Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries: A Conceptual Approach

Abstract

The concept of Knowledge Management emerged in the mid 1980s and was initially applied in the corporate sector. Recently academic institutions and libraries have also started developing and using Knowledge Management Systems to meet the ever expanding operations of academic libraries and the new types of service demands. This article tries to describe the concept of knowledge management and discusses the prospects and barriers to KM applications in academic libraries. Application of KM contributes to the improvement in organizational performance, economic success in the market place, organizational creativity, operational effectiveness, quality of products and services and economic sustainability. KM offers many opportunities for academic libraries to improve knowledge-based services for internal and external users through creating an organizational culture of sharing knowledge and expertise within the library. But, LIS professionals, a by and large, lack the necessary expertise to engage in exploring and practicing KM. The article also presents a step-by-step approach for guiding LIS professionals to implement KM in their libraries.