mistlebauer.html

"Technology and Library Users: LITA bxperts Identify Trends to Watch,"(Chicago: LITA, 1999). Available online from
Mtrj;£w^vH^^
21 Krogh, Georg Von, Ichijo, Kazuo, and Nonaka, Ikujiro. (2000). Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Originally published on the 3rd China-US Library Conference website
(http://www.nlc.gov.cn/culc/en/index.htm).
Copyright © 2005 Hwa-Wei Lee