Knowledge Management: Libraries and Librarians Taking Up the Challenge [Reprint 2011 ed.] 9783110955071, 9783598218385

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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions F6d6ration Internationale des Associations de Bibliothöcaires et des Bibliotheques Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen Me*AyHapoflHa« «DeAepauw* En6/inoTeHHbix AccounauHfl η ynpoKAenHft

Federaciön Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas

I FLA Publications 108

Knowledge Management Libraries and Librarians Taking Up the Challenge

Edited by Hans-Christoph Hobohm

K G - Saur München 2004

IFLA Publications edited by Sjoerd Koopman

Recommended catalogue entry: Knowledge Management Libraries and Librarians Taking Up the Challenge Ed. by Hans-Christoph Hobohm [International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions], - München : Saur, 2004, 220 p. 21 cm (IFLA publications ; 108) ISBN 3-598-21838-9

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de.

© Printed on acid-free paper The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48.1984.

© 2004 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, The Hague, The Netherlands Alle Rechte vorbehalten / All Rights Strictly Reserved K. G Saur Verlag GmbH, München 2004 Printed in the Federal Republic of Germany All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed / Bound by Strauss Offsetdruck, Mörlenbach ISBN 3-598-21838-9 ISSN 0344-6891 (IFLA Publications)

Table of Contents Knowledge Management - Libraries And Librarians Taking Up the Challenge An Overview Hans-Christoph HOBOHM

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PRELUDE "Blow Up The Corporate Library" Thomas H. DAVENPORT & Larry PRUSAK (reprint from 1993)

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PART 1 POLITICAL AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS Change of Paradigm in Knowledge Management Framework for the Collaborative Production and Exchange of Knowledge Rainer KUHLEN

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Tacit Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Library Science - No Bridge Between? Roland WAGNER-DÖBLER 39 Sceptical Knowledge Management Rafael CAPURRO

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Knowledge Organization for the Betterment o f Humankind Vigdor SCHREIB MAN

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PART 2 ISSUES AND INSTRUMENTS Organizations, Knowledge Management and Libraries: Issues, Opportunities and Challenges Elisabeth DAVENPORT

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The Information Audit as a First Step Towards Effective Knowledge Management Susan HENCZEL

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Skills and Competencies Required to Work With Knowledge Management Irene WORMELL

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Knowledge Management: Employment Opportunities for IS Graduates Anne MORRIS

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Education for Knowledge Management - A Spectrum Approach Abdus Sattar CHAUDHRY & Susan E. HIGGINS

127

Knowledge Management, User Education, and Librarianship Michael E.D. KOENIG

137

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PART 3 CASE STUDIES Knowledge Management Research and End User Work Environments 2010 Wilda B. NEWMAN

151

Information and Knowledge Capitalization Process in French Companies Jean-Philippe ACCART

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Knowledge Sharing in a Learning Resource Centre Using a Metro Map Metaphor for Organizing Web-Based Resources Tove BANG

169

Knowledge Management At the Finnish Government Maija JUSSILAINEN

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Knowledge Partnership in Portuguese Information and Knowledge Services Paula OCHÖA & Leonor Gaspar PINTO

201

Corporate Bunker or Cyber Cafe: Rethinking the Strategic Role of the Library in the Corporation - A Case Study Alvin L. JACOBSON & James M. MATARAZZO

