Knowledge Management and the Librarian of the Future

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Knowledge Management and the Librarian of the
Future

• David Shumaker
• For the CUA Student Chapter American Society
  for Information Science Technology
• Dec. 6, 2005

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The KM Track

• Increasingly, economists, strategy academics,
  and commentators agree that a firm can best be
  seen as a coordinated collection of capabilities,
  somewhat bound by its own history, and limited in
  its effectiveness by its current cognitive and
  social skills. The main building block of these
  capabilities (or unit of analysis, if you prefer)
  is knowledge, especially the knowledge that is
  mostly tacit and specific to the firm.
• --Lawrence Prusak
• http//www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/prus
  ak.html

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The Library Track

• Humans learn from interacting with the human
  record that vast assemblage of writings,
  images, sounds, and symbolic representation
  documenting the knowledge of the ages.
• --Michael Gorman
• http//www.dynix.com/institute/archive/placeware.
  asp?id20040714

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The Tracks Must Merge
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Embedded Librarians A Step in the Right Direction

• An embedded librarian works closely with a
  specific user group, in order to meet that
  groups information needs
• Examples
• USA Today
• National Institutes of Health
• Bain Co.
• MITRE

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The Knowledge Analyst Job Description

• News Alerting
• In depth research
• Organizing knowledge
• Capturing and documenting knowledge

Knowing where the knowledge is enabling others
to find it.
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Why Librarians

• Librarians have a mission focused on what the
  user needs to know
• Librarians have the skill set to meet information
  needs

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The Future is Here

• Virginia Department of Transportation
• National Institutes of Health
• Bain
• MITRE

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How Does It Apply to Different Institutions?

• Corporations for-profit and not-for-profit
• Government agencies
• Public libraries
• Higher education
• Primary secondary education

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To Sum Up

• Management of internal knowledge and delivery of
  external information should be integrated
• Embedded librarians are the logical candidates to
  provide both services
• To achieve this synthesis, both librarians and
  executives will need to think about librarians
  values and competencies in new ways

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