Competencies of a Knowledge Worker - A Select Webliography

A quick glance at Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!]'s recent post: KM Competencies gave me an opportunity to think about this subject. The more you go far and deep in the WWW you will find very interesting perspectives. But, of all the most precise I found is Aa..ha!'s, which is as follows:

"I think the fundamental dependency of such a definition is on the KM vision and objectives of the organization. For example, an organization that is targeting innovation through KM needs people who are slightly different from an organization that aims to achieve learning/productivity improvements through KM. Having said that, KM, however, needs people with a versatile or eclectic background and profile/competency.

1. People skills: Networking and Organizational behaviour skills to start with. Also important would be insights into how people learn, collaborate and share/reuse/apply knowledge
2. Technology skills: Requirements gathering, products evaluation, design and testing (More skills required in the case of a KM developer)
3. Process skills: I think this is important but neglected. Understanding of business and project management processes in order to lead to improvements from the perspective of knowledge capture, sharing and utilization.... [source]"

The above is most precise, not because the KM industry lacks such a conceptual clarity, not even because I admire Aa..ha!'s simplified approach; but simply because it gives a clear overview. In fact, KM is too broad (rather some would say complex) and hence one has to have focus (by level, sector, region, background and type of work) to even understand what is the actual concern about the term competency.

The literature on this theme is growing, with a recent book:

Knowledge Management: Competencies and Professionalism (Series on Innovation and Knowledge Management) by Suliman Hawamdeh, Kimberly Stauss, and Franz Barachini (2009): Table of Contents. And, a powerpoint by the first author, IIUM - KM Competencies and Career Opportunities

About the book: This edited book contains papers from the 2008 International Conference on Knowledge Management to be held in Columbus, Ohio. The papers represent much of the best and most up-to-date work by researchers and practitioners in the field of knowledge management. It provides insights into the knowledge management practices within organization and discusses issues related to knowledge management competencies and professionalism. It is a good reference source for information and knowledge professionals and can be read by both graduate and undergraduate students.
See also:
Information Worker Competency

Human Capital Management, Talent Management: Competency Framework - Knowledge Worker based Industry

Developing customer knowledge management competencies for Superior Market Experimentation and Organisational Learning

Knowledge Management Competencies in an E-Learning Environment: An ...

KM Competencies: Is Certification the Way to Go?

KM Competencies, Kadix Developed Leadership KM Competencies.

SSRN-Understanding the Process of Building KM Competencies

Survey on How Much Organisations Invest in KM Competencies

KM Competencies [see here: Roles of a KM Practitioner; a comment by a librarian turned KM specialist...]

KM Competencies and Performance Action Group for Federal KM Initiative

CIBIT Developing KM competencies in a safe environment

Google for more: here and here

The Battle of Building Library's Digital Collection

PS. Need feedback to improve this webliography relating to recent developments in this field:

Students, It’s 2010! So Let’s Go Back to Stone Age!

Google – Goodfather and/or Gravedigger?

Library ruling limits the rights of the TU Darmstadt

The right of prints out of digitalised medias

The 6th civil chamber at the regional court in Frankfurt decides in a summary proceeding that libraries have the right to digitalise and provide prints from their stock, no matter wether the publisher have own offers.
The publisher Eugen Ulmer filed a suit against the ULB, which offers at some selected workstations the "digital textbook collection" with 130 current textbooks.

The court confirmed the right to make prints of these files. Nevertheless digital copies are forbidden. The library was obligated to adopt precautionary measures which prevents such copies. Because of this the ULB modified their service and blocked the download on USB-stick. All other usage is as usual (please see : http://tudigilehrbuch.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de )

The court decision can be found in the law reports of the Regional Court Frankfurt with the reference number 2-06 O 172/09.
More comments :
Press release of TU Darmstadt
Press release of German Library Association(DBV)

GoogleBooks, the digital library wars, by Jack Kessler

Google Loses in French Copyright Case

"Three library associations have asked the Justice Department to oversee Google's plans to create a massive digital library to prevent an excessively high price for institutional subscriptions." New York Times

From the Chronicle of Higher Education's "Wired Campus" blog: The All-Digital Library? Not Quite Yet, By Jennifer Howard

To e-book or not to e-book, Wynken de Worde

Here today, gone tomorrow, Librarians do it Between the Covers

The Battle of the Books—Again, Barbara Fister, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN -- Library Journal, 11/19/2009

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper by Nicholson Baker

Vandals in the Stacks?: A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries
~ Richard J. Cox

Library Research Service's 60-Second Survey: Future of the Book

Recently, news outlets and blogs have been busy deriding and celebrating the recent ascension of e-readers. The growing popularity of this new format has come with murmurs about the death of paper books and some even surmise that as technology advances libraries will cease to exist!