213

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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANS TAKING UP THE CHALLENGE AN OVERVIEW Hans-Christoph Hobohm Dept. of Information Sciences University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Germany [email protected] Is it just a buzz word? Or even nonsense1? Fact is that the two words 'knowledge' and 'management' are at the centre of some confusion. It is not clear if they always point to the same concept - possibly the reason why this concept leaves librarians feeling distinctly uneasy. Every statement about knowledge management starts with the remarks that it is open to various interpretations and that it might just be a passing trend). On the other hand, people are still talking about it, and its established position in management theory is evidenced not only by a growing number of monographs, handbooks and readers on the topic, but also by the number of positions in enterprises dedicated to the very task managing knowledge. It is intriguing though, that information professionals like librarians who have practiced it throughout their professional lives seem only hesitantly to make it their topic. You might compare it with some similar tendencies with other new words and concepts like "metadata" or even "Digital Libraries" where we are struggling to recover lost ground. Being true "professionals" we take our time assimilating new concepts - hopefully we take them up with a deep understanding and in so doing reflect on why other communities try to colonise our domains. This is all the more intriguing as the most cited Knowledge Management authors, Larry Prusak and Tom Davenport, made a reference to libraries in 1993 in one of their first publications on the topic - the perplexingly, or provocatively, entitled text: "Blow up the Library". At this time the management concept and even the term "Knowledge Management" were not yet fully integrated into management theory. Remember that it was "only" in 1995 that Nonaka and Takeuchi published their groundbreaking: "Knowledge Creating Company", and Prusak and Davenport's ''Working Knowledge. How Organisations Manage what they Know" appeared in 19982. As early as 1990 Larry Prusak and James Matarazzo (also present in this volume) together with Michael Gauthier3 developed an approach to the outcome and value question of corporate libraries (a topic which is now being rediscovered in the IFLA 1 Cf. Information Research, Volume 8 No 1 October 2002, Special issue on Knowledge Management - the Emperor's new clothes? Edited by Suliman Al-Hawamdeh and T.D. Wilson, http://informationr.net/ir/8-l/infres81.htm 2 The similar title: Information Ecology. Mastering the Information and Knowledge Environment from the same authors is published 1997 3 Valuing Corporate Libraries: A Survey of Senior Managers, by James M. Matarazzo, Laurence Prusak, and Michael R. Gauthier. (SLA), 1900

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Hans-Christoph Hobohm context). The 1993 article is reprinted here not only because it is a text which marks a date and serves as reference point for librarians, but also because Larry Prusak was one of the key-note speakers of the Boston 2001 IFLA conference, and, with the content of his statement essentially unchanged, attracted one of the biggest audiences a single speech at an IFLA conference has ever seen. Thus the present volume assembles papers presented in the main at IFLA events during the last three or four years. The first "official" IFLA statement on the topic was made as early as 1997. It is taken up again here in an updated version: "Knowledge Management for the Betterment of Mankind" from Vigdor Schreibman (first published in the UDT occasional papers series). The title itself reflects a typical librarian's approach which might contrast to the technocratic understanding of Knowledge Management practices by managers. Vigdor Schreibman sees in the concept of knowledge management, and especially in its background in systems thinking, the necessary "technique of democracy". It is interesting to note that the pragmatic and ultimately profit-oriented management concept gets an ethical touch when assimilated by librarians. This is why this book is divided into three parts. The first exemplifies a more philosophical or political approach, while the second is guided by the question of how we librarians can really make use of Knowledge Management. Finally, some cases and best practice examples are presented. The book is therefore not a normal proceedings volume but more a reader on the development of and the statements regarding Knowledge Management within IFLA and the international library community. Some texts stem directly from the workshops of the Knowledge Management discussion group which was initiated and sponsored by the IFLA Social Sciences Libraries Section from its beginnings until its implementation as an official section. The first activities for this kind of topic in IFLA came from Ed Valauskas (the author's predecessor as a chair of the Special Libraries Division4). At the beginning some colleagues also active in SLA (like David Bender, Cindy Hill and many others) tried to strengthen the corporate libraries voice in IFLA with a group which called itself "Discussion group on Corporate and for Profit Libraries". Unfortunately this topic did not attract much interest from the regular IFLA conference delegates and visitors from outside - even speakers - were not easily introduced. When this group and its sponsoring section decided (in 2000) to change the wording and slightly refocus the discussions, it had an overwhelming effect. The meetings of the now renamed "discussion group on Knowledge Management" generally brought in over 100 attendants from different kinds of libraries and from a great variety of countries even when they where on an early Sunday morning before the opening of the conferences - whereas the discussion group under its former name had only attracted some Americans. 4

The first podium discussion organised in this context is documented in INSPEL, the former "official organ of the special libraries division", vol. 32 (1998), n° 4, special issue about the topic "What is special about special Libraries?". In this issue we find another interesting text from Michael E. D. Koenig: "From Intellectual Capital to Knowledge Management. What are They Talking About?" pp. 222-233.

