Librarians as Knowledge Managers

On the Use of Wikipedia By way of The Register, London -- Fact check, please

2012-01-21T17:41:00.000-05:00

Info courtesy: "A Message from Wikipedia founder Pope Benedict XIII," Computerworld 28:1 (December 2011 / January 2012), 26; itworldcanada.com

Extract:

Did Vatican commit Cardinal sin over Wikipedia bios?

Murder, adultery, asses... nothing here about plagiarism though

By Register, London, 9th January 2012

The Vatican has once again declared "blessed are the freetards" by justifying the appointment of 22 new cardinals with a raft of backup material culled from Wikipedia.
The Holy See's press department not only lifted biographical details on the latest crop of "princes of the Church" from the online fact bazaar for a press release, but didn't even bother to name the source, and simply reproduced them verbatim, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Continue reading: Team Register

On the same shelf:

"Dolan Elevated As Pope Names New Cardinals." The New York Times. (January 7, 2012 Saturday) --[...named 22 new cardinals on Friday, including Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, in a set of appointments that reflected the pope's reliance on Italians and Vatican insiders at a time when the church's population base has shifted to the Southern Hemisphere. ...] and here: Another Step Up for a Bronx Native Who Led the Archdiocese in Baltimore
Wikileaks: Libraries and librarians respond

Role of Knowledge Centers in Academic Libraries - Talk by Dr.H.K. Kaul

2012-01-12T21:04:00.000-05:00

Reported by Dr. Harish Chandra, Librarian, IIT Madras and the President, The Special Libraries Association (SLA) Asian Chapter for the year 2012. This event is jointly by the Central Library, IIT Madras and Special Library Association Asian Chapter.

At the outset, Dr. Harish Chandra, Librarian and President, Special Libraries Association (SLA) Asian Chapter for the year 2012 welcomed Dr. Kaul and introduced him to the gathering. He further informed that the Central Library has been organizing a series of Professional Development Lectures for the last two years regularly. As a part of this, Dr. H.K. Kaul, has delivered a talk on “Role of Knowledge Centers in Academic Libraries” in the Central Library, IIT Madras on 09.01.2012. The Talk was jointly organized by the Central Library, IIT Madras and SLA Asian Chapter.

Dr. Kaul opened his talk by quoting Rabindranath Tagore on the importance of Libraries and highlighted the problem of scattering the contents as well as users globally. He also referred the survey conducted and indicated the trend for shifting the expectation of users. There is a mismatch problem in the use of new technology and the knowledge of Librarians. He stressed the need for the establishment of Knowledge Centre in each institution specializing on one subject to avoid duplication efforts globally. He also advised the librarians to re-orient their efforts and keep them ready to attract the users for their respective libraries. He also emphasized the importance of conducting surveys while he indicated that 52% of people are engaged in social networking. He concluded his talk by advocating that there is need to form a Think Tank so that various existing as well as potential barriers are removed. He is of the view that SLA Asian Chapter can make an effort for removing these barriers.

The Talk was chaired by Dr. Harish Chandra, Librarian and President, SLA Asian Chapter and was attended by SLA members and library professionals. Mr. Mahendra N Jadhav, Deputy Librarian, IIT Madras proposed a vote of thanks.

On the same shelf:

Knowledge Sharing Manager: Whats in a name?

2011-11-25T21:58:00.000-05:00

Extract from 10 questions: Dianna Wiggins, presently Sr. Knowledge Management Specialist at DeVry Inc

Knowledge management can be a hard sell. One of the first things we did at McDonald's was to change my job title from knowledge manager to knowledge sharing manager. People get defensive about having their knowledge "managed," but when you say "share." they think, "Oh, she's going to help me share my knowledge. I can handle that." It's not threatening to them, and there's an implication that something will be coming back their way that's going to make their life easier somehow.

The folks at McDonald's knew it was going to take some work and some trust building to make inroads in this area. My first question to people was always, "Tell me your pain." One of our first steps was to choose 20 key stakeholders throughout the restaurant operations division and walk them through a structured audit process, spending about three hours with each person. Then we put that whole audit process together, which mapped out the direction we had to go and the recommendations we had to make to move toward a desired outcome. It's not an overnight thing. It's a process.

Continue reading: 10 questions: Dianna Wiggins: she's between jobs right now, but the president of SLA's Illinois chapter is learning and sharing as much as she did when ... An article from: Information Outlook, by Forrest Glenn Spencer (Author)

The Supreme Court of Canada rules web links not illegal‎

2011-10-22T21:02:00.000-04:00

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that hyperlinking to libelous material does not constitute publishing the material itself. continue reading:

Extract:
The ruling will alleviate fears that holding someone liable for how they use hyperlinks on websites, personal ones or others, could cast a chill on internet use.

The responsible use of the internet and how traditional defamation law applies to modern technologies were at issue in this case, which was watched closely by media organizations and civil liberties groups.

How someone can protect their reputation in the internet age when content is passed around with the quick click of a button was also considered in the case. On social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, users often share links, and the court's ruling could have dramatically disrupted that function had it gone the other way.

Internet links not libel, top court rules, 19/10/2011, CBC News

Canada Supreme Court: Hyperlinks cannot libel, BBC News ‎Oct 19, 2011‎ ... The ruling was closely watched as the case could have wide-ranging impacts

To link or not to link… Edmonton Journal (blog) - ‎Oct 19, 2011‎

Is linking to libel the same as publishing libel?
CBC.ca - ‎Oct 19, 2011‎

Extract: Wayne Crookes, a former Green Party campaign manager, sought damages from Jon Newton for defamation over links that appeared in an article posted on Newton's website on July 18, 2006.

Newton didn't repeat the allegedly defamatory remarks on his site, but links to two U.S. websites were posted without comment.

The B.C. Supreme Court dismissed the case saying links are like footnotes, not publication. Crookes's lawyer says linking to a website is an invitation and encouragement to visit the site.

Libraries and the Knowledge-Based Economy, Dr. Abdus Sattar Chaudhry

2011-05-15T18:53:00.000-04:00

Guest Editoial, Dr. Abdus Sattar Chaudhry, Pakistan Journal of Library & Information Science (PJLIS), Issue No. 11, 2010
Extract:

Libraries have been dealing with documents and external information while KM places emphasis on internal information and people. KM focuses more on tacit knowledge that resides in employees. A unique mix of technological, psychological, and communication skills is required for performing KM functions. Libraries have the potential to play an important role in supporting KM functions. Their client-centered approach, emphasis on service, and experience in efficiently running information systems make them ideal candidates for providing support in knowledge management work. Library managers, however, need to change their mind-set and expand their competencies by enhancing their communication and leadership capabilities to become active participants in the knowledge creation and application processes. To reach this level, concurrent efforts at individual, professional, and institutional level will have to be made to reposition libraries. There is also a need to re-orient library and information (LIS) professionals to take advantage of the new opportunities. Continue reading

On the same shelf:

WHATS IN A NAME? It's all-ado-about Transliteration Mess + Noise

2011-04-25T18:40:00.001-04:00

A perpetual question for librarians, but now also for Banks:

A quick survey of Arabic, Islamic names and issues with transliteration...

Arabic Names Spell Trouble for Banks, By DEBORAH BALL And CASSELL BRYAN-LOW, MIDDLE EAST NEWS, APRIL 19, 2011

"...Unlike other so-called script languages such as Chinese or Japanese, Arabic has no transliteration standards. Pronunciation of the same names varies by place, and written Arabic contains few vowels, opening the door to a larger range of acceptable translations. Mohamed can also be transliterated as Mahmut, Mehmud or dozens of other variants."

Kadafi, Gaddafi, Qaddafi: In The Age Of Search, News Publications Still Struggle With Libya Leader’s Name, Mar 21, 2011 at 6:33pm ET by Danny Sullivan

How are you supposed to spell Muammar Gaddafi/Khadafy/Qadhafi? June 20, 1986

Need for authority control (uniformity) in names

How to build a digital library - Page 51, Ian H. Witten, David I. Bainbridge - 2002

Note: Library of Congress has its own standardization, and has only one representation for three variants of the name: See: Qaddafi, Muammar (the other spellings are: Ghadafi, Muammar and Muammar Ghadafi)

BOTTOMLINE for Information Professionals:
This reminder courtesy: Mark Muehlhaeusler | 21 Apr, 2011, MELANET (Middle East Librarians Association).
"If you ever doubted the need for authority control in name headings,
think again ...:

CASSE-TÊTE ARABE - Les banques à l'épreuve de la traduction - Big ...[Google Translation: PUZZLE ARAB - Banks to test the translation: Muammar Gaddafi, Mu'ammar Gaddafi, Muammar Gadhafi ... There would be 110 translations of the surname of the Libyan president.]

On the same shelf:

Time For KM To Manage Knowledge About Management?

2011-03-20T09:53:00.001-04:00

Steve Denning, RETHINK - Forbes, Mar. 18 2011

EXTRACT:
The bottom line of these discussions is that the horizontal, collaborative, value-adding principles of knowledge management are barely compatible with the top-down, bureaucratic, efficiency driven preoccupations of traditional management. Even KM programs that by all measures are doing well and enjoy significant top-management support are still at risk. In any efficiency or cost-cutting drive, knowledge management will usually be seen as “a low hanging fruit.”

The practical options for a knowledge manager in the light of this are as follows:

* Wear a parachute at all times. One never knows who will wield the axe or when it might fall.
* Educate yourself about the nature of traditional management and realize that there is a fundamental difference in values.
* Make sure that your knowledge management operation meets all the metrics and responds to the efficiency concerns of traditional management.
* Learn about how some organizations are managing themselves in a radically different way that is compatible with knowledge, as discussed in, The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century as well as other books such as The Power of Pull by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison, or Reorganize for Resilience by Ranjay Gulati, or The New Capitalist Manifesto by Umair Haque, or Leadership in a Wiki World by Rod Collins.
* Join together with allies both inside your organization and outside. You may well find that there are groups already practicing radical management within your organization in software development (under titles like “Agile”, “Scrum”, “Kanban”) or in manufacturing (under the title of “Lean”).
* Spread knowledge about radical management within your organization. We now have reliable knowledge that traditional management is leading to disastrous long-term business result. The extraordinary financial gains that come from making the shift to radical management (e.g. ten times increments in share price over ten years) will far outweigh the gains from any other knowledge that KM can disseminate. ... continue reading

Knowledge Management in a Changing World - Best Practices Revisited

2011-03-13T22:08:00.002-04:00

Just found an excellent article on "Knowledge Management in a Changing World," by Steven A. Lastres, Director of Library and Knowledge Management at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. West Librarian Relations - Law Librarians newsletter - March/April 2009–Law Books and Legal Information–West:, Also linked at Future Ready 365 and India librarian international

Contents of the article include issues, such as, Knowledge Management in Action, Becoming Business Managers, and Other considerations in selecting and deploying KM services.

Extract:

Since the earliest days of libraries, librarians have served as knowledge managers. Whether they were maintaining the scrolls at the Library of Alexandria, creating the catalog for the House of Wisdom (a Ninth Century Islamic library), or assembling annotated links for the law firm intranet, law librarians have always been in the forefront of organizing information and adding value to it. Librarians have long excelled at getting information into the hands of the people who need it. The precise definition of knowledge management (KM) is an elusive one, but one pillar of KM practice holds that knowledge management "is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets."(1)...

Other considerations in selecting and deploying KM services include the following:

•Access needs to be intuitive–no training should be required. A well-developed taxonomy that makes sense to the legal staff is key. Content ought to be logically organized. The process is a laborious one for the KM staff, but it pays off in time saved by attorneys;
•It also pays to train attorneys how to get the most out of the services KM makes available. Getting the best value out of subscription services is a two-step process, in which the KM manager (1) makes sure the legal staff knows what is available and (2) makes sure that staff know the ins and outs of searching those services. continue reading

(1) Megan Santosus & Jon Surmacz, The ABCs of Knowledge Management, CIO Magazine, 2001.

Personal Knowledge Management, Edited by David Pauleen and Gary Gorman (2011) - A new book

2011-03-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

Personal Knowledge Management: Individual, Organizational and Social Perspectives, Edited by David Pauleen and Gary Gorman. Gower Pub Co (2011) 276 pages, ISBN: 9780566088926
About the book:
By delving both deeply and broadly into its subject, the distinguished authors help all those concerned with 'knowledge work' and 'knowledge workers' to see how PKM supports and affects individuals, organizations and society as a whole; to better understand the concepts involved and to benefit from relevant research in this important area.

Table of Contents:

Preface;
The nature and value of personal knowledge management, G.E. Gorman and David J. Pauleen;

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? A stoical perspective on personal knowledge management, Peter Case and Jonathan Gosling;

From information to imagination: multivalent logic and system creation in personal knowledge management, Peter Murphy;

Recovering the individual as the locus of knowledge: communication and PKM, Mark Wolfe;

Systems intelligence as a lens for managing personal knowledge, Rachel Jones, James Corner and Raimo P. Hamalainen;

Managing your own knowledge: a personal perspective, Larry Prusak and Jocelyn Cranefield;

KM and the individual: it's nothing personal, David Snowden, David Pauleen and Sally Jansen van Vuuren;

Managing personal connectivity: finding flow for regenerative knowledge creation, Darl G. Kolb and Paul Collins;

No knowledge but through information, William Jones;

Personal knowledge management and knowledge worker capabilities, Thomas H. Davenport;

Exploring the linkages between personal knowledge management and organizational learning, Ricky K.F. Cheong and Eric Tsui;

The importance of personal knowledge management in the knowledge society, Karl M. Wiig;

Fair Use by Social Media, Revisted

2011-02-05T12:28:00.002-05:00

Today, as I write this post, I get a) forwarded email, with fulltext, and NO citations (owner / creator / distributor), b) another invitation to download for free some ebooks, and c) the question of 'Is Fair Use in Jeopardy.' As librarians are we to allowed to extract or quote (fairly) or NOT? WebProNews' extract brings to fore a lot of recent transactions and the debate is again open for us (see the extract below).

Fair Use Controversy: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Is Fair Use in Jeopardy? WebProNews,
Extract:

So the whole "what is fair use?" debate is back, as Fortune describes the business practices of Righthaven and the Las Vegas Review Journal of going after publications for violating copyright.

As the piece by John Patrick Pullen explains, the operation involves "transferring the copyright of content that has been reproduced on the Internet — either entirely or in part — from the Review-Journal to Righthaven, which then files lawsuits against the alleged infringers."

The EFF has reportedly stepped up to represent some clients the firm has gone after, while most are just settling with Righthaven, which has been seeking a maximum penalty of $150,000 plus seizure of the domain name in every case, according to the report.