Taking notice of the chatter, the Library Research Service has decided to survey librarians on the matter. This new 60-Second Survey asks your opinions on e-readers and how you think they will transform reading. Will e-readers be the demise of the paper book? What will libraries circulate? What is the future of the book? You tell us!

See also on the same shelf:

Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

‘As We May Digitize’ — Institutions and Documents Reconfigured, Liber Quarterly Volume 21 Issue 3/4 2012

Adams, Anne and Blandford, Ann (2002). The unseen and unacceptable face of digital libraries. International, Journal of Digital Libraries, 4(2), pp. 71–81.

Visualization Technology for Knowledge Mapping

You can use any tool for KM, including GPS, Flicker, oops: Flickr, to communicate your ideas, concepts, plans, routes, etc. See some samples below:







See on the same shelf: evocative-knowledge-map

Laws of knowledge management

• Seven spiritual laws of successful knowledge management, by Marcus Speh Birkenkrahe [1. The Law of Unity; 2. The Law of Giving; 3. The Law of Cause and Effect; 4. The Law of Least Effort; 5. The Law of Intention and Desire; 6. The Law of Detachment; 7. The Law of Purpose in Life]


• Are There Laws of Knowledge Management? by Stephen Denning, Michel Pommier and Lesley Shneier. [1. Knowledge sharing is essential to economic survival; 2. Communities of practice are the heart and soul of knowledge sharing; 3. Virtual community members also need physical interactions; 4. Passion is the driving force behind communities of practice; 5. Communities enrich organizations and personal lives; 6. Knowledge sharing has inside-out and outside-in dynamic.
  These six “laws” of knowledge management have three corollaries which are found across a very large number of organizations: Knowledge sharing is at some point confused with IT; Middle-management resists; Vibrant communities of practice attract new talents]
  


• Five Laws of KM, by RajLibrarian
  Inspired by Dr.S.R.Ranganathan!
  

  
  Knowledge is for use;
  Every bit of knowledge its user;
  Every user his/her bit of knowledge;
  Users time is precious;
  Knowledge and knowledge centres are growing organisms.

• RANGANATHAN REVISITED: FACETS FOR THE FUTURE, ISKO UK meeting: Connecting communities: Content, knowledge, information: Same Difference?

Do Knowledge Managers do what they preach - Share Knowledge?

by vijeesh papulli
"Well a dumb question you might say. But then if you were to take a deeper look at this question you may not find it all that stupid. Well I am aware of a lot of Knowledge Managers who share their experiences to the larger world. Recently I have come across a lot of Knowledge Managers in India who I don't find in any forums or on social collaboration sites. Yes of course India is relatively a late entrant to the KM Universe but then let me tell you though it is late it surely is making up for the lost time. Organizations have a shorter learning curve here and are quickly catching up with organizations globally. There are some active forums like the KM-forums from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore and Mumbai (recently) but really not much participation from the Practitioners. Of course the participation has been more theoretical than experience sharing." continue reading

Harvard Unveils Web Tool for Studying Media Trends

Harvard Unveils Web Tool for Studying Media Trends: The Chronicle of Higher Education

"There’s a lot of debate over the state of the news media these days, but a team of researchers at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society is trying to make discussions of content and bias a bit more precise."

"This morning, the Berkman Center unveiled Media Cloud, a research tool that designers say will help researchers study news-media trends with a level of quantitative precision previously unavailable. Powered by software that automatically identifies various elements — such as people, places, and topics — contained within an article, Media Cloud allows users to query a database of online content from more than 1,500 blogs and traditional publications."

Capture, store, and share information - Sounds old rhyme, right?

But now this story is getting newer interface (call it interface 2.0). Thanks to Martha for sharing the info about the Living Library!!! I Googled to see true colors of the LL, and found the following:

Living library idea as a knowledge managment tool
by Shaunna Mireau on October 30th, 2008
A recent article in Library Journal caught my eye: “Living Library” Debuts in Santa Monica1 As the article explains the living library movement invites library users to ‘book’ meetings with individuals with special interests, beliefs or experiences.

Extract: Wouldn’t it be interesting to add information to the library catalog with the following model:

Title: Vicarious liability
Author: Partner X
Physical Description: 6′1″, folio [individual will come to your office or lunch for a discussion of the title topic].