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Knowledge Management - Libraries and Librarians Taking Up the Challenge The threefold character of this book also reflects the multicultural character of IFLA and its slightly different approach to the topic. Scandinavian best practices and German philosophical approaches show another - perhaps typically 'librarianesque' perspective. It was Rainer Kuhlen, renowned Library and Information Science authority in Germany, who pinpointed (as a keynote speaker at the Berlin IFLA / WLIC conference 2003) the relationships between Knowledge Management, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and the information ethical consequences advocated by UNESCO. Without referencing Vigdor Schreibman, Kuhlen describes the two paradigms of knowledge management that sometimes disturb the discussion about it. There are some schools which see knowledge management as just another word for what has been done for years under the heading of information management. He explicitly states that especially when you follow the Prusak/Davenport approach, knowledge management rightly goes far beyond what we have done up to now as good information professionals. In this respect he echoes the blowing up of the library, encouraging it to look beyond its limits within the corporation. Rafael Capurro - famous for his statement on information ethics and hermeneutics of information and knowledge - has been invited to join this volume under the same perspective. His contribution concerning some philosophical foundations of knowledge management shows that it is possible to handle a "hype" management keyword in a very thorough manner. He demonstrates with reference to Aristotle and Democrit - some might say finally injecting some culture into the management business - that this new theme may be read in the long tradition of sceptical thinking. Considering the big picture and keeping an overview is such a quintessentially librarian-like approach that this text is able to convince even those who still think knowledge management is just another management fads. It has some deeper roots for our profession and for politics. Roland Wagner-Döbler, at the time interim chair of Library Science at Humboldt University Berlin, follows this view even if he has some caveats. He reminds us of the fact that Michael Polanyi, who coined the central notion of knowledge management, namely "tacit knowledge", was a Berliner until his 1933 emigration. Through his personal experience Wagner-Döbler exemplifies that there is a bridge between knowledge management and library science. He shows not only that this newly emerging discipline should gather many different approaches, but that even standard discourse on libraries, be it on the topic of quality management or on the instruments of bibliometrics, can contribute to it in a very central manner. In the second part of this volume six texts demonstrate the practical value of knowledge management for librarians by discussing its contemporary issues and instruments in the library world. Elisabeth Davenport, in her paper for one of the discussion group workshops, gives a careful overview of knowledge management concepts and their implications for day-to-day library work. Her conclusion is that the field described by knowledge management is so vast that it is a challenge not just for librarians to choose where their own competences should be invested. However, from her text we learn the extent to which it is possible for librarians to find new and urgent activity domains. Susan Henczel's contribution is in nuce her ground-breaking

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Hans-Christoph Hobohm monograph on information audit. Quality issues combined with accentuated user orientation during the last two decades quite naturally leads us to the evaluation of users' information needs. These can be analysed in a structured manner in the form of an audit. Susan Henczel shows how this is a first step not only as a part of TQM methodology for enterprises but especially for knowledge management. In this text and in several of the case studies in part three one is familiarised with the idea that quality management, strategic management and decision making have much in common with knowledge management - be it only in terms of systems thinking or of a modern holistic approach. The remaining texts in this chapter - astonishingly enough - all deal with aspects of education. Irene Wormell continues Davenport's overview by adding the very practical skills and competencies necessary for librarians if they want to become professionals in knowledge management. She underlines the above statement that knowledge management lies at the heart of most of the other sincere management instruments in general, thereby reminding us that those librarians who are already "entrepreneurial" (or intrapreneurial) are on the best track to knowledge management. Anne Morris shows from another viewpoint that those graduates who are trained in the 'new' concepts combined with knowledge management have good opportunities on the job market. This might be a general sign that the profession is changing in a very profound way and that at least future librarians will be taking up the challenge of a changing world - and even doing this by increasing their salaries and their image. Abdus Sattar Chaudhry and Susan E. Higgins show in their analysis of LIS education programmes that knowledge management has gained a lot of ground but can still go further. In opposition to Kuhlen, and guided by their comparison of LIS with non LIS curricula, they propose that successful LIS education be more centred on the technology driven aspect of knowledge management. Michael Koenig on the other hand sticks more to the Prusak/Davenport paradigm by elaborating the most important LIS field which is at stake when talking about knowledge management: user education. He explains why especially this aspect of broad librarian's practice is central to a new paradigm and what we can learn from it: he can prove some of the classical "new" ideas for the library such as browsing and serendipity or the importance of the library as a place through the eyes of knowledge management. Part three illustrates that librarians have taken up the challenge of the new topic by giving examples of how libraries are integrated in the decision making process in various contexts of practice and in various cultural settings. The case studies demonstrate how even libraries can be at the heart of the process in industry, the university environment or a whole country. Alvin Jacobson and James Matarazzo close the overview with a case study which confirms the thesis of the blowing up of library developed at the beginning of the volume. Finally, their notion of the Cybercafe embodies many new ideas and challenges for librarians, and indicates in which direction libraries will continue to evolve in the near future.

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Prelude "BLOW UP THE CORPORATE LIBRARY"* Thomas H. Davenport and Larry Prusak

This article seeks to examine why the many corporate libraries play such a marginal role in today's corporation. This is especially vexing since we are constantly told how we are living in the 'information age' and librarians rightly perceive themselves as information professionals. We feel that librarians often operate under the wrong conceptual model of what an information service should be in the 1990s. This outmoded concept, we call the 'warehouse' model. Alternatives are needed which are better suited to today's corporate needs and constraints. The two alternatives are the 'expertise centre' and the 'network'. These concepts are all fully developed in the text, as are the reasons (with accompanying research findings) for this situation.

INTRODUCTION The information age is clearly upon us. Academics, consultants, and managers state that information is a critical competitive weapon, that information can transform organizational structures and processes, and that we are all now in the information business. By every measure, including the proliferation of information sources and expenditures for information, the generation and use of information is growing. Management experts such as Peter Drucker and Tom Peters, and Kodama and Nonaka in Japan, consistently trumpet the importance of information use and effective information management. These, then, should be halcyon days for libraries as the keepers and distributors of information. What function would be better positioned to understand information requirements, distribute information to the right employees and locations, and determine the structure of the 'corporate memory'? Surely not information systems functions; they are still largely concerned with technology, despite the presumptuous title of chief information officer. Libraries do play an important role in some firms, particularly in research and information-intensive organizations such as pharmaceuticals, investment banks and consulting. They are significant cost centres at many large firms. There are at least 20 000 professional librarians working in corporate or government libraries, as well as another 50 000 non-professionals. Almost all major (and many smaller) corporations have a library, or library-like functions, as do most major government * first published: International (reprinted with permission)

Journal of Information Management,

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73 (1993) 405-412

Tom Davenport / Larry Prusak agencies. Several very large firms have library organizations with as many as 50 distinct units. While it is difficult to determine what information is specifically bought by libraries, it is estimated that corporate libraries collectively spend 1.7 billion dollars annually. Yet corporate libraries in the USA have largely been left behind by the information revolution. They have performed relatively narrow functions, mainly associated with identifying and acquiring information, and have not become integrated into the major organizational processes for managing information. Most of them operate on obsolete storage-based models of information management. They have little influence and their employees are often in dead-end careers. Though in many organizations the head of information technology reports to the chief executive officer, to argue that a librarian should do so would be unprecedented. Even though librarians often know more about 'information' than any other staff professionals, few if any have received the title of chief information officer. It would be easy to say, "blow up the library", and indeed library budgets are often among the first to be cut during hard times1. But libraries and librarians have a high degree of potential value. They often know, better than anyone else in the firm, what information is needed for specific projects, and how to facilitate the effective delivery of that information. Unlike their counterparts in the information systems function, they have chosen to focus on information, rather than technology. Finally, some of the 'library' functions we have studied in other parts of the world - particularly in Japan - provide a valuable model for how libraries can fully achieve their potential.2 We are therefore arguing that libraries should be blown up in a positive sense - that their mission, function and scope should be significantly expanded, and perhaps combined with other information functions in the firm. All that needs to be detonated is the physical library, the low-level box on the organizational chart, and the stereotypes of librarians more concerned with books than business needs.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH LIBRARIES TODAY Despite their potential key role in the 'information age', corporate libraries today have many problems. They are poorly understood even by their own managers, and are based on an obsolete model of information provision. They are usually not well integrated with either the businesses they serve or other information-oriented functions. As a result, the value they deliver is often unclear, and in any case less than what is possible.

