KM in the library

Libraries IMO would greatly benefit from changing their vision to become knowledge centers.

Consider what needs to happen:

1) They pay greater attention to ephemeral exchanges and promote networking.

2) They offer opt-in services based on collaborative filters to point the patrons to interesting works and people

3) They redesign their architecture to promote 'collisions', host CoPs, concentrate on active learning, offer brown-bag gatherings....

4) They become active community participants gathering patron interest profiles and facilitate connections

5) They promote virtual exchanges, offer blogging spaces, deliver RSS feeds, actively inform their patrons of new developments, new literature and new people - this is a far cry from posting covers of new books on a noticeboard.

Here are some links and further thoughts

http://www.voght.com/cgi-bin/pywiki?KmLibrary

Changing to a KM mindset is not about the software adopted. It requires a deep understanding of the differences between knowledge & information and a radical revision of traditional library dogma, e.g. managing the collection.

Comments

[David Locke]

Library budgets will be eliminated. Literacy is not useful in a top-down aristocracy, which America is remaking itself into.

Libaries are weapon systems. At least when people deploy them in Mongolia and such.

Libaries are not knowledge centers or even knowledge practices. They are information and content practices. Again, knowledge is not content. Never was, and isn't going to be so ever.

A morgue is more of a knowledge practice than a library. Of course, all that knowledge is toe tagged and bagged.

Universitities engage in knowledge practice, and I don't mean in the libraries.

[John T. Maloney]

Hi --

Important to see:

http://kmblogs.com/public/item/87026

It is part of the UCSF main library.

Cheers,

/jtm/

John Maloney
T: 415.902.9676
IM/Skype: jheuristic
ID: http://public.2idi.com/=john.maloney

KM Blogs: http://kmblogs.com/

New England Business Blogs: http://www.kmcluster.com/bos/
New York Business Blogs: http://www.kmcluster.com/nyc/

Workspaces: http://www.kmcluster.com/Conversation.htm

[Andrew Mitchell]

Jenny @ 'The Shifted Librarian' is already doing a great job bring this to life.

[Scott Sorley]

Libraries are great at creating information repositories and they constantly struggle to provide better ways of exposing these repositories to their users.

I think the idea of RSS feeds is great, and think that libraries should push the forefront in providing and promoting RSS readers to patrons.

[Christina Pikas]

Your mythical library folk do not reflect the views or activities of most professional librarians.

We actively involve our customers (no, we don't call them patrons anymore).

We believe in the library as place (meeting rooms and group areas to support collaboration, programs and events to build networks...)

We have vibrant, customizable portals and personalized services for our customers. These include blogs, feeds, e-mail alerts, sharepoint spaces.

We are out in our communities, offering services where and when needed.

We do environmental scanning for our customers and suggest items of interest to them.

The collections are our foundation. The place we jump off *from*. Our services are what we offer.

[Peter Christo]

That has to be the most insightful blog entry on KM I have seen to date.