The piece does appear to be a little sensational, asking questions like "Could clicking a Like button lead to a lawsuit?" and "Are the days of posting stories to Facebook, emailing articles to friends, or printing out pieces numbered?" continue reading (see also the comments)

Wikileaks: Libraries and librarians respond

2010-12-25T18:57:00.000-05:00

Extract:

Dec 6th, 2010 | By jshrubsole, Saskatchewan Library Association
It’s hard to ignore. The news is full of information about Wikileaks and leaked documents. So what has been the response by libraries and librarians?

Some library blogs merely re-report the news (like Law Librarian), but those librarians who personally comment on the issue are as divided as all other people in society.

On the same shelf:

Wikileaks: Where the Hole is Big Enough to Drive a Truck Through, The Other Librarian

Library of Congress to block WikiLeaks Most library blogs, however, report and comment on this action.

The official Library of Congress blog explains why they are blocking WikiLeaks

Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook 'threatens' web future

2010-11-25T00:09:00.000-05:00

Media monitoring on Tim Berners-Lee's remarks on the closed Web (as against his vision of an open web) based on his Scientific American essay:

"# Threats to the Internet, such as companies or governments that interfere with or snoop on Internet traffic, compromise basic human network rights.
# Web applications, linked data and other future Web technologies will flourish only if we protect the medium’s basic principles."
Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality, By Tim Berners-Lee Nov 22, 2010, Scientific American
Web Science: Studying the Internet to Protect Our Future, By Nigel Shadbolt and Tim Berners-Lee Sep 15, 2008Scientific American
"The relentless rise in Web pages and links is creating emergent properties, from social networking to virtual identity theft, that are transforming society."

NEWS MEDIA:

Web founder leaves his mark on Facebook’s wall Financial Times - Richard Waters, November 24 2010

Web icon says Facebook is a trap, Indian Express, Nov 24 2010

Extract:
In an essay published in Scientific American, Berners-Lee said that the Web is affected by elements that have ‘begun to chip away at its founding principles’, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Social networking sites that do not allow users to extract the information they put into them is a ‘problem’ that could mean the web is ‘broken into fragmented islands’, he said.
Although Facebook recently began allowing users to download profile information, including status updates and photos, it has been roundly criticised for leaving users'' networks of contacts ‘walled’ inside its own site.

Tim Berners-Lee Criticizes Web Leaderss, PC World - Nancy Gohring - ‎Nov 23, 2010‎

Extract:
The essay criticizes an array of companies including Apple, Facebook, Verizon, Google, and generally, ISPs (Internet service providers), for actions that he says could significantly hamper the potential of the Web.

Creator of the Web calls for continued open Web, Washington Post (blog) - Melissa Bell - ‎Nov 22, 2010‎

Berners-Lee warns web success may 'fragment' internet
‎Financial Times - Joseph Menn - Chris Nuttall, November 20 2010

Facebook might divide web: Web Founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee, French Tribune - Brenda McGregor, 11/22/2010

Facebook Q&A Update: Sorry, we're not ready for you just yet

2010-08-01T13:13:00.002-04:00

News maker @ FB Blog: Searching for Answers? Ask Facebook Questions

by Blake Ross on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 4:09pm
Millions of people ask their friends questions on Facebook every day. What new music should I listen to? Where's the best sushi place in town? How do I learn to play the piano?

Today we're introducing Facebook Questions, a beta product that lets you pose questions like these to the Facebook community. With this new application, you can get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics.

Since we like to develop products carefully over time with your help, Facebook Questions is available to a limited number of people right now, and we'll be developing it rapidly based on their feedback. We're aiming to bring this product to all of you as quickly as we can.

But, Beta is only in news

"We can't wait to show you what Facebook Questions has to offer but unfortunately we're not ready for you just yet. Look for Questions on your homepage in the near future.
In the meantime, click the image on the right to see what a question page will look like." Facebook.

info courtesy:

News: How Facebook Handles Questions Could Play Key Role in Future Search Habits, http://www.WebProNews.com

image from Sociolatte: Facebook Questions

Reading now: Making Knowledge Visible

2010-07-01T16:26:00.004-04:00

Communicating Knowledge Through Information Products, by Elizabeth Orna, The Gower Developments in Business Series, Gower, 2005, 212 pp. ISBN-10: 0566085631. [Dewey Class No.: 658.4'038 / Library of Congress Classification: HD30.2 .O75

About the book:
The only way we can make what we know visible to other people is by putting it into Information Products – the products, in any medium, where users meet the information they need, and gain access to the knowledge of others.

Without them, little business would get done inside organizations or between them and the outside world. They are essential for the flow, exchange, application, and preservation of information and knowledge.

This is the first book to make the case for the proper recognition of information products by organizations. It shows how they should support business objectives and processes and be incorporated into information strategy and information architecture; illustrates the value they can both add and subtract; identifies the full range of stakeholders in them; and argues that a triple alliance of information management, information systems/IT, and information design is critical for successful information products.

Stories from real life illustrate every step of the argument. The final part of the book demonstrates how an actual organization used information auditing as a tool to develop a strategic information product for an important user community.

Contents: Foreword. Part 1 Basic Ideas: Before we begin; No business without information products. Part 2 Information Products in the Organisational Context: Introduction - The context of information products; The business of the organisation; The value that IPs add (and subtract); The stakeholders and their interests. Part 3 In Support of IPs; Introduction; Knowledge and information management in support of IPs; Infrastructure for IPs: information systems, technology tools; Information design, reconciler of conflicting constraints. Part 4 Action for IP Value - a Practical Process: Introduction; An information auditing approach; Making a start; Auditing information products; Into action for value from IPs; Index.

About the Author: Elizabeth Orna is the author of Practical Information Policies (Ed2,1999) and Information Strategy in Practice (2004), and co-author with Charles Pettitt of Information Management in Museums (1998), all published by Gower. Described by a reviewer as 'too good to be a guru', she is a an information consultant and writer well known for her extraordinary insight and lucidity. She lectures internationally on information management and information presentation.

Reviews: 'This book is aimed at information and systems analysts and managers, web designers, communication specialists, plus teachers and students of business management. I think librarians, project managers, and business consultants would also have a lot to learn from what she has to say.' Mantex, August 2005

On the Same Shelf:

Mapping Information Flows: A Practical Guide, Information Management Journal, Jan/Feb 2004 by Hibberd, Betty Jo, Evatt, Allison

In her book Practical Information Policies, Elizabeth Orna states, "Experience shows that people concerned with information management have no difficulty with the concept [of information mapping], or with deriving knowledge and information needs from the objectives of their own organizations. And it usually takes no more than a few hours to produce the answers."

While many information professionals faced with the task would no doubt disagree with her assessment of the time involved, they consider mapping information flows important as a framework for analyzing how information moves within an organization and for understanding the services necessary to match the true needs of their clients.

Orna further notes, "...information flows are helpful in disentangling the reality from strings of words" and says she considers information mapping a method to "visualiz[e] the immediate and wider organizational context and the Outside world'...." In other words, the outcome of this process produces a deeper understanding of the organization that enables a more direct link to key stakeholders. This can be especially important if the IRC reports to non-information functions within the organization.

The high cost of not finding information. By Susan Feldman - KMWorld, Mar 1, 2004: [Information disasters, The costs of not finding information, How successful are most searchers?, How much time is spent reworking or recreating information because it has not been located?, Finding information][citation courtesy: Bibliography on information management @ Willpower Information]

GLOBAL: Seven recipes to become a top researcher

2010-06-14T03:07:00.000-04:00

Jüri Allik*
13 June 2010, University World News, Issue: 128

Extract:

...I have a couple of very good recipes à la 'Nigella Express' on how to achieve at least 600 citations in 10 years. Actually, I have even more recipes, but as a psychologist I am aware of the magical number 7, which represents the limit of human capacity to process information. This is why in the following passages I will confine myself to seven of them....

Recipe no. 1
You must publish five to 10 articles a year and continue to do so for 10 years in a row

Recipe no. 2
Always collaborate with people who are better than you.

Recipe no. 3
You need to publish in several different fields and especially on topics where research is intensive.

Recipe no. 4
Think about maximising the lifespan of your article.

Recipe no. 5
Don't try to do what others can do better!

Recipe no. 6
For your message to hit home, you need to repeat it at least six times (Tulving's Rule).

Recipe no. 7
What you don't do immediately, in all probability you never will (The Rule of Time).
continue reading...

Reading now: Starting and Managing an Institutional Repository

2010-04-25T00:50:00.001-04:00

Starting, Strengthening, and Managing Institutional Repositories: A How-To-Do-It Manual (How-to-Do-It Manuals) ~ Jonathan A. Nabe

About the book: From planning to promoting and everything in between, this new "How-To-Do-It Manual" fills the need for a book focused on managing your institutional repository (IR). Author Jonathan Nabe covers every aspect of IR development in detail, and the book's clear and logical organization makes it valuable as a cover-to-cover read or for consulting as a reference. Following an in-depth look into IR uses, benefits, and management practices, there is start-to-finish guidance covering: the librarian's role in IR implementation; planning, budgeting, and staffing; commercial and open source platforms; policy-writing; marketing techniques; collection development and expansion; and, use and assessment. An experienced IR coordinator himself, Nabe also includes real-life examples of IR development from respected academic libraries including Cornell University, Colorado State University, and Macalester College. Each one offers expert advice and best practices that you can replicate in your own project. Whether you are an IR newcomer looking for help at every step of the way, or an experienced coordinator seeking to expand the size and use of your existing IR, this truly unique resource will be an invaluable addition to your professional collection.

Recommend:
I recommend this book for libraries specializing in archives, and archives specializing in libraries. Library schools must have a copy of this 'how to do guide.'

On the same shelf:

Corporate DNA --a comment on the book: Using Organizational Memory to Improve Poor Decision-making, by Arnold Kransdorff

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

Will tomorrow's libraries become more like museums of today -- A question for the coming decade

Google: Location a "Hugely Important" Signal

2010-03-23T14:43:00.000-04:00

If Location's Not a Big Part of Your Strategy, It Will Be, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, By Chris Crum @ WebProNews

So what next?
I compared the ads that reflect a waterfall (one in North America, another in India)
See Google ads here [not so much matching], but here it is glaring. So also with Yahoo and then the MSN's Bing.

Hogenakkal: Niagara Falls of India
Niagara Falls Tourism Official Website Niagara Falls Ontario Canada
Shivanasamudra [The two waterfalls are Gaganachukki and Bharachukki and together are also known as bluff. One of Bharachukki's sections resembles a 'U', just like the famous Niagara Falls]
Nirmala Palaniappan's Photos - Sivanasamudra @ Facebook

BI shouldn’t look like BI on smart phones

2010-03-04T20:59:00.000-05:00

By: Kathleen Lau On: 03 Mar 2010 For: ComputerWorld Canada

During the Toronto stop of a Canadian road show to unveil release 2 of business intelligence tool MicroStrategy version 9, one exec explained why classic BI is no good for smart phones. Customers Hudson’s Bay and St. Elizabeth Healthcare share experiences with the software.

“Most applications that project to mobile phones are nothing more than business intelligence pre-packaged,” said Mark LaRow, senior vice-president of products with the McLean, Virginia-based BI software vendor.

Classic BI reports like grids and graph reports don’t work for the smart phone’s form factor and, if anything, said LaRow, such reports shouldn’t look like BI when viewed on a smart phone.continue reading

Knowledge Management Explained in Five Disciplines

2010-02-15T11:15:00.000-05:00

By Tim Wieringa @ Green Chameleon.
Extract:
Here is a suggestion to split Knowledge Management into five disciplines.
One: Information Management & Search
Examples:
* knowledge libraries in large corporations that allow global access to documents across departments and subsidiaries
* social bookmarking tools that classify websites and allow other users to share them
* search engines that are indexing vast collection of documents and websites
Two: Collaboration
Examples:
* contact relationship management (CRM) tools that efficiently share and store relevant information to customers, suppliers, and business partners
* corporate wiki tools that allow the capturing of experts’ knowledge and allow collaboratively develop this knowledge
* project management tools that allow disperse teams to share information, have discussions, and manage tasks & deadlines
Three: Workflow Definitions
Examples:
* the right design of a costumer complaints process can ensure that the sales departments receives more information about the customers and the research & development department gathers important input on how to improve the products
* project management methodologies can include processes to capture project reports which are automatically shared in a knowledge library
Four: Networking
Examples:
* social networking platforms allow to publish a personal profile, exchange thoughts, and keep in touch with colleagues and friends
* in online discussion forums questions are answered by a broad community; the answers are then available for the entire community for future reference
Five: Training & Learning
Examples:
* corporate induction seminars gathers all newcomers in a company at one time and provide them an introduction at the same time; this could also be done with e-learning tools
* professionals in a specific field of interest gather regularly in conferences to exchange their latest findings and discuss about it
* training programs for ‘Efficient Meetings’ (just as an example) can be conducted in two parts: a) a brief introduction to the latest findings for this topic, b) a discussion among the participants on how these findings could be applied in their environment. Continue reading: KM in Five Disciplines

What I learnt about Communities of Practices - a conversation

2010-01-30T22:28:00.002-05:00

By Abdul Jaleel Tharayil Venue: Indian Institute Of Science - Bangalore Date: Jan, 2008 ...

About the speaker: Mr. Abdul Jaleel Tharayil is working as Senior Manager - knowledge
Management, MindTree Consulting Ltd, Bangalore. [Source taken from Session invitation]

What I learnt about Communities of Practices - a conversation

View more presentations from abdul.tharayil.

SLA Name Will Stay

2010-01-05T21:29:00.006-05:00

This continuation of the name coincides with the centenary of the Association:
SLA at 100: From Putting Knowledge To Work To Building The Knowledge Culture (2009) (A Centennial History of SLA (Special Libraries Association), 1909-2009)by Guy St. Clair

SLA Name Will Stay:
"Voting in record numbers, SLA members failed to approve a proposal to change the organization’s name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. 50 percent of those members eligible to vote participated in the referendum, with 2071 voting yes and 3225 voting no.
“The active discussions, online and in local meetings, are a testament to the passion and commitment that knowledge and information professionals feel towards their association and their profession,” said Gloria Zamora, SLA 2009 President. “This level of engagement will help make SLA and its members more effective advocates for the information profession in the years ahead.” continue reading: SLA Name Will Stay

On the same shelf:

Joe to Joe's feed, LSW + more at Friendfeed

SLA Name Change - Alignment Initiatives - SLA's Wiki Spaces

SLA Name Change: Can the Name Convey the Value?

Another graduate school serving the library field is about to lose the “L” name

Competencies of a Knowledge Worker - A Select Webliography

2009-12-21T20:41:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-18T23:20:00.007-05:00

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!

Visualization Technology for Knowledge Mapping

2009-09-27T20:33:00.012-04:00

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

2009-09-20T11:19:00.043-04:00

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?

2009-09-14T04:59:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-17T22:25:00.006-04:00

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?

2009-03-03T16:19:00.014-05:00

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 Monica 1 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

2009-02-21T22:02:00.014-05:00

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

2009-02-10T20:34:00.008-05:00

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

2009-01-10T11:58:00.005-05:00

"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

2009-01-07T23:46:00.004-05:00

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

Whaddya Call It? All-a-do-about terminology management

2008-11-25T22:02:00.000-05:00

"While using multiple terms to describe one thing is common, doing so can lead to product confusion and even compliance issues in the business world. Why you should be worried about terminology management."
By Donald DePalma

"...That’s not to say that big companies don’t worry about terminology. IBM has long employed a terminologist who works with a variety of teams for consistent product representation. The terminologist on staff at medical device manufacturer Medtronic gets involved at the earliest stages of a project, working with the development team to formalize the words used to describe the product they will build. And faced with a proliferation of terms due to mergers and acquisitions, companies like Cisco are actively reviewing their own terminology management futures. Companies such as Oracle, PTC, and Nokia also employ full-time terminologists.

Let’s complicate matters a bit more. Take terminology management one step further, beyond the simple transformations of product documentation in a single market, to a product that is sold in 10 other countries that speak different languages. Those 120 terms that refer to a single product now have the potential of becoming 1,200 terms once translated into those 10 languages. And each one of those translated terms will trickle through the documentation, online help, marketing, advertising, and other collateral information in each of those languages. These downstream uses all lead to the possibility of far more interpretations as creative writers, translators, and transcreators elsewhere in the supply and demand chains for that product.

The bottom line is that formal terminology management benefits companies both within a country and across its global business units. Harvesting, normalizing, and integrating your company and industry terminology into authoring and translation systems will allow you to save money on re-purposed content and translation, improve quality, and increase efficiency. At the same time, more consistent terminology can help you improve safety, compliance, and customer service..."s Read the full article

Knowledge Management of Local / Indigenous Traditions for a Globalized World

2008-10-25T00:01:00.021-04:00

The books in the above slide, and following resources may give some sources for reflection on what works and where it works:

Seeking Future Alaska Native PhDs!
by Ray Barnhardt and Oscar Kawagley

Compensating forest-dwelling communities for drug the work of the Healing Forest Conservancy, by K. Moran

Infancy of Tools in the Identification of Native Knowledge, by
Dr. Lalitha Aswath & Rupesh Kumar A.
full article

Resources - Links: Local or Indigenous Knowledge @ Profit From The Application Of New Knowledge Pattern Recognition Research To Your Business: The Kaieteur Institute For Knowledge Management.

Focal Area: Status of Traditional Knowledge, Innovations and Practices

Knowledge Management and Indigenous Knowledge: MS Word file Information and Communication Technologies, Knowledge Management and Indigenous Knowledge: Implications to Livelihood of Communities in Ethiopia, by Lishan Adam, PhD, ICT in Development Researcher, Lishan@ictfd.net

Indigenous knowledge, the library and information service sector, and protocols. Publication Date: 01-JUN-05, Australian Academic & Research Libraries,
Author: Nakata, Martin ; Byrne, Alex ; Nakata, Vicky ; Gardiner, Gabrielle

AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND LIBRARIES PDF file

See on the same shelf:

Vertical and tacit: Multifaith and Knowledge Management in Perspective

Knowledge Management Applications in Multifaith & / or Multicultural Transactions Revisited

Looks Can Be Deceptive: Web Analytics & Transaction Log Demystified

2008-10-18T15:46:00.015-04:00

A quote from the book helps visualizing the true figures of a Website's visitors:

"One could legitimately wonder if the counted visits appearing in Table 7-6 can be attributed to actual people or to robots, spiders, crawlers and the likes. Robots are usually small applications designed to gather data for search engine indexes. Unfortunately, the record of a virtual visit by a robot, spider or crawler looks no different in a Web server transaction log than that of a visit by an actual person. Robot visits may be traceable through name identifiers (i.e., Googlebot), or by a high volume of pages accessed in a very small timeframe, or by their requests for a file on the Web site called 'robots.txt.' The latter normally describes what may or may not be indexed from a given Web site by search engines. Nevertheless, if found, visits by robots must be systematically filtered and separately counted or just ignored when assessing the real usage impact of a Web site."

Continue reading this from the book on E-Metrics and the details @ eMetrics or Web-Metrics or Webometrics - A new book for Library & Information Professionals

Which flavour does knowledge have on the web?

2008-10-12T18:04:00.004-04:00

In recent debates within the KiWi - Knowledge in a Wiki project, the need arose to further refine and find a common understanding of the type of knowledge that is (ideally) managed and processed using (semantic) wikis. One of the proposals evolved around a conceptualization of knowledge put forward by Gabi Reinmann-Rothmeier, also dubbed the “Munich Modell” (Münchner Modell).
In the Munich Modell, knowledge comes in three states of matter: solid (like ice), liquid (like water) and gas (like water vapor).
“Frozen” knowledge is knowledge in its most tangible, manageable form, for instance the type of verified, expert-endorsed information you would find in an encyclopedia like the Encylopedia Britannica.
“Gaseous” knowledge, on the other hand, is knowledge in its least consolidated form: think for instance of the type of heated debate you might have with folks in a pub, which is arguably the least structured, most uncontrollable, but also the most engaging type of knowledge!
And the “liquid” form of knowledge, eventually, is the common knowledge of day-to-day-life. It’s probably fair to say that it becomes obvious mostly when in the process of changing its state of matter: When it is calibrated against “frozen” or informational knowledge or when it is debated, becomes “gaseous” knowledge that informs action. (If you’d like to know more about the Munich model and are able to read German, you might want to download the original article here - PDF, 365 KB). continue reading @ The Semantic Puzzle

How do you describe this industry, and what you do, to your family and friends?

2008-10-08T00:01:00.003-04:00

Posted by Bryant on September 30, 2008 in Infonomics: Question of the Week
View Discussions
"I don't know about all of you, but describing this industry to those not in it can be . . . interesting. How do you convey what you do?" continue reading
PS: I would call this, if I am asked to, as Information Industry or Knowledge Management.
*Infonomics is a new title of a journal (formerly called AIIM E-DOC Magazine); see also: Knowledge Management - The Next Generation @ TakingAIIM blog

What I Know for Sure...In Information Management

2008-10-01T23:24:00.005-04:00

AIIM > Infonomics Magazine September/October 2008, by Joan Moumbleaux*
Extract: "For readers of O, The Oprah Magazine, you will recognize my article title as a riff on the title of her monthly editorials. Oprah’s column ruminates on unchanging truths in a changing world. As I sat reading her recent editorial, I found myself pulling out a list of “lessons learned” that I have created during my 22 year career, and two things happened...
Taxonomy is a sexy word for a subject classification catalog. Historically, the term taxonomy is linked with botanist Linnaeus who used the term to describe his hierarchical classification of things. Remember learning “kingdom, phylum, class…?” During the 1990s consultants began using the term “taxonomy” to describe library science concepts of classification schemes, controlled vocabulary and thesauri. Why?
The word had gravitas. It sounded more science-y and hence more interesting, sexier, to clients. The term has come to mean a polyhierarchical classification scheme representing intellectual relationships between concepts. Let’s face it; that is a subject classification scheme created so that we can catalog information. But no one in IT wants to be called a great cataloger! Did I hear someone say “ontology?” continue reading
*Joan Moumbleaux is the Knowledge Manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries' Restoration Center. She can be reached at 301.713.0174 x207 or joan.moumbleaux@noaa.gov. This article was previously published in “The Capitol Image,” the newsletter of the AIIM National Capitol Chapter.

Data Mining Pays Off: 'I'm a PC' made on a Mac

2008-09-26T12:16:00.005-04:00

'I'm a PC' made on a Mac
Asher Moses, September 24, 2008 - The Sydney Morning Herald
"Microsoft's "I'm a PC" advertising campaign was created on a Mac and the celebrity spruikers brought in by the software giant are all professed Apple fans, it has been revealed.
Hidden information contained in images from the ads published on Microsoft's website show they were created on Macs, a Flickr user revealed in a published screen shot. "
Punchline: Screen grabs from Microsoft's I'm a PC campaign which features author Deepak Chopra ... who now turns out to be a fan of Apple's Macintosh computers.

Difference Between Overstanding and Understanding?

2008-09-16T17:47:00.007-04:00

Do You Know The Difference Between Overstanding and Understanding?
Posted on Friday September 12th, 2008 at 21:32 in connect the dots, octaves, perturbations, resonances, rhythm, sounds, spoken words, syllables
"Sometimes meanings are conveyed in sounds. All words are sounds. All syllables are notes. Spoken words cause perturbations in the eddy currents of the subtleties all around us. These perturbations are resonances of higher and lower octaves." continue reading: It Seems Incredible That You Can Gain An Understanding Of The Truth About The Origin Of Civilization And Know The Difference Between History And His-tory!
Don't You Deserve To Know The True History Of Civilization? Read "The Burning Sands" - A novel by Hamza Abdullah

ROI for the knowledge worker is ROI for all, and how KM took an ironic approach

2008-09-06T11:37:00.002-04:00

"I perpetually point out the difference to the old and new KM in this blog, but I’ve never thought of it in terms of ROI for the knowledge worker. I have only thought of this in terms of the incentive and motiviation for knowledge sharing. When you think of the big picture of the need for a return in knowledge sharing, we can say this is the ROI for the knowledge worker.

My thought are if the ROI for the knowledge worker is high, ie. high reciprocation of value for participating, then in aggregate the enterprise ROI from a social computing ecosystem will be high.

The old KM was not about people, it went for the knowledge as a separate thing, and knowledge as a separate act approach, where the participants really had no return on their contributions, and no self motiviation to want to participate. In essence this process didn’t blend with human nature at all. Plus there is the other end of naturally seeking know-how off people, that’s just it, you were meant to seek it from a database (not people), and what you find, if you do find something relevant is meant to be context objective so it will suit all needs.

Whereas the new KM is not really KM at all (considering the key to KM is sharing what’s in our heads), it’s not a separate act, it’s embedded into our regular routines. In an ecosystem where we are networked to people and we participate as we do our work, as well as the finished product of our work, there is no conscious effort to make sure you are sharing your know-how, it’s just happening from being, just like in the offline world. In the offline world I don’t make sure I’m sharing know-how, it’s just blended into how I am as a person, it comes out when I act and speak whether I like it or not...." continue reading: John Tropea @ Library clips

5 ways to apply management principles at home

2008-09-05T00:01:00.000-04:00

By MERCEDES M. CARDONA
For The Associated Press

(AP) - Five workplace management techniques that experts say can bring harmony at home:

Mission statements are not only for corporations. Patrick Lencioni, author of "The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family," says households should establish first what makes the family unique _ its core values.
Break down the household into manageable parts
Get help.
Develop systems.
Evaluate progress

KM & E-Social Science - Revisited

2008-08-24T13:46:00.006-04:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Knowledge Creation, Knowledge Sharing, application of Knolwedge Management (outside the corporate work culture) in the social and cultural lives of the Netizens is the focus:

4th International Conference on e-Social Science

philbu's blog: Report on the CRASSH Workshop “Subversion ...

CRASSH Workshop “Subversion, Conversion, Development: Public Interests in Technologies” Cambridge, 24-26 April prepared by Philipp Budka

Public & Private in the Blogosphere

Web self-service: searching for answers

2008-08-17T11:48:00.003-04:00

Amazon.com Widgets

By Judith Lamont

Few people who visit self-service Web sites have escaped unscathed from the frustrations that all too often accompany their use or attempted use. Simple transactions such as checking a bank balance can usually be accomplished efficiently, but more complex needs such as finding information about a health insurance policy or how to obtain replacement parts for a product can throw the visitor into an inescapable loop.
Zachary McGeary, principal analyst at Jupiter Research, explains, "Customers often are not sure how to phrase their questions or search requests. In addition, over half the customers who report usability problems say that their searches offer too many results to be helpful."
Ideally, the Web site will offer flexibility in how the user seeks information, including the ability to process natural language queries phrased in a variety of ways, and will tune the search engine to produce a relevant and specific answer. continue reading
info courtesy: Knowledge Management (whatever it is)

Mining for Information -- Chemistry of a Service Provider

2008-08-09T21:57:00.007-04:00

"Take one qualified information professional, mix into a new sector and add some limited resources. Hopefully you can get a decent information service from the results..." @ Posted by The Solo Librarian

A similar idea but in a different perspective:

Library + business concepts + 2.0 technology = changing the world. One librarian's exploration of ways that libraries can learn from other industries to grow and thrive! by Adam Wathen @ The Thinking Library

Cyber Worship Resource of the Week is A Buddhist Prayer for Lost Information

2008-07-20T00:24:00.008-04:00

... According to the Web site guide to Buddhist memorial services, on October 24 of every year, at the Daioh Temple of Rinzai Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan, the head priest conducts a prayer for lost information. Recognizing that "many `living' documents and software are thoughtlessly discarded or erased without even a second thought," the sect hopes that through the holding of its "information service" the "`information void' will cease to exist."
Paradoxically, at the same time as institutions in the United States and elsewhere may be in danger of losing their collective memory due to routine deletion of information in electronic form, the typical end user is most likely experiencing the opposite sensation: drowning in information overload. A recent Washington Post cover story characterized the time we live in as the "Too-Much-Information Age," going so far as to declare in a bold headline: "Tidal Wave .of Information Threatens to Swamp Civilization" (Achenbach 1999). cited in Recordkeeping in the 21st Century. By:BARON, JASON R.
More details of this Buddhist Prayer are in my book: Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives, (p. 168-169).
See also related content: Cyber Worship Resource of the Week is The Jewish Prayer While Logging Onto the Internet
THE LIBRARIAN'S PRAYER / PRAYER FOR LIBRARIANS

what are pricing models available for Online Adverisements ?

2008-07-18T16:29:00.002-04:00

Q & A @ LinkedIn
what are pricing models available for Online Adverisements ?
Asked by: Md Abubucker Alathick.

5 Answers | February 15, 2007 in Advertising | Closed

Knowledge Networking in ICT Era

2008-07-10T01:23:00.007-04:00

International Conference on "Knowledge Networking in ICT Era"
during January 22- 24, 2009 - Conference Brochure

Call for Papers
Submit Papers by November 30, 2008 to
Organising Secretary: Mr. P. Panneerselvam, Librarian,
B. S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Engineering College
G.S.T. Road, Vandalur
Chennai - 600 048, India

More details also at: AllConferences.com

Library Vendor Assessment Literature Review

2008-07-08T17:27:00.002-04:00

Interesting article, but dated.

Library Vendor Assessment Literature Review

by Susan C. Vargas, BiblioTech

Knowledge production in a profession: Use-inspired knowledge revisited

2008-07-01T17:06:00.014-04:00

NB. Here is an interesting reflection and input for the bank of change. For a reflection on change, you need to recognize change, manage change and record change in a manner that can facilitate the change. There is much more on this change in the May / June issue of AIIM E-DOC Magazine - PM for ECM.

This sort of strategy also helps as a pathfinder for knowledge production in a profession:

Inside Pasteur's quadrant: knowledge production in a profession, Karri A. Holley and William G. Tierney, Educational Studies 01 July 2008

Abstract:

In this paper, we examine the current state of educational research through the framework of “use-inspired” knowledge. Previous discussions regarding the nature of educational research have disproportionately focused on the soft/applied nature of knowledge in the discipline or a need for methodological priority. After acknowledging these arguments, we consider the role of education as a professional discipline in American colleges and universities, and explore the inherent relationship between researchers and practitioners. Use-inspired knowledge prioritises practice, encourages translational research, fosters interdisciplinarity and dissolves rigid educational structures.

Keywords: schools of education; research; professional practice

view references (29)

Research isn’t a Google search

2008-06-21T00:30:00.003-04:00

Says, Kathy Lee Berggren (a professor at Cornell University, teaches oral communication with a “heavy research component") in Research Methods ‘Beyond Google’
Burnt Out Adjunct has interesting reflection on this beyond the domain of Google, titled: “Google is not research.”:
"I would counsel against the fallacy of the lazy student. They seem, on the whole, eager to bridge the expectation divide (they expect open, accessible information). They do not expect to have to navigate the Byzantine fiefdoms of disciplined research. Naive and perhaps idealistic? Yes. But really, should research be as hard as it is?
Consider that you are not affiliated with a university/college. How do you go about finding the research/articles/data you need? Same set of steps confound the Freshman. The databases are not intuitive or well advertised? And why aren’t they all aggregated anyway? Why is it easier to order a pizza than to find a set of vetted articles on a given subject? And then we blame the student for not being able to navigate the labyrinth to find the gems?" Listen

RESEARCH: You go to the library and look in a biographical dictionary. Or you call up Google.com and then sort through the 410000+ references to him. ... The Craft of Research, Third Edition...

See on the same shelf:

Ranking Chart Blog -- Library of a Librarian

2008-06-08T00:04:00.001-04:00

A kind gesture of a business professional, Devry, has resulted in reviewing this blogosphere:

First line of this Review reads: "Librarians as knowledge masters” is a brief encyclopedia for librarians."

What Really is Benchmarking?

2008-06-06T17:03:00.005-04:00

by Rana Sinha, Apr 10, 2008
Have you ever wondered what Benchmarking really means? Is it just management hype or jargon used by expensive consultants? Here is a short outline of Benchmarking as used in business organizations. ...
exxtract:
Different kinds of Benchmarking:
There are basically four different kinds of benchmarking:
>>Internal - Here benchmarking takes place inside an organisation, e.g. between departments or business units
>>Functional - Here benchmarking is done for similar processes within the same field or industry
>>Competitive - Benchmarking operations/processes and performance with competitors in the same field or market is conducted here
>>Generic - Here processes/operations and performance is compared between organisations of similar size in unrelated industries. continue reading

Who's tracking your health? Paging Dr. Internet

2008-05-25T00:06:00.006-04:00

IVOR TOSSELL, The Globe and Mail, May 23, 2008 [posted here with permission of the author]

Google, pursuing its strategy of monetizing omniscience, has launched a product that will track every bit of your health information. Everyone together now: Yikes!

Called Google Health, it seems destined to exacerbate the pent-up fears that underlie our increasing reliance on massive technology corporations. But the scariest thing about Google Health is how useful it looks like it will be. It's an oasis of sanity in the madness of health-care record-keeping that we know and loathe. But will its Googliness be enough to keep people away?

Following in the footsteps of other companies - including Microsoft, which launched a competing product called "HealthVault" - Google Health made its debut this week in the United States, though Canadians weren't barred from signing up.

The site offers a handful of linked services. First and foremost, it wants to be a storehouse for health information, everything from the names of conditions to the nitty-gritty of test results, including blood tests and imaging results. Users can input this information in one of two ways: They can plug it in by hand or by choosing options from Google's exhaustive lists, from "Aarskog syndrome" to "zits." But American users who signed up also discovered that Google Health not only lets them punch in their own test results, but import information directly from the handful of health-care networks and pharmacies that have partnered with them.

The service is simple and elegant, but more to the point, it highlights a glaring need. Too many of us are trapped in a nightmare where our medical records are scattered across the offices of every clinic and surgeon we've ever visited, instead of one central location.

Referrals are accompanied by faxed wads of paper, which may or may not contain all the relevant information, and occasionally get lost in the shuffle. Patients have become used to starting from scratch with every new physician they see, sometimes needlessly duplicating tests.

The ramifications for quality of care are enormous, and in emergency situations, digital record-keeping can go from convenience to life-saver. The upshot of the present systems is that if you want to guarantee that results will be there when they're needed, it's best to keep copies for yourself - which is something the system discourages, too.

That's not to say that things aren't improving. A patchwork of digital-record initiatives have sprung up across the country, though many of them work in isolation. Many clinics and hospital networks, for instance, do keep electronic medical records, but don't freely share them with other providers on account of privacy concerns.

Most promising of all, Alberta and Prince Edward Island already have province-wide electronic record-keeping systems that store records centrally for each patient, giving them the same kind of one-stop access to their records that Google is offering.

According to Richard Alvarez, executive director of Canadian Health Infoway, a non-profit organization that's spearheading the drive for electronic records in Canada, the rest of the country should follow suit over the next couple of years.

Even if government steps up to the plate, however, private services like Microsoft's and Google's will still be around. In fact, Infoway is working with them to see that their products will be able to talk to the systems that are being built in Canada.

The question is whether Canadians - who have never had a huge fondness for privately delivered health care - will entrust their most sensitive secrets to a company that's made a fortune by selling ads on cat videos.

In time, we might. Rather than being rendered obsolete by province-wide electronic systems, the likes of Google Health could remain a useful complement.

As Alvarez suggests, snowbirds might find it useful for keeping their health information together when they travel beyond their province's borders. And Google Health does things that austere government systems might not, like link to extensive reference pages that detail various medical conditions.

By the same token, Google's servers are located in the United States, and as such are subject to the Patriot Act, which can see data handed over to the authorities. (Though the idea that U.S. authorities might actually wait for legal sanction before intercepting data seems increasingly quaint.) And, as American observers have pointed out, Google claims that it isn't subject to the U.S. laws that regulate the handling of health records.

All of which will likely give a lot of people pause before spilling their guts to Google's servers. But in time, others might realize that online privacy has always been a bit of a mirage, especially where Google is involved.

Anyone who's spent a morning searching Google for a health concern has already told that company what they've got - or worse, what they think they've got. And it's been shown that an anonymous user's identity can easily be deduced from what they search for.

Google Health, then, is a test of how comfortable we are confronting the reality of omniscient, inscrutable databases. Odds are, Dr. Internet already has your chart. Will you own up to it?

Microsoft kills Book Search project

2008-05-24T00:54:00.004-04:00

From Microsoft's Live Search blog:
"Today we informed our partners that we are ending the Live Search Books and Live Search Academic projects and that both sites will be taken down next week. Books and scholarly publications will continue to be integrated into our Search results, but not through separate indexes."

Full blog posting -- Live Search : Book search winding down

info courtesy: Bernie Sloan

The difference between cooperation and coordination

2008-05-10T19:33:00.004-04:00

After writing our paper on collaboration there were several things we wanted to explore that just wouldn't fit into the original work. We are interested in when it's unhelpful to collaborate, examples of when collaboration has failed, and how collaboration differs from similar terms such as co-operation and co-ordination. continue reading

See also on the same shelf:
A Definition of Collaborative vs Cooperative Learning, Ted Panitz (1996)

Cyber Worship Resource of the Week is Church of Ontology

2008-03-23T22:50:00.016-04:00

Here is a sample from inside the Book: Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives--full of resources, and KM accessories, that will facilitate building bridges in a Multifaith society. Table of Contents / Reviews

Chapter 4. 'Navigating the Deep Sacred Space via Experiences of the Wise':
Resource of the Week is Church of Ontology

Ontology means the science of Oneness or all being. We are a small church located about 1 hour north west of Asheville in the Spring Creek community, situated near Luck and Trust, NC. Our church is under the guidance of ascended masters and dedicated to world peace, spiritual upliftment, and inner evolution... continue

Order the book with Publisher:

My book Talk
More in this Weekly series @ Multifaith Information Gateway

Push vs. Pull: Trends in Retail Shopping

2008-03-20T00:34:00.011-04:00

Something I read in this month’s issue of Fast Company resonated with me:
"When employees become sharers of information, instead of sellers of products, customers respond." (Full article: Magic Shop by Alex Frankel)
Once a consumer enters the door of a brick and mortar store or navigates to a webpage, they don’t want to be sold to. At that point in the buying process, buyers are looking for one of 2 things: more information or a quick and easy way to execute their purchase.
I shop most often at stores that let me peruse indefinitely, undisturbed… but who also have knowledgeable people available for those times when I have a question. Like IKEA, Barnes & Noble, LL Bean, and most online stores.

<<>>see on the same shelf: Pull and Push Communications: Ranganathan's Laws re-interpreted

KAMP is a BarCamp for Knowledge Management

2008-03-02T00:35:00.008-05:00

Excellent program management, using the Web 2.0 tools for the event, 24th Nov 2007, Bangalore, India. See details

Who's blogging?
Post-event Blogging

Google Sites: What's all the fuss?

2008-02-28T16:24:00.013-05:00

Before you read the fussy part, can you find the Way: Where is the link to this new tool @ Google??? News stories don't point to the link, either. Google has added a JotSpot, as well!!!

Aha: You need to go an extra mile to find, here is the link:

News story posted by Dan FarberToday on CNET
The launch of Google Sites is like the opening of a movie or play. The critics (including myself) feast on it, churning out copy and opinions as to whether Google Sites is a Microsoft SharePoint killer or merely the McDonald's of wikis, with more nutritional value than the venerable fast food burger and no cost.

Researching with Wikipedia: The Experiences of Experienced Librarians

2008-02-23T01:53:00.019-05:00

A quote from 'Many hands make crappy work' New Jack Librarian's blog: "Its largely unsaid, but Wikipedia is thought to improve by means of a strange evolution-like process...
1. Anyone, irrespective of expertise in or even familiarity with the topic, can submit an article and it will be published.
2. Anyone, irrespective of expertise in or even familiarity with the topic, can edit that article, and the modifications will stand until further modified.
Then comes the crucial and entirely faith-based step:
3. Some unspecified quasi-Darwinian process will assure that those writings and editings by contributors of greatest expertise will survive; articles will eventually reach a steady state that corresponds to the highest degree of accuracy." see also: Read about Griefers. Then be one
This post is based on what was discussed by some participants of the collib-l@ala.org forum. Many voiced their concerns, happiness, and / or tragic experiences, and came up with solutions that would probably work-well. It is hoped that some of these annecdotes will be useful in the area of evidence-based librarianship. Otherwise, are we willing to agree with some who say: today's librarians do "less complex work."

Following is some of that discussion reproduced with the permission of the respective voices.
"I warn against citing Wikipedia as the credibility of the author is, by definition, unknown." Michael Simmons, Reference & Instruction Librarian, James Addison Jones Library, 815 West Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27401

Robert Vega:

I'd like to say that I do everything in my power to scare students away from Wikipedia in the instruction sessions I lead.

I do make it very clear to the students that no resource is perfect; there will always be the occasional error. But, this is entirely different from Wikipedia, where "errors" are often intentional. Look at the need to lock controversial topics such as "The Holocaust," "abortion," and "evolution." I tell my students that any information they glean from Wikipedia for academic use must be confirmed in another, more reliable resource. So, why in the world would they double their work? I've had one or two pro-Wikipedia students respond that the errors are caught and corrected. Well, sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. But, what if a student uses the article prior to an error (intentional or not) being corrected? Yes, there are occasional errors in professional/academic encyclopedias and other resources. But, these errors are rarely -- if ever -- intentional. If a student uses a reputable resource such as Britannica or Academic Search Premier and there is an error in the article, that is not the student's fault. But, if a student uses an article from Wikipedia, which is in no sense a reputable source, then the majority of blame is on the student (and will no doubt be placed as such by their professor). I tell my students that if they're curious about the history of the yo-yo, or want to learn more about Darth Vader, then feel free to use Wikipedia. But, if they need the information to be the slightest bit reliable or in any way scholarly, then never go near Wikipedia. I strongly feel that just because students are familiar with a source and therefore comfortable using it, that doesn't mean we should teach it in our instruction sessions. I am surprised at how many librarians are so open to using Wikipedia. I don't understand why so many librarians countenance the use of such an unreliable (sometimes intentionally so) source.

I disagree entirely that the logical conclusion here is to scare students away from search engines. Search engines are creatures altogether different from an amateurish, unreliable encyclopedia anyone can create articles for or alter in, unless of course said articles have been locked because too many people have already been altering them maliciously.

We do indeed provide guidance when it comes to search engines. But, I think it's entirely within our bailiwick to do our best to steer students away from unreliable, mostly useless resources such as Wikipedia. I suppose if one wants to show students an example of a very bad resource, then Wikipedia serves a purpose. But, why not concentrate on providing them with good resources?

With regard to instruction sessions, I have lost count of the number of subject faculty who have thanked me for reinforcing what they already tell their students with regard to Wikipedia. One professor, in fact, told me outright that he would have serious reservations with regard to bringing in a class for instruction if he knew that Wikipedia was being mentioned as a viable information resource. He tells his students right up front that any paper citing Wikipedia will be returned ungraded and won't be accepted until all uses of Wikipedia are removed.

Robert Daniel Vega
Reference Services Librarian
Christopher Center for Library and Information ResourcesValparaiso UniversityValparaiso, IN 46383Ph: 219-464-5023
Fax: 219-464-5972

Garet Nelson

In answer to ... question -- I guess the biggest difference between Google, et. al. and Wikipedia would be that Wikipedia professes a certain authority, while most people know information gathered from Google is kind of a toss up.

This is an interesting discussion and I can see both sides: On one hand there is good evidence of Wikipedia’s unreliability (i.e. the well-documented John Siegenthaler and Diebold Co. incidents as well as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales posting false biographical information about himself.) Wales , by the way, earned some startup money for Wikipedia by running a porn portal called “Bomis.” And then there was Massachussets Rep. Martin Meehan whose staff was caught deleting unflattering information from a biographical site about him, and on and on – so many that someone had to invent the “Wikiscanner” to root out false information posted by companies and individuals. (I urge you to read “Wikipedia and Beyond.” By: Mangu-Ward, Katherine, Reason, 00486906, Jun 2007, Vol. 39, Issue 2.)

On the other hand – Wikipedia seems like a grand venture linking vast numbers of bits of knowledge contributed by millions of individuals in the quest for truth and wisdom. I use it a lot, but always seek verification from other sources and that’s what I advise my students to do as well. I also tell them it’s a good place to start, but like any encyclopedia, it is not an appropriate source for college-level work.

In the end, I hope Wikipedia succeeds with providing great information, but am pessimistic because it is falling prey to vandals and greed.

Garet Nelson, Director
Samuel Read Hall Library
Lyndon State College
Lyndonville, VT 05851
( 802.626.6446

Wendy Knickerbocker

A year or so ago, I decided to learn about Wikipedia by contributing to and significantly expanding a short article. The subject of the article (a person) was one about which I have written a scholarly (and published) book. The person, dead for some time, is still of interest to many people, since he was a religious figure. To make along story short, "my" article was rather quickly hijacked by a person who has contributed and edited a great many Wikipedia articles having to do with Christianity, and he (I've always assumed it was a"he") has a clear conservative bias.

We argued through the discussion section for some months, generally about how this figure should be presented. He had enjoyed some fame before he became religious, and over the course of his life he became a cultural hero of sorts; I wanted to present that part of his influence. Nope; only the subject's theology and conservative credentials were important to the hijacker. Over and over I had to refer the hijacker to the source literature to back up something I had written that he disliked; it was apparent that he had not read agreat deal about the person before then. Eventually I just got worn out, and I gave up and declared defeat in the "edit war." Since Wikipedia is anonymous, I never revealed that I was the author of one of the books that I cited, and the hijacker never revealed his identity either.

I remain displeased with that Wikipedia entry. Although it is lengthy and there is a lot of good information in it, there is also extraneous material that doesn't contribute to our understanding of the subject, and a very important facet of the subject's life isn't discussed. I don't consider the article to be as useful a presentation of his life, influence, and importance in American culture and history as it could be.

An article can be long and reasonably well written and still not beas informative and/or as objective as we assume encyclopedia articles should be. There are Wikipedia contributors who are bullies, and there are contributors who have an ax to grind. (Perhaps I have an ax to grind, but I'm not much of a bully.) Although it is possible for anyone to correct an inaccuracy, it is also possible for those corrections to be deleted or corrected again. Inaccuracies are in the eye of the beholder.

The moral of this story is......Democracy is a messy business. Town meetings are great political instruments, but the discourse is messy. Caveat emptor.

About Wendy Knickerbocker

Jack Kessler:

Wendy Knickerbocker,
Your good story of misadventures with Wikipedia echoes my own experience.

Fan that I am, I first dipped my toe into the Wikipedia morass in order to test it. I set up several articles, and so as you did I quickly learned my limits regarding both technique and my chosen topics. Only they were wrong about the topics: I did know a great deal about those...

Like you, then, I discovered several things about democracy. First, I learned that Wikipedia is _not_ one. There even is an article asserting and explaining that, on Wikipedia itself.

Also I was reminded, several times brutally, that pure democracy is not necessarily a good thing, that republics can be better, that separation of powers and tripartite government and regulatory bureaucracy all are needed, that all systems require transparency -- and that Wikipedia neither addresses nor even acknowledges any of the above, yet.

That's all for my next article on the Wikipedia effort, the one I'll write when I've calmed down from my anger at anonymous know-nothing nuts and meddling power-mad administrators who messed me up the last time, there...

I encourage you very much to write up and publish your own Wikipedia critiques as well, Wendy, relating and elaborating upon the frustrations you describe below: if you get one done please send me the cite, as I'd like to read it.

But the pressing issue for you and me and most of us now, I think, is how to define and grapple with the Wikipedia beast as it now presents itself, current warts and all. It is extraordinarily useful, and extraordinarily well-used: we need to understand it.

One day, or perhaps over time, we all may have a chance to improve it, to alter its direction: that is Jimmy Wales' ultimate hope, I believe, and if so I share it -- Wikipedia appears to be growing beyond the size and scope of anything he or any small group might control, like so many other things about the Internet, so perhaps We The Users ultimately will run it after all. Democracy, then.

In the meantime, though, that's not it. Nothing democratic or really otherwise, in the way you and I and others have been roughly handled, by the current -- interim, maybe -- Wikipedia administrative structure or lack thereof.

So what exactly happened, to us and to others, and by whom was it done, and with what authorities? Wikipedia needs many articles on such questions, if it is to improve as it grows: I hope you will write some.

To just sit & stare, though, or to deny the very existence of the rough & slouching & new Wikipedia beast -- as some in the information (!) professions apparently do -- to me seems at best unprofessional. Librarians, and professors in all disciplines, are in the information professions: students should learn about all information sources -- if only to criticize and even dismiss them, perhaps, but at least they should learn -- and to me it seems incumbent upon librarians and professors to teach them.

And to try them out... Just the way you did, Wendy: homo faber, homo ludens -- try out authoring a Wikipedia page or two and get some real-life / hands-on experience with the thing, play with it a bit -- _then_ a student can sit back and criticize, maybe, but not until.

I bet that Valparaiso prof never really had used Wikipedia himself, just heard about it from others and grandly diss'ed the idea en principe. I once tried showing the then-very-new Internet to a group of very-grand professors, by encouraging them to sit down at the keyboards and try it out themselves: most did eagerly -- professors are curious types, usually -- but one particularly-haughty individual drew himself up and announced, "Personally I do not type, I employ *staff* for that..."

Caveat lector,
Jack Kessler, About Jack:
FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
personal experiment, in the creation of large-
scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.

Bottomline: I myself, a Wiki victim, and a pessimist in dealing with WIKIPEDIA (i.e., embeded with tonnes of space: open-for-all and free-for-all), and yet a compassionate disseminator.

Managing Information Overload: News and Views

2008-02-22T13:05:00.000-05:00

News Media @ CBC

CBC Sparks transparency Eye Weekly, Canada - 18 Feb 2008,
Today on the Scroll: CBC Radio tries covering technology in a style that fails to shock and appall its existing listenership while doing double duty in earbuds everywhere... But it’s a constant battle against information overload. I’ve got Facebook fatigue now — at some point it becomes, 'No, I don’t want to download another ... continue reading
Information Overload, Submitted by Jesse Hirsh on Mon, 02/04/2008. [He frequently appears on CBC radio]
Information overload is a growing problem that most of us face each and every day. Email, phone calls, voice mail, facebook notifications, and that doesn't include the endless flow of spam. However there's no reason all this constant communication can't be tamed and organized so that we don't feel the stress and anxiety associated with being under a waterfall of information... continue reading
CBC Radio show adds a wiki, Mathew Ingram, January 23, 2008 at 1:22 PM EST

Information overload? Digital data could exceed storage space by 2010 posted Last Updated: Tuesday, March 6, 2007, The Associated Press at CBC radio: CBC.ca
...The report, assembled by the technology research firm IDC, sought to account for all the ones and zeros that make up photos, videos, e-mails, web pages, instant messages, phone calls and other digital content zipping around. The researchers also assumed that on average, each digital file gets replicated three times. continue reading
IDEAS-Schedule... The Greek philosopher Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living; butwhat does that mean in an age of media saturation and information overload. ... continue reading from cbc.ca
Miscellany:
Little apostrophe confounds Information Age SEAN ODRISCOLL , Toronto Star, Feb. 22, 2008. It can stop you from voting, destroy your dental appointments, make it difficult to rent a car or book a flight - it's the little apostrophe.

HOW MUCH INFORMATION 2003? This study was produced by faculty and students at the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley.
Managing Information Overload Blog
Much more @ google's Directory: Knowledge Management > Information Overload

Wikipedia and Wikiscanner in the Newsroom

2008-02-21T22:37:00.002-05:00

WikiScanner: List anonymous wikipedia edits from interesting ...
The much discussed list of anonymous edits on Wikipedia from well known organizations. wikiscanner.virgil.gr/
Spin Doctor: Matt Withers, ic Wales, United Kingdom - 10 Feb 2008 [But somebody in the Wales Office has been busy on the site, as a quick search on the website Wikiscanner, which reveals who has been editing what, shows. ...]
Anonymous Wikipedia editors caught red handed Step forward Diebold, Sony, Fox News... By Andrew Thomas: Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Team 4: Govt. Employees Wasting Time Editing Wikipedia PittsburghChannel.com, PA - 1 Feb 2008, Wikiscanner, the Web site that allows you to see who's editing Wikipedia, will tell you the Internet provider responsible for the change but not the ...
'Full Frontal Scrutiny' Web Site Exposes the Work of Front GroupsPR Newswire (press release), NY - 29 Jan 2008For another way to look under the hood of a Wikipedia entry, try using the Wikiscanner, to see who has been editing the encyclopedia. ...
Think You're Successfully Flying Under Google's Radar? Think Again. Search Engine Land, CT - 24 Jan 2008The Wikiscanner should serve as a lesson in how clever manipulations done in the past can eventually bite you in the backside. ...

Wiki's Other News stories:

Chinese Professor Sues Google, Yahoo Over Search ExclusionSlashdot - 8 Feb 2008The leading alternative to Google in China is Baidu.com (Wikipedia article) [wikipedia.org], which really acts as little more than a state-sanctioned ..
Citing Wikipedia American Journalism Review, MD - 29 Jan 2008 [see also on the same shelf and aisle: Copyrights and Copywrongs - Responsibility of Media and Academia, Wikipedia and Academia Hit News Headlines Again & Citing Sources - Electronic, Print, etc. ]
Wikipedia in the NewsroomAmerican Journalism Review, MD - 29 Jan 2008
Wikipedia editors discussing PR firms participation - Rules of Engagement in Social Media Commons, August 29, 2006 Filed under Wikis, PR, Ethics

Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast -- Resource Shelf Blog Re-visited

2008-02-02T10:58:00.001-05:00

Are you reading this the News Headlines?

Internet: a wake-up call:
'Dawn' stresses the importance of devoting resources to protect and maintain functional Internet service, @ AsiaMedia

Do you have an idea of tools that are for free and help you support the Business intelligence / competitive intelligence. These tools are mostly in the invisble Web & / or hidden Web & / or deep Web. And, some of these are:

The Internet Traffic Report: monitors the flow of data around the world. It then displays a value between zero and 100. Higher values indicate faster and more reliable connections.

Internet service providers' performance

Telephone Directories / Whitepages

Newspapers, esp online versions that are free---that do not stay up indefinitely (don't forget the fact: Newspapers Are Dead Scrolls)

Databases containing laws, government regulations, forms, and fact sheets; plus: OurOntario.ca Government Documents Collection

Bottomline: Don't forget the basics of using this free ride (Internet resources need to be used with the sensitivity and care: look for evidence of bias; look for the source of the material--original or verifiable; material is current; etc.)

Choose Databases-- courtesy Ebsco Host: Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) / Teacher Reference Center

Much more of this hidden ... Web is indexed at Gary's Resource Shelf

The ComputerWorld Canada View: Search no more

2008-01-28T11:41:00.000-05:00

By: ComputerWorld Canada staff (25 Jan 2008)
Out of nowhere, it seems, the news has been full of enterprise search-related stories, including the acquisition of long-time player Fast by Microsoft and the release of user- and human-powered search engines like Wikia Search and Mahalo.
This stealth ninja of applications could blindside a lot of IT managers. It has a lot of trendy aspects — from user-driven content to proper information management to business input — and also requires both tact and cunning. Enterprise search involves the three players — the IT manager, the brass and the users — in a deadly game with a lot of pitfalls, but there are a few ways to get out alive.. continue reading

HBS Cases: How Wikipedia Works (or Doesn't)

2008-01-19T14:42:00.000-05:00

For HBS professor Andrew McAfee, Wikipedia is a surprisingly high-quality product. But when his concept of "Enterprise 2.0" turned up on the online encyclopedia one day—and was recommended for deletion—McAfee and colleague Karim R. Lakhani knew they had the makings of an insightful case study on collaboration and governance in the digital world.

HBS professor Andy McAfee had his doubts about Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia created and maintained by volunteers. "I just didn't think it could yield a good outcome or a good encyclopedia. But I started consulting it and reading the entries, and I said, 'This is amazing.' "
So when the concept of "Enterprise 2.0"—a term coined by McAfee on the general idea of how Web 2.0 technologies can be used in business—popped up on Wikipedia, McAfee beamed. "I was bizarrely proud when my work rose to the level of inclusion in Wikipedia." Then, however, a turn of fortune took place. A "Wikipedian" nominated the article for deletion as unworthy of the encyclopedia's standards. McAfee thought, "It's not even good enough to get on Wikipedia?" continue reading

info courtesy: Wikipedia Enterprise 2.0 Story by Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!]

The Tacit Knowledge of Team Leadership

2008-01-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

Posted by Sam Marshall @ Intellectual Capital Punishment

Don't let the title of
Towards an Ecological Theory of Sustainable Knowledge Networks by Jeff Conklin, et al put you off. Its full of insight about project teams (rather than knowledge networks in general). One thing caught my eye:

"The process of team formation is complex. Leaders have tacit knowledge about how to move a team through a process, and they access that knowledge in face to face meetings. When in virtual collaborations, they don't have that, e.g. they may not recognize that they don't have alignment about team goals"

Note that the barrier isn’t lack of knowledge, but the absence of the stimulus needed to retrieve it. The dynamic of the face-to-face interaction is what triggers the intuitive manager to take the right course. He may only sense subliminally the lack of alignment, but he'll intuitively do what it takes to correct that. Few managers would explicitly have a process with a "check alignment" gate, but they all know it must be done. Even bumping into a team member and subsequent chit chat can lead to an explicit awareness that they need information you hadn't thought to pass on. continue reading

Semantic-Web-Based Knowledge Management

2007-11-18T17:32:00.000-05:00

From IEEE Internet Computing, Sept./Oct. 2007
John Davies • British Telecommunications
Miltiadis Lytras • University of Patras, Greece
Amit P. Sheth • Wright State University

Hundreds of millions of users can now access several billion documents on the Web, and even larger data sets reside in organizations’ intranets and Web-accessible databases (the so-called deep Web). As the amount of available data continues to grow rapidly, it’s increasingly difficult for users to find, organize, access, and maintain the information they require.
At the same time, the notion of the Semantic Web1 promises to make Web-accessible data more amenable to machine processing. The Semantic Web is about labeling (annotating) information so that computer systems (and humans) can process it more meaningfully. The semantics underlying such annotations usually come from ontologies, which encapsulate agreement among information creators and users with help from common nomenclature and the use of rich knowledge representation. Just as the Semantic Web (also called Web 3.0) is beginning to empower and energize content on the Web, the underlying principles and technologies can energize and enhance the long-standing knowledge-management discipline. In this special issue of IC, we’re particularly interested in the new possibilities the Semantic Web affords for improved knowledge management...
Trends in knowledge management... Semantic-based knowledge management... continue reading
See also in this issue - IEEE Internet Computing, Sept./Oct. 2007:
The five articles selected for this special issue summarize our view of the Semantic Web’s strategic role toward more effective knowledge management. They provide sound propositions for supporting knowledge management at several levels. At the individual and artifact level, they highlight the concepts of automatic metadata extraction and service-oriented metadata management; at the group and organizational level, they promote the significance of peer-to-peer networks; and at the interorganizational level, they investigate ontologies’ significance.
In “Requirements and Services for Metadata Management,” the authors identify general requirements for metadata management and describe a simple model and service to address these requirements, with specific focus on RDF metadata.
In “Extracting Relevant Attribute Values for Improved Search,” the authors propose a new kind of metadata—relevant values—that provides a synthesized view of an attribute’s values directly extracted from the data.
“GridVine: An Infrastructure for Peer Information Management” describes a semantic overlay infrastructure based on a peer-to-peer access structure. In GridVine, users can query heterogeneous but semantically related information sources transparently using iterative query reformulation. The authors discuss their experiences using GridVine as a substrate for sharing semantic information.
“Using Semantic Web Technologies to Analyze Learning Content” demonstrates how Semantic Web technologies can improve the state of the art in learning environments and bridge the gap between students and learning content authors or teachers. The authors' ontological framework helps formalize the notion of learning object context.
Finally, in “Harvesting Wiki Consensus: Using Wikipedia Entries as Vocabulary for Knowledge Management,” the authors show that standard wikis are suitable platforms for the collaborative development of vocabularies that can be used to annotate documents. They prove that Wikipedia entries’ URIs are surprisingly reliable identifiers for conceptual entities.
The latest Semantic Web developments and insights in knowledge management challenge the new era of semantic-based knowledge-management systems. Semantic Web tools and applications contribute significantly to knowledge management’s performance, providing a definition for flexible reference mechanisms to knowledge objects and knowledge contributors;7
integration of knowledge creation and use;8,9
integral human involvement in information- and knowledge-management activities;10 and
a definition for and the exploitation of social networks, including social activities and context.2,11 continue reading
On the same shelf & aisle: A. Sheth and S. Stephens, “Semantic Web: Technologies and Applications for the Real World,” World Wide Web Conf. tutorial, 2007. (Also available at http://knoesis.wright.edu/library/presentations/WWW2007-Sheth-Stephens-Tutorial-Final.ppt.)

Do Knowledge Managers Really Want to Share Knowledge?—Sharing as a Mating Game

2007-11-09T00:29:00.001-05:00

Posted by Patrick Lambe:
I’ve had a creeping suspicion for some time that knowledge managers are fine about encouraging others to share knowledge, but that dictum doesn’t apply to them. In my role as President of iKMS I am always trying to get knowledge managers to share, and the ones who do are in the brave minority - even then, they tend to be far more reluctant to share in a public forum than in a private one. They have reasons, of course: lack of experience and confidence, lack of clear progress and successful results to show, restrictions by employers. But in such a young profession, with such instability of career progression and continuity of KM staff, with extensive inexperience among managers who are responsible for KM, sharing is about the only way to get access to experience faster. The obsession with success is an illusion born of that inexperience. We learn fastest through examining lack of success, and the more mature professions such as medicine and law and engineering recognise that. They have rituals for anatomising failure, and it’s not for fun, it’s because that’s how they learn and survive. Continue reading the Guru's words Categories: Communities, Expertise, Ignorance Management, KM Competencies, KM Critiqued, Knowledge Sharing Permalink

Librarians as Knowledge Managers - Profiles of emerging leaders

2007-11-05T11:54:00.010-05:00

NB. This page will be continuously updated (last update Dec 13, 2011). Bookmark it. And, if you know a KM Librarain, send me his / her profile, and it will be posted here.

Who's in this room:
Prasannna Mnazhiyil Kesavan; Vandana Ranjan; ; Uma Narayan ; Vijaya C. Menon; Deb Rash; Bhojaraju D Gunjal; Susan Braun; Ben Skinner; Ginny Browne, Karen Huffman Dennie Heye.

Prasannna Manazhiyil Kesavan: INFORMATION OFFICER- Motorola India Electronics, Ltd. (MIEL) Hyderabad. (April 2000 to the present).
"My strength lies in maintaining a fine balance between being a user friendly support based on sound professional foundations. I am known for conceptualizing library & non-library initiatives and cultivating a holisitic work culture; as well as leveraging maximum knowledge and support from varied resources to help make informed decisions and implementing initiatives with maximum efficiency. I am interested in contributing to Elearning / Training Management, Enterprise Information Management, Facilities Management, Team building and corporate social commitments. My other interests are in the fields of Digital Library, Content Management and Knowledge Management."

Bhojaraju D Gunjal lives in Bangalore, India and serves as the Assistant Consultant (KM Practice) at TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) - one of the world’s leading information technology companies. He has more than eight years of professional experience in Knowledge/Content Management & Library Administration in IT Sector. [source]

Vandana Ranjan is Knowledge Management Specialist at Bates WorldWide. Prior to that she worked at the Brooklyn Public Library's fast paced Telephone Reference Center.
Vandy has several years of experience in reference and library management. She worked as a solo librarian in India and built, from the ground, up, two successful libraries -- one academic library and one special library.
She came to the United States in pursuit of online information retrieval skills and received her second Master's in Library Science from Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
In her spare time she enjoys nature-gazing, biking, photography and classical music. [source: sla.org]

Mrs. Uma Narayan, Currently: Board of Directors, International Association of Law Libraries (2007- to date); Chief Librarian, Honourable Judges Library, Bombay High Court, India (1998- to date)
Previously: Knowledge Manager, Nishith Desai Associates: Legal and Tax Counselling Worldwide, India (2007).
Was invited by the U.S. Department of State to participate in the Individual International Visitor Programme in June-July 2003. Was awarded Professional Development Bursary by International Association of Law Libraries to attend their 23rd Annual Course in International Law Librarianship in August, 2004 at Helsinki, Finland. Was awarded Commonwealth Professional Development Fellowship tenable at Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London between January 6, 2006 and April 5, 2006. Was also awarded Visiting Fellowship in Law Librarianship by Institute of Advanced Legal studies, University of London for the period of Commonwealth Fellowship.

Ben Skinner: After a first degree in mathematics Ben moved into librarianship, working in the universities at Bath and Salford and gaining his Masters at MMU.

Moving to Brighton in 2004, Ben took up the post of Evidence-Based Knowledge Management Librarian at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. This role focuses on the running of a unique information service aimed at supporting evidence-based practice (EBP) throughout the local trusts.

As part of this service Ben has taught both critical appraisal skills and literature searching for EBP, initially to NHS staff and more recently for the Brighton & Sussex Medical School. [source]
Vijaya C. Menon is the Knowledge Management Head - Grey South Asia at Grey Global Group, Mumbai, India. An experience spanning 15 years, Vijaya started her career with University & College libraries and changed streams to manage corporate libraries. Her previous work experience includes positions at J. Walter Thompson, & Arthur Andersen (now Ernst & Young) where she worked as a solo librarian.
Vijaya holds a B.A. in Economics, Bachelor in Library Science and a Diploma in Marketing & Advertising Communications from the University of Mumbai. She is currently pursuing her MLIS degree from the University of Aberystwyth, Wales via Distance Learning. Vijaya has been a member of SLA for the last 6 months.
Leading a team of two, her work at Grey includes overseeing collection development at all branches in South Asia, handling industry information queries & disseminating advertising & marketing data. Currently she is involved in setting up the library intranet at Grey.
Outside of work Vijaya enjoys gardening, exercising, traveling and watching movies. [source: SLA.ORG] see also Award

Deb Rash joined Iconoculture as their Knowledge Manager in May 2006.
Previously, Deb was the Knowledge Manager at Carmichael Lynch. Her prior advertising career included working as a media planner at several agencies in Minneapolis.
She graduated in May 2004 with an MLIS from Dominican University/College of St. Catherine where she has returned as an Adjunct Instructor to team teach the class "Issues in Special Libraries." Deb has held the Membership Chair position for the Advertising & Marketing Division and Secretary and Continuing Education Chair positions for the Minnesota Chapter. She was a recipient of the MN Chapter�s Quality in Action Award in 2004.

Deb earned her BA in English from Carleton College. Outside of work, her passions are baseball and running. source]
Susan Braun, Manager, Lauritsen Library Research Services, The Aerospace Institute
{picture/ details awaited}
see also: [il2007] Librarians as Knowledge Managers

Ginny Browne is OCLC's Knowledge Management librarian. She runs OCLC's internal website, called C-Web, and manages internal knowledge transfer. Ginny also is one of the three editors of this nifty little glossary that we have behind our firewall (sorry) that defines library jargon, acronyms, initialisms, and, especially, OCLC-speak. (...) For her day job, Ginny works in our Library and Information Center, and serves as the recorder for the Members Council's State Academic Libraries group. [source]

Karen Huffman,
Vice President, KMPro DC Chapter; SLA member since 1999. Currently a member of the Washington, DC/SLA Chapter and Knowledge Management division
National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C., 1985 to Present. Information Systems & Technology: Senior Applications & Database Administrator (June 2008 to Present); Libraries & Information Services: Manager of Knowledge Initiatives (March 2005 to May 2008); Senior Librarian (April 2002 to March 2005); and Systems Specialist (April 1998 to March 2002). Administrative Services division: Administrative Assistant with managerial responsibilities (September 1994 to April 1998);

Dennie Heye is global knowledge manager for the Human Resources IT division at Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands. He has a LIS degree and a university degree in marketing, which he thinks makes a strong combination of skills to succeed in an organisation. He has worked in different library roles in Deloitte & Touche and Royal Dutch Shell, most recently as library portfolio manager for scientific & technical electronic sources and library innovator.
As knowledge manager for the Human Resources IT division he is responsible to define and implement a strategy covering the technical, content and organizational aspects of knowledge management.
He has written two books: "Characteristics of the Successful Twenty-First Century Information Professional" and "obnoxious librarian from hades". You can read more about him at his website.

Digital pens more trouble than they're worth

2007-11-03T00:22:00.000-04:00

Oct 29, 2007 Robert Cribb Toronto Star
No matter how modern technology advances, our most ancient devices seem to remain with us.
And when it comes to the written word, that's a good thing.
Computerized writing devices that double as mini computers are an attempt to merge the primitive with the contemporary. continue reading

See also: Future Technology- Are digital pens something to write home about? "Saying that, it is hard to imagine how the convenience and portability of the pen could be bettered. Stuff a pen and notebook in your pocket and you can write a novel in a cafe or in the middle of a desert. The same is true of digital pens -- although you would need to carry a mobile phone to transmit the data to a storage device for processing later. In the future, though, it might be possible to store gigabytes' worth of text and image data in the pen itself. A development like that could see the (not so humble) pen living on for a further 5,000 years...

The long road towards subject guide 2.0

2007-10-26T22:42:00.000-04:00

By Meredith Farkas October 24, 2007
Here were some of the tools I looked at that seemed at least remotely feasible for me to take on:
Research Guide - From the University of Michigan. Wayne State also uses it. Looks good. Was updated in 2006. Was just concerned about how to set up the authentication stuff.
LibData - from the University of Minnesota. Hasn’t been updated since 2003 or 2004. library is not using it anymore. (update: looks like they are still using it; not sure where I got the idea that they weren’t)
Pirate Source - This one was developed at Eastern Carolina University, but is used at a bunch of libraries. The install script didn’t work so I had to create the tables and SQL queries manually. Had trouble trying to get it to work with PHP5. Not sure I like the initial page since people are inundated with choices and it may confuse some.
Subjects Plus - my personal fave. This is an enhancement of Pirate Source developed by Ithaca College. It’s great-looking though it takes up a lot of screen real estate. In the sidebar you can put info about the liaison, links to tutorials, call numbers and syndicated news feeds. I love the “Try these First” feature since students usually just want to know what the very best resources are. I still don’t love the initial page where they choose the guide and then have the option to select the types of resources they are looking for. It’s good to give people options, but sometimes less is more, I think. continue reading the full post

PS. Thanks to Calvin Truong, (http://www.prepme.com/) who informed me that Librarians as Knowledge Managers is listed by Meredith Farkas in her Favorite blogs - List and Commentary. See also: The Top 10 in making in her list.

Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder

2007-10-20T11:13:00.000-04:00

"Human beings are information omnivores: we are constantly collecting, labeling, and organizing data. But today, the shift from the physical to the digital is mixing, burning, and ripping our lives apart. In the past, everything had its one place--the physical world demanded it--but now everything has its places: multiple categories, multiple shelves. Simply put, everything is suddenly miscellaneous."

"In Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger charts the new principles of digital order that are remaking business, education, politics, science, and culture. In his rollicking tour of the rise of the miscellaneous, he examines why the Dewey decimal system is stretched to the breaking point, how Rand McNally decides what information not to include in a physical map (and why Google Earth is winning that battle), how Staples stores emulate online shopping to increase sales, why your children's teachers will stop having them memorize facts, and how the shift to digital music stands..." continue reading

The 18 commandments of Knowledge-conscious managers

2007-10-14T01:24:00.000-04:00

By Martin Dugage
"I like the idea that Knowledge Management is really about Knowledge Conscious Management, or to put it differently, Managing in the Knowledge Age as Professor Klaus North puts it. Incidentally, this explains why it is so difficult to introduce in 20th century organizations, which do not recognize mastery of knowledge flows as a source of competitive advantage.

The HR department of my company asked me to write a short memo and call it "the ten commandments of knowledge management". I thought it was a good idea -KM is a faith with its manifesto (e.g Cluetrain)-, but couldn't find enough time to reduce everything to ten commandments, and I have eighteen!

Let me know your thoughts...
1. Don't always challenge. Welcome one another's thoughts and opinions.
Rehabiliate casual conversations and information sharing as a normal business practice that should take at least half of your time. Don't expect to learn a lot just by challenging your staff.

2. Experiment constantly. Enlightened trial and error outperforms the planning of flawless intellects
You can, and must, plan ahead to know where you want to go, but then put the plan aside and focus on the first steps. Regularly stop to reflect on the action and repeat the process. click here to continue reading all the Eighteen Commandments ...

The roles of knowledge professionals for Knowledge Management

2007-10-11T00:58:00.000-04:00

65th IFLA Council and General
Conference

Bangkok, Thailand,
August 20 - August 28, 1999

Code Number: 042-115-E
Division Number: VII
Professional Group: Education and Training
Joint Meeting with: -
Meeting Number: 115
Simultaneous Interpretation: Yes

The roles of knowledge professionals for Knowledge Management

Seonghee Kim

Faculty of Library and Information Science
Dongduk Women's University
E-mail: shkim@www.dongduk.ac.kr

Abstract

Knowledge and Knowledge Management have emerged as a current 'hot issue' for many organizations. This paper starts by exploring the definition of knowledge and knowledge management. It then considers the partnership for knowledge management, and especially how librarians as knowledge professionals, users, and technology experts can contribute to effective knowledge management. It is concluded that knowledge professionals will have to move from the background to the center of the organizational stage, to jointly hold the reins of knowledge management. Read the Full article

On librarians as knowledge managers

2007-10-08T16:38:00.001-04:00

PS. This is a very good analysis of why and how of "librarians as knowledge managers" by Brad Hinton @ plain speaking:

"I had a fruitful discussion a short while ago about librarians and web 2.0, and research and knowledge management. In the same vein, a recent post from Dave Pollard with a link to his presentation on “librarians as knowledge managers” posits some interesting thoughts. Pollard presented at the recent Special Libraries Association conference in Denver, Colorade, USA. In the presentation slides, Pollard recognised the skill of the librarian to acquire, add value, store and disseminate information. He then asked whether librarians were any good at connecting, synthesising and applying their knowledge to the information they had researched..." continue reading

see also:

Sharon E. Herbert, Librarians: best knowledge managers for our new world: From the b.eye Business Information Network, Dr. Ramon C. Barquin has an informative article about the role that modern librarians can play in the brave new information world.
Sheila Pantry, and Peter Griffiths, Librarians or Knowledge Managers? What’s in a Name, or is there a Real Difference? Business Information Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, 102-109 (2003)
Priti Jain, An empirical study of knowledge management in academic libraries in East and Southern Africa, Library Review, 2007, 56: 5, pp. 377 - 392
[ppt] Dave Pollard, Librarians as Knowledge Managers: The View from the Executive Suite SLA Annual Conference, June 6, 2007
Cathie Koina, Librarians are the ultimate knowledge managers?
The Australian Library Journal, Manuscript received July 2002
[pdf] D. Gayatri, Opportunities for Librarians/Information Managers in managing explicit knowledge in the internet era
Working Woman Prediction: Knowledge Managers Rise, Librarians Fall, Staff -- Library Journal, 2/12/1999
Librarians as Knowledge Managers, Literature Survey - Trends and Prospects

Relationship of KM with other functions in an organization

2007-10-06T16:03:00.000-04:00

Interesting insights on holistic approach to knowledge management, as well an integrated perspective that is within the framework of an organizational culture, is presented by Sujatha Das @ Learning & Knowledge Center

Knowledge Audit: Is it Necessary for Your Organization?

2007-10-01T06:47:00.000-04:00

KnowGenesis is a freely available, international, scholarly journal, dedicated to making accessible the results of research across a wide range of information-related disciplines under Technical Communication. KnowGenesis publishes both referred papers and working papers in the fields of technical communication, documentation, information science, information and technology management, information systems and information policy.

Read the
Panel Discussion on " Knowledge Audit: Is it Necessary for Your Organization?" Led by Ginu George

PS. To access the journal online, you'll need your login ID and password.
For FREE registration, visit the registration page
(http://www.knowgenesis.net/journal/index.php?
journal=IJTC&page=user&op=register) or e-mail your registration
request to editorinchief@knowgenesis.org.

NB. Panelists: Prof. A. Neelameghan, Dr. L. J. Haravu, Mr. Bhojaraju D Gunjal, Mr. Ginu George, and Dr. Mohamed Taher

A pay wall falls, and the Web is watching

2007-09-24T11:56:00.000-04:00

MEDIA: NYTIMES.COM ABANDONS SUBSCRIPTION MODEL
GRANT ROBERTSON
MEDIA REPORTER
September 24, 2007
They are among the world's most influential newspapers when it comes to setting the news agenda. But a push by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to abandon their subscription websites may now influence a broad - and irreversible shift - across the newspaper industry itself. continue reading Globe and Mail, Canada

See also Digg.com's Shelf and aisle: News » World & Business » Business & Finance

Digital divide revisited

2007-09-15T14:21:00.000-04:00

Which is mightier, the pencil or the cellphone? U of T prof favours old-fashioned note-taking, bans camera phone shots of overheads, blackboards
Louise Brown, Education Reporter, Sep 14, 2007, Toronto Star
Forget film festival paparazzi – students' cellphone cameras are the latest photo faux pas. continue reading

For this UP village, COW is computer on wheels!

The Challenge for Health Sciences Librarianship...

2007-09-01T19:42:00.001-04:00

We need--
A more focused research agenda
Evidence-based librarianship
A clear vision for librarians’ role in the knowledge management process
A strategy for educating and training the next generation of librarian knowledge managers
Continue reading [ppt file]: Informationist and Expert Searcher: Critical New (Old) Roles for Health Sciences Librarianship? by Gary D. Byrd, Ph.D.,
University at Buffalo (SUNY)
See also on the same shelf: The health sciences librarian as knowledge worker
Library Trends , Summer, 1993 by Valerie Florance, Nina W. Matheson

PRODUCTIVITY: Brainstorming - Ten Guidelines

2007-08-19T18:10:00.000-04:00

10 Guidelines for Effective Brainstorming

By Randah Taher

Brainstorming is a powerful tool, if used correctly, but just like any power tool, you must read the manual, follow instructions and use the thing correctly…or you’re wasting time. Randah Taher presents 10 guidelines to optimizing the power of brainstorming. source

The Ten Commandments (see also the pdf version):
1. Come prepared. And invite others to do so too.
2. Invite others to the party.
3. Think and re-think the real issue.
4. Record as you go.
5. Defer judgement.
6. Become a generator machine.
7. Force large quotas.
8. Elaborate and improve.
9. Enhance visuals.
10. Threaten yourself.

What others say about all-of-the-above:

@ LifeChurch.tv

Enterprise innovation made easy: Jenni Idea Management Software Service

Corporate DNA

2007-08-13T20:22:00.000-04:00

Using Organizational Memory to Improve Poor Decision-making, by Arnold Kransdorff

Review:
Management consultant Kransdorff explains how corporations can make better use of their organizational memory and improve their decision-making capabilities. Likening this key component of intellectual capital to an organization's DNA, he contends that the information gained from experience needs to be transmitted from one "generation" to the next--if a company is to avoid repeating costly mistakes. He then outlines a low-cost knowledge capture and retrieval process that can be implemented annually. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Synopsis
For more than half a century, the developed world has been chasing productivity. It's financed our wealth but that part of output on which our continued prosperity depends - productivity growth - is petering out. The traditional scapegoat has been the dearth of worker skills. But the worker skills base has never been higher! The other explanation is that it is managers who are not giving full value to their employers. The way they're making decisions is conferring virtually no upside potential, which means they're leaving us wide open for experience-poor competitors to step into our experience-rich shoes. Exactly as Japan did in the 1960s and the so-called BRICK countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China (especially China) and Korea - are threatening now. If creeping uncompetitiveness is not to overtake us, where, then, are the next round of productivity gains to come from? Identifying some gaping holes in the way managers are taught to manage, this book outlines both the size of the problem and a solution. Businesses and other organizations, the author says, have to substantially raise the quality of their decision-making. For this to happen, they need to be much better experiential learners. And for experiential learning to take place, companies and other institutions have to better manage their corporate DNA, the institution-specific experiences otherwise known as Organizational Memory. OM, which characterizes any organization's ability to perform, is the single biggest influence on decision-making excellence. It is a factor of production that has already been paid for at great expense, yet is readily discarded in the backwash of the biggest change in workplace practice for more than a century - the actively-encouraged flexible labor market. This book explains why this key component of intellectual capital should be better managed, can be better managed and, particularly, how it can be used to help organizations reduce the pandemic of repeated mistakes, reinvented wheels and other unlearned lessons that litter modern living.

India to dominate global KPO market - Media Monitoring

2007-07-24T11:10:00.000-04:00

"The ambit of knowledge services typically spans areas like Business Research, Market Research, Investment Research, Data Analytics and intellectual Property." says Bhaswati Chakravorty in New Delhi, Dataquest

KPO:
What is KPO: The work entails doing equity research for overseas investment banks, research houses, consultancies and other financial institutions. The range of services covered by KPO includes intellectual property creation such as patent research, data mining, database creation and updating and analytical services such as equity research, competitive intelligence preparation of company profiles, industry reports and financial modelling. Says, Amitabh Sharma Virtual bridge - The knowledge process outsourcing industry Jamaica Gleaner News, July 11, 2007.

India to dominate global KPO market The Times of India, 23 Jul 2007
NEW DELHI: India, already known as the back office of the world, will account for two-third of the global Knowledge Process Offshoring (KPO) segment that could create up to 1.8 lakh new jobs here by 2011, a new study has said.

The worldwide KPO market is expected to grow to 16.7 billion dollar in revenues by 2010-2011 at an annual growth rate of 39 per cent. Of this, India would account for 11.2 billion dollars, according to the study by business research and analytics firm Evalueserve continue reading

Evalueserve Quarterly Sales Index Survey: What's Holding Back 'Small and Medium Sized Businesses' from Growing? Small Business Informer News, July 12, 2007

An In-Depth Analysis of the Indian Vendor Space along with Profiles of All Major Industry Players, July 10 2007 [Company Press Releases]

Gurgaon Bheja now Served Fresh in Wall Street, Puneet Mehrotra, Hindustan Times, July 19, 2007
Extract:

"Dogs and Indians not allowed"
Circa 1945, signboard outside the elitist British Club in Calcutta
"India is the 2nd biggest investor in London"
Circa 2006, small news snippet in the business page of a leading newspaper.
"Asathoma Sadhgamaya, Thamasoma Jyothirgamaya"
The above is a Sanskrit verse from an ancient Hindu text meaning from the unreal lead me to the real, from shadows lead me to the light. The great Indian brain is doing exactly that. Leading the world's largest money market into light. Yes, that absolutely right. Not talking about some mundane back office processing work. The work happening here is pure pundit-giri consisting of analysis and more, about which is a hot stock, where to invest, about mergers and charting the growth of the world's biggest financial market. In simple words brains at Gurgaon, out skirts of Mumbai and Chennai are actually running the Wall Street Market.

If that sounds like an understatement and too unreal to be real would somebody please answer what are companies like iRevna, Evalueserve, Fidelity, Copal Partners and others doing in India. Surely they can get cheaper labor in Philippines and perhaps many more countries. continue reading Gurgaon Bheja

PUNCHLINE - No Wonder:

Taj Mahal on a London visit with Shilpa, Dravid

See also on the same shelf and isle Knowledge Management aspects while Outsourcing Business Processes

The Angst of the "Knowledge Worker"

2007-07-20T06:09:00.000-04:00

PS. This is an article and quote posted by Bill @ Faith Commons
Peter Drucker, who coined the term "knowledge worker," describes what might be the intellectual version of impoverished affluence in which the highly skilled knowledge worker (this was originally written circa 1969) finds her/himself, after striving years to climb the mountain of educational attainment, to be the king or queen of only one out of many, many mountains. It takes all you can give to be merely a cog in the machine.

This hidden conflict between the knowledge worker's view of himself as a “professional” and the social reality in which he is the upgraded and well-paid successor to the skilled worker of yesterday, underlies the disenchantment of so many highly educated young people with the jobs available to them. It explains why they protest so loudly against the “stupidity” of business, of government, of the armed services, and of the universities. They expect to be “intellectuals.” And they find that they are just “staff.” Because this holds true for organizations altogether and not just for this or that organization, there is no place to flee. If they turn their backs on business and go to the university, they soon find out that this , too, is a “machine.” If they turn from the university to government service, they find the same situation there. continue reading

What is KM?

2007-07-14T12:59:00.000-04:00

"People keep looking at KM as something different from what businesses do everyday. I just wanted to prove that KM is nothing but an attitude....an approach towards work! And this map hopefully helps me do that?????? What?" Thus said: Nirmala Palaniappan's @ Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!]

An Alternative for Search and Knowledge Management

2007-07-02T11:42:00.000-04:00

Dan Ryan, 9/26/2005, Intranet Journal

"Due to the tremendous amount of content and knowledge nearly every company
generates, employees often depend on meta data and various search functionality,
such as full-text search and retrieval, to find desired information across a
variety of content repositories. This common process for locating relevant
content throughout enterprise-wide systems relies on some key assumptions that
may not hold true when users perform information searches.
These assumptions
include:
Users are able to create useful, optimal search terms
Users know the information they are looking for exists
Users are able to select appropriate metadata while searching for content
Search engines organize results in a logical manner that is most beneficial for the user
The search for content is relevant to the context of the business function being performed by the user.

An alternative to traditional search and knowledge management capabilities is
emerging that eliminates the reliance on these assumptions, making the process
of locating internal information more productive and successful. This
alternative is "Intranet Views." Continue reading

Link to the Journal courtesy of: Rajesh Setty @ blog.lifebeyondcode.com

Corporate librarian replaced by Web app ..? - InfoWorld

2007-07-01T01:36:00.000-04:00

Info courtesy: Sukhdev's World

"I’m just back from the Web 2.0 Expo love-fest down the street here in San Francisco, where I stumbled into an interesting session on something I thought was ‘Taxonomy.’

I was hoping to learn about stuffing dead animals, such as the mockingbird that’s been waking me up at 4:00 a.m. for the past month. But that’s ‘Taxidermy,’ as it turns out. Taxonomy is what research librarians used to do -- and professionals who manage documents for corporations still do -- organizing and categorizing reference material. And today those meticulous creatures are running scared, because of the Web 2.0 development known as tagging..." continue reading: InfoWorld. 2007-04-19, By David L. Margulius

Thought for the day - Managers administer, leaders inspire

2007-06-23T00:23:00.000-04:00

Info courtesy: Michael Y @ A Techno-Theologian
See also:

Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer-term perspective
Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon
Managers administer, leaders innovate
Managers imitate, leaders originate
Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person
Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why
Managers do things right, leaders do the right things
Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo [anon., @ Passionate leadership- Excitement begets Excitement Source]

From Librarian to Knowledge Manager and Beyond:

2007-06-18T01:51:00.000-04:00

The Shift to an End-User Domain
By Doug Church, Phase 5 Consulting Group Inc. dougc@phase-5.com

Eight years ago, I met with an executive of a large communications company to talk about the impending rise of the end-user online market. During the
course of our conversation, the executive explained that his company's position
was that the market for online information and services had "peaked", and they
were not interested in channelling more resources into this area. continue reading

From librarian to knowledge manager

2007-06-15T00:48:00.000-04:00

Jitendra Valera, Sweet & Maxwell Legal Online, 4-Oct-2004
New technology has made legal librarians think strategically, says Jitendra Valera
Senior legal librarians (SLLs) are increasing in importance at their firms as the new knowledge management technologies they govern become more crucial to delivering top-quality legal services. According to recent research by Sweet & Maxwell among the top 100 UK law firms, more than 20 per cent of SLLs now either report directly to the managing partner or chief executive officer, or sit on the most senior management board of their firms. continue reading

Librarians are the ultimate knowledge managers?

2007-06-03T00:02:00.000-04:00

The Australian Library Journal
Librarians are the ultimate knowledge managers?
Cathie Koina, Manuscript received July 2002

Librarians are the ultimate knowledge managers. We all know that. After all, haven't we been the custodians of documented knowledge for centuries? Who could possibly do it better than us? Well, then why aren't people knocking down our doors, begging us to be the knowledge managers of the organisation? Are they just ignorant of how fantastic we are, or is it possible that librarians aren't the best people for the job? Most of the academic articles that deal with Knowledge Management (KM) in some way always start by trying to define it. This is because there is no standard or stable definition. I believe this is one of the issues causing confusion...

Bibliography

Bishop, Karen 'Leveraging our knowledge: the skills and attributes information service professionals bring to new roles in information and knowledge management'. ALIA 9th Specials, Health and Law Libraries Conference. Available online: http://conferences.alia.org.au/shllc2001/papers/bishop.2.html
Bonner, Dede 'Enter the Chief Knowledge Officer.' Training and Development, Feb 2000, pp 36-40.
Broadbent, Marianne The phenomenon of knowledge management: what does it mean to the information profession? 1998. Available online: http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1998/may98/broadben.html
Butler, Yvonne 'Knowledge management - if only you knew what you knew'. STRAIT to the future ALIA 8th Asia-Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians Conference. Available online: http://conferences.alia.org.au/shllc1999/papers/butler.html
Church, Doug. 'From librarian to knowledge manager and beyond: the shift to an end-user domain'. Available online: http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/courier/v36/v36n2a1b.htm.
Houghton, Jan, Barbara Poston-Anderson, and Ross Todd 'From obsession to power: changing the face of librarians'. Pathways to Knowledge, Australian Library and Information Association 5th Biennial Conference and Exhibition, 25-28 October 1998, Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, South Australia. 313-318.
Marconi, J 'Outside the square: library and information services innovations within a knowledge management context'. ALIA 9th Specials, Health and Law Libraries Conference. Available online: http://conferences.alia.org.au/shllc2001/papers/marconi.html
Milne, Patricia 'Information professionals and the knowledge-aware, intelligent organisation: skills for the future.' Australian Library Journal 49 (2), May 2000 139-150.
Skills for knowledge management a briefing paper by TFPL Ltd based on research undertaken on behalf of the [UK] Library and Information Commission. 1999. Available online: http://www.lic.gov.uk/publications/executivesummaries/kmskills.pdf.
Todd, Ross and Gray Southon, 'Educating for a knowledge management future: perceptions of library and information professionals.' Australian Library Journal, 50 (4) Nov 2001 313-326.

Two Ideas for Access to Knowledge

2007-05-30T08:08:00.000-04:00

The Infrastructure of Free Expression and Margins of Appreciation by Jack Balkin
[Address delivered at the Second Access to Knowledge Conference (A2K2), Yale University, April 27, 2007. My address at the first A2K conference discussing the basic theory of Access to Knowledge can be found here.] Continue reading @ Balkinization an unanticipated consequence of Jack M. Balkin

Google to Digitize 8,00,000 Books at Mysore University in India

2007-05-26T12:41:00.000-04:00

Around 8,00,000 books as well as manuscripts from the Mysore University in Karnataka, India will soon be digitized by Google.

The Mysore University library has around 100,000 manuscripts that are written both on paper as well as palm leaves. These would include India’s first political treatise, the ‘Arthashastra’ written in the 4th century BC by Kautilya. Continue reading

[PS. Above info courtesy: David P. Dillard & Soundara Rajan]

PUNCHLINE:
"Publishing industry via a battle between technology that is predisposed to liberate information and business models that seek to lock information down. For better or worse, the future of innovation and ideas is being defined by the entertainment/publishing industry via a battle between technology that is predisposed to liberate information and business models that seek to lock information down." James L. Hilton, in Copyright Myths and Realities [see the first link below for full details]

When Worlds Collide: Copyright and Scholarship in the Digital Age James L. Hilton;

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

Vandals in the Stacks?: A Response to Nicholson Baker's Assault on Libraries (Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science), by Richard J. Cox

Are Poor Countries Losing the Information Revolution, Francisco Rodríguez. Ernest J. Wilson,

It's a steal: who owns what in the digital age

Google Books: Whats Not to Like?

See also Mysore University related posts:

Prof. Shalini R Urs's Contributions to Digital Librariansip

Dr. N B Pangannaya: Life and times

Mysore Univesity Library School Alumni

Body-Mind-Soul - KM initiatives

2007-05-19T09:38:00.000-04:00

See also:

KM and Internal Communications based on Nirmala Palaniappan's @ Aa..ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog!]

Knowledge Management @ Multifaith Information Gateway

Knowledge Management, Reference Service, and Web 2.0 Tools

2007-05-12T05:26:00.000-04:00

PS. If the youtube link is not active, click here: Web 2.0 with Eric Feola: Why Wikipedia Sucks

There is a growing connection between Knowledge Management (KM), Reference Service (RS) and Web 2.0 tools, such as, Wiki. I found a very interesting article by Angela Kille "Wikis in the Workplace: How Wikis Can Help Manage Knowledge in Library Reference Services."
And the cited sources help in understanding this nexus:

Clyde, L. A. (2005). Wikis. Teacher Librarian, 32(4), 54‑56. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Library Literature & Information Science database.

Cohen, S. M. (2005). Wiki while you work. Public Libraries, 44(4), 208‑209. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Library Literature & Information Science database.

Comparison of wiki software. (2005). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software

Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (2000). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Boston: Harvard Business School.

Fichter, D. (2005a, July/August). The many forms of e‑collaboration: Blogs, wikis, portals, groupware, discussion boards, and instant messaging. Online, 29(4), 48‑50. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Library Literature & Information Science database.

Fichter, D. (2005b, September/October). Intranets, wikis, blikis, and collaborative working. Online, 29(5), 47‑50. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Library Literature & Information Science database.

Frumkin, J. (2005). The wiki and the digital library. OCLC Systems & Services, 21(1), 18‑22. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Emerald Insight database.

Gandhi, S. (2004). Knowledge management and reference services. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(5), 368‑381. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from ScienceDirect database. [editor, abstract fulltext]

Gunnlaugsdottir, J. (2003). Seek and you will find, share and you will benefit: Organising knowledge using groupware systems. International Journal of Information Management, 23(5), 363-380. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from ScienceDirect database.

Jantz, R. (2001). Knowledge management in academic libraries: Special tools and processes to support information professionals. Reference Services Review, 29(1), 33‑39. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Emerald Insight database.

Leuf, B., & Cunningham, W. (2001). The wiki way: Quick collaboration on the Web. Boston: Addison‑Wesley.

Prusak, L. (2001). Where did knowledge management come from? IBM Systems Journal, 40(4). Retrieved October 25, 2005, from http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/prusak.html

Stover, M. (2004). Making tacit knowledge explicit: The ready reference database as codified knowledge. Reference Services Review, 32(2), 164‑173. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Emerald Insight database.

Tonkin, E. (2005, January). Making the case for a wiki. Ariadne, (42). Retrieved October 25, 2005, from http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/

Wagner, C. (2004). Wiki: A technology for conversational knowledge management and group collaboration. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 13, 265‑289. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Business Source Premier database.

Wagner, C. (2005). Supporting knowledge management in organizations with conversational technologies: Discussion forums, weblogs, and wikis. Journal of Database Management, 16(2), i‑viii. Retrieved October 25, 2005, from Business & Company Resource Center database.

See my related post:

Knowledge Capture - Librarians' Role

Wikipedia and Academia Hit News Headlines Again

Thought for the day - Three God's gifts with Ram Charan

2007-04-27T17:22:00.000-04:00

"What he does is hard to describe. But the most powerful CEOs love it enough to keep him on the road 24/7 and make him the most influential consultant alive." Fortune's David Whitford reports.
God's Gifts:

"... this human being has a talent to figure out what the consumer really wants"

"... he has the will and the talent to find - no matter where it is! - the right technology that will deliver what they want."

"... he has the talent to create demand at the right time"
Extract from: The strange existence of Ram Charan, David Whitford, Fortune writer, April 24 2007 [Info courtesy: Thadakamalla Sujatha]

Ram Charan speaking:

Librarians and Knowledge Management

2007-04-18T22:38:00.000-04:00

EXTRACT
GLIS 692 Assignment 1, Sept. 25, 2003

Introduction
Identification. Verification. Acquisition. Organization. Dissemination. These are the traditional services provided by librarians since the emergence of the field. The unspoken object of these actions has always been printed material: books, journals, newspapers, and so on. With the creation of audio and video recordings, as well as microfiche, librarians quickly expanded their discipline to include non-printed material, but the process for discovery, cataloging, and distributing library materials remained relatively unchanged. In the last few years librarians have again had to expand their area of expertise to include digital information, including areas of the World Wide Web. And they are being asked to redefine themselves again. This time to include the vaguely defined realm of knowledge itself...

Taxonomy ....
Classification and Cataloging ...
Technology ...
Liguistsics and Cognitive Science ...

Bibliography:
Allix, Nicholas M. "Epistemology And Knowledge Management Concepts And Practices." Journal of Knowledge Management Practice. April 2003. Faculty of Education, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Accessed September 25, 2003 http://www.tlainc.com/articl49.htm
Broadbent, Marianne. "The Phenomemnon of Knowledge Management." SLA Outlook. May 1998. Accessed Spetember 22, 2003 http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1998/may98/broadben.html
Bryar, J.V. "Taxonomies: The Value of Organized Business Knowledge." NewsEdge White Paper. NewsEdge Corporation (2001).
Church, Dough. "From Librarian to Knowledge Manager and Beyond: The Shift to an End-User Domain." Special Library Association. Accessed Spetember 22, 2003 http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/courier/v36/v36n2a1b.htm
Kanti, S. and Koening, M.E.D. "Knowledge Management for the Information Professional." Information Today (2002).
McCarthy, I. (1995) "Manufacturing Classification: Lessons from organizational systematics and biological taxonomy." Integrated Manufacturing Systems, (1995) 6: 37-48.
Satyadas, Antony. "Growing a Practical KM System." September 2003. Knowledge Management/Destination KM Accessed September 22, 2003 http://www.destinationkm.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=1036
Weidner, Douglas. "Using Connect and Collect to Achieve the KM Endgame." IT Pro (2002).

PM and KM Culture

2007-04-08T00:27:00.000-04:00

Eclectic Bill talks about a Project Management Case Study that he read on How Culture Affects Knowledge Transfer and quotes some important reasons why there is little knowledge sharing:
-Masculine values - compete and dominate rather than reflect and build relationships
-Perception of time as scarce
-No concern about the past and limited concern about the future
-Relationships based on respect and no unrequested interference
-Private ownership of projects
-Project managers don't need help

PS. For ages people struggle to understand how the work culture of PM and KM can be or should be integrated. And the above is an excellent telltale.

Quote of the Year 2007

2007-03-25T18:49:00.000-04:00

Jean-François David in Knowledgable? says, Librarians are the historically first "knowledge managers" in organizations. Now, all managers are supposed to be ! Are librarians out? Or any manager is the librarian?*

*See more on this: We the librarian @ Macehiter Ward-Dutton: Blog on IT-business alignment and related things

See also:

Quote of the Year 2006

Librarians as Knowledge Managers

On the Use of Wikipedia By way of The Register, London -- Fact check, please

Did Vatican commit Cardinal sin over Wikipedia bios?

Wikileaks: Libraries and librarians respond

Role of Knowledge Centers in Academic Libraries - Talk by Dr.H.K. Kaul

Knowledge Sharing Manager: Whats in a name?

The Supreme Court of Canada rules web links not illegal‎

Libraries and the Knowledge-Based Economy, Dr. Abdus Sattar Chaudhry

WHATS IN A NAME? It's all-ado-about Transliteration Mess + Noise

Time For KM To Manage Knowledge About Management?

Knowledge Management in a Changing World - Best Practices Revisited

Personal Knowledge Management, Edited by David Pauleen and Gary Gorman (2011) - A new book

Fair Use by Social Media, Revisted

Wikileaks: Libraries and librarians respond

Tim Berners-Lee says Facebook 'threatens' web future

Facebook Q&A Update: Sorry, we're not ready for you just yet

Reading now: Making Knowledge Visible

GLOBAL: Seven recipes to become a top researcher

Reading now: Starting and Managing an Institutional Repository

Google: Location a "Hugely Important" Signal

BI shouldn’t look like BI on smart phones

During the Toronto stop of a Canadian road show to unveil release 2 of business intelligence tool MicroStrategy version 9, one exec explained why classic BI is no good for smart phones. Customers Hudson’s Bay and St. Elizabeth Healthcare share experiences with the software.

Knowledge Management Explained in Five Disciplines

What I learnt about Communities of Practices - a conversation

SLA Name Will Stay

Competencies of a Knowledge Worker - A Select Webliography

The Battle of Building Library's Digital Collection

Visualization Technology for Knowledge Mapping

Laws of knowledge management

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?

Harvard Unveils Web Tool for Studying Media Trends

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

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

The Future of the Future: Rise of the Knowledge Librarian

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

Return-on-Investment in library practice

Whaddya Call It? All-a-do-about terminology management

Knowledge Management of Local / Indigenous Traditions for a Globalized World

Looks Can Be Deceptive: Web Analytics & Transaction Log Demystified

Which flavour does knowledge have on the web?

How do you describe this industry, and what you do, to your family and friends?

What I Know for Sure...In Information Management

Data Mining Pays Off: 'I'm a PC' made on a Mac

Difference Between Overstanding and Understanding?

ROI for the knowledge worker is ROI for all, and how KM took an ironic approach

5 ways to apply management principles at home

KM & E-Social Science - Revisited

Web self-service: searching for answers

Mining for Information -- Chemistry of a Service Provider

Cyber Worship Resource of the Week is A Buddhist Prayer for Lost Information

what are pricing models available for Online Adverisements ?

Knowledge Networking in ICT Era

Library Vendor Assessment Literature Review

Library Vendor Assessment Literature Review

Knowledge production in a profession: Use-inspired knowledge revisited

Inside Pasteur's quadrant: knowledge production in a profession, Karri A. Holley and William G. Tierney, Educational Studies 01 July 2008

Abstract:

Research isn’t a Google search

Ranking Chart Blog -- Library of a Librarian

What Really is Benchmarking?

Who's tracking your health? Paging Dr. Internet

Microsoft kills Book Search project

The difference between cooperation and coordination

Cyber Worship Resource of the Week is Church of Ontology

Push vs. Pull: Trends in Retail Shopping

KAMP is a BarCamp for Knowledge Management

Google Sites: What's all the fuss?

Researching with Wikipedia: The Experiences of Experienced Librarians

Managing Information Overload: News and Views

Wikipedia and Wikiscanner in the Newsroom

Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast -- Resource Shelf Blog Re-visited

The ComputerWorld Canada View: Search no more

HBS Cases: How Wikipedia Works (or Doesn't)

The Tacit Knowledge of Team Leadership

Semantic-Web-Based Knowledge Management

Do Knowledge Managers Really Want to Share Knowledge?—Sharing as a Mating Game

Librarians as Knowledge Managers - Profiles of emerging leaders

Susan Braun, Manager, Lauritsen Library Research Services, The Aerospace Institute

Digital pens more trouble than they're worth

65th IFLA Council and General
Conference

Bangkok, Thailand,
August 20 - August 28, 1999