Seriously though, there are many ways to formalize tacit knowledge transfer that already happens in informal ways. It is neat that this kind of tacit transfer is being encouraged by public libraries. If a public library can work with this model, our expertise filled organizations can too.continue reading

See also on the same shelf:

• LIVING LIBRARIES, Experience that speaks volumes, Toronto Star Feb 26, 2009
  
• Doing the Library Thing by Wendy Reynolds March 1, 2009
• Living Libraries in Canada in March
  March 5-6th, University of Guelph, Ontario
  March 5th, Coquitlam Public Library, British Columbia
  March 21st, Calgary Public Library, Ontario
  March 23-27th, University of Alberta, Augustana, Alberta

Sharing Tacit Knowledge: A Case Study in the Australian Film Industry

Tacit Knowledge
“Explicit” or codified knowledge refers to knowledge that is transmittable in formal, systematic language. On the other hand, “tacit” knowledge has a personal quality, which makes it hard to formalize and communicate. Tacit knowledge is deeply rooted in action, commitment, and involvement in a specific context (Nonaka, 1994, p. 16)

Irit Alony and Greg Whymark, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia and Michael Jones, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia Informing Science Journal Volume 10, 2007

Abstract:

This paper explores tacit knowledge sharing. This case demonstrates the significance of knowledge sharing to organizational performance, by exploring the contribution of tacit knowledge sharing to the success of projects in the Australian Film Industry (AFI). The differences between knowledge sharing, collaboration and communication, and their interrelations are addressed. We also explore the concepts of knowledge, information, and data. In the interchanges reported here the knowledge shared is almost entirely tacit, and the “raw” data and information do not exist without the context that makes them knowledge. The paper includes the identification of many factors affecting knowledge sharing, not all of which have been identified by previous researchers.

This research contributes to a better understanding of tacit knowledge and how that knowledge is shared. This in turn contributes to a better understanding of how knowledge management can be supported in a modern organization, where often the technology is used in ways not well understood by system managers and software developers. A better understanding can lead to better ICT design and support of knowledge sharing both within and across organizations.

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing, Film Industry, Tacit Knowledge, Qualitative, Collaboration.
See also on the same shelf:

The Future of the Future: Rise of the Knowledge Librarian

AIIM > Infonomics Magazine > KM World (02/02/09) Murray, Art and Wheaton, Ken

"Both the private and public sectors have been steadily downsizing and closing their physical libraries. All those serials and monographs, outdated by the time they arrived from the printers, are simply not that competitive anymore."

Extract: Delivering knowledge vs. information
"Corporate librarians used to devote years acquiring and cataloging physical document collections. All those serials and monographs, outdated by the time they arrived from the printers, are simply not that competitive anymore. Knowledge is not static. It must be continually refreshed through venues such as open discussion and brainstorming. That calls for a new kind of library."

"...Unfortunately, there have been casualties. Librarians are being jettisoned along with the bookcases. We need to reverse that trend and start bringing them back … but only the ones who are willing to change. A traditional corporate librarian must make three major shifts in roles begin the transition to a knowledge librarian."

• Role shift #1: A knowledge librarian should be the "content czar" of the enterprise.
• Role shift #2: A knowledge librarian understands the strategic information needs of the enterprise.
• Role shift #3: A knowledge librarian is a lead agent of change.

“The librarian of the future is uniquely positioned to be at the center of the creation and alignment of intellectual assets across the enterprise. That leads to improved innovation and business performance on a sustained basis. Maybe the time will soon come when we will see librarians as CKOs.” continue reading

The medieval monastery as metaphor ~~ Designing space for knowledge work

"The new Cass Business School building in the City of London, designed by Bennetts Associates, draws on best practice in workspace design, with a strong emphasis on innovation and experimentation before and during the design process. This included academic research on historical learning spaces. The medieval monastery, and particularly the cloister, was identified as a type of space designed specifically for the creation and sharing of knowledge. One of the Cass library spaces features a broad cloister-like corridor, with semi-public study areas and places for private reflection and conversation. The whole design reflects transparency — seeing and being seen." continue reading

See also:

Return-on-Investment in library practice

Many wonder how to account for a place, such as a library, where "what goes into a library isn’t what comes out," to use Andrew L. Pearson's expression.
Here is a book in hand, thanks to Steven Bell, for identifying such an important title: Library Assessment in Higher Education--particularly chapter 5 on assessment of the library's contribution to the educational process.

Question: How do you see the ROI in your library / information practice? Will highly appreciate your response on this subject.

See also:
The Library as Strategic Investment: Results of the Illinois Return on Investment Study, Paula T. Kaufman, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign