Special Libraries as Knowledge Management Centres

Citation

Isfandyari‐Moghaddam, A. (2012), "Special Libraries as Knowledge Management Centres", The Electronic Library, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 562-563. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471211252292

In Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century (Special Libraries Association, 2003) it is emphasized that special librarians are knowledge‐based practitioners; technology application leaders who add value by providing efficient and effective information services through different means including participating in knowledge management activities that create, capture, exchange, use and communicate the organization's “intellectual capital”. Naturally, it is expected that twenty‐first century special libraries need to be rethought to meet the information needs of clients.

This five‐chapter work concentrates on the treatment of knowledge solely in enterprises (organisations, institutions, companies, firms, and corporations) to illustrate that the corporate or special library is the best business area to run a knowledge management centre (p. xvi). It begins rightly with two main terms included in the title: “Special libraries” and “Knowledge management”. Accordingly, Chapter 1 “Special libraries” covers some basic discussions like the definitions of special library and special librarian along with his/her needed competencies, and the history, mission, characteristics, services, collections, end‐users, managers, staff, parent organization, and performance of special libraries. Additional issues discussed include the migration from traditional library services to knowledge management and knowledge sharing, marketing, and funding. Chapter 2 “Knowledge management” deals theoretically with another fundamental concept, namely knowledge management. Relevant to the discussion, knowledge versus information and data, characteristics and components, and benefits of knowledge management, personal knowledge management (PKM), and steps needed for implementing a knowledge management project are reviewed.

As two interrelated chapters, Chapters 3 “Components of a knowledge management system at a special library” and 4 “Implementation of a knowledge management centre at a special library” help readers understand why Semertzaki declares special libraries to be knowledge management centres in theory and practice. The former mainly concerns the significance of knowledge management systems for the parent organisation and why special libraries are the right places for knowledge management centres. The latter examines the nuts and bolts of the implementation of a knowledge management centre in special libraries. Chapter 5 “Lessons learned, evaluation, marketing, and the way forward: case studies”, takes a managerial view of factors affecting the success of the knowledge management centre.

This book is a stride towards the realization of Deming's well‐known saying “It's not enough to do your best, you must know how to do your best” in the context of librarianship, especially special libraries. The publication of this book is good news for anyone interested in a win‐win outcome for special libraries and parent organisations.