1

Matarazzo, J.: Closing The Corporate Library: Case Studies on the Process. Special Library Association, New York, 1981

Decision-Making

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Matarazzo, J. and Prusak, L.: Information Management and Japanese Success. Special Report, Ernst & Young's Center for Information Technology and Strategy, Boston, MA,

1992

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"Blow up the Corporate Library" Libraries are not well understood by those who manage them. About 40 per cent report to general administration functions whose managers rarely know, or care much about, information provisioning. Out of 165 corporate libraries surveyed in a previous study, only three reported to a person who had any professional experience in running library3. Libraries that report to specific functions such as marketing, planning, or R&D are better represented with management; however, they usually serve only their host functions well, developing materials primarily relevant to single functions. And while this has obvious value for these functions, there is no leveraging of sources. The corporate library developed and grew in the 1920s and 1930s, when print-based resources were predominant, and was based on the model of the public library. The goal was to obtain as many physical volumes - books - as possible on the assumption that someday someone would want to use each one ('a book for every patron' was a common library mission statement). Library policies focused not on how to ensure that information resources were used, but rather on ensuring that they did not leave the premises illicitly. Librarian skills development focused on acquisition, storage, and classification of printed materials, and distribution of them on request. This is essentially a warehouse model of information provision. Yet potential users of the information not only had little idea what was in the information warehouse; they also frequently lacked an understanding of why they should even take a look. As books began to be supplemented by a panoply of less voluminous and structured sources, in more sophisticated organizations the model of information provision did change somewhat. Instead of warehousing books, this new model of the library warehoused people - specifically subject matter experts. Such an expertise centre model assumed that employees requiring information on a topic would simply seek out a content expert in a library unit dedicated to a particular topic, e.g. competitive information or information about microelectronics. But this model neglected the fact that most of the people in an organization with subject-matter expertise are not information professionals. Expertise centres are clearly an improvement over the warehouse model, but they do not go far enough in distributing information around an organization. Furthermore, no real rethinking of either the warehouse or expertise centre models took place when computers entered the library, or when users got access to desktop computers and all-pervasive networks. The improvement from storing CD-ROMs in the warehouse rather than books is one of marginal efficiency, not effectiveness. Though schools of librarianship, or information science, have taught computer skills and advocated more active roles for many years, actual practice in most firms has not changed significantly. There has also been little integration or even cooperation between libraries and other information-oriented functions. Librarians collect, categorize and store largely textual information; information systems groups focus on largely quantitative or transactional 3

Prusak L., Matarazzo, J. and Gauthier, M.: Valuing Corporate Libraries: A Survey of Senior Managers. Special Libraries Association, Washington, DC., 1990

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Tom Davenport / Larry Prusak information, and rarely do the twain meet. If an executive wanted to find out more about a customer or competitor who shows up in the latest weekly printout or terminal display, he or she must go to an entirely different source for the information, using different protocols for expressing the information requirement and accessing the source. Only in precious few organizations, such as some universities, firms with strong R&D functions, and financial service firms, for example, have librarians and information technology executives begun to seriously collaborate. Other informationoriented groups, e.g. market researchers, executive assistants, and finance, have also not generally been closely aligned with libraries. A focus on information content is of great potential value to any organization. Yet librarians have focused on functional efficiency and the profession of being corporate librarians. They often know little beyond the information content needs about the businesses they serve, and are thus unable to suggest ways to make more effective use of information within those businesses. They spend their time not living with information users, but maintaining the stacks. It should also be pointed out that information systems professionals are also often as poorly integrated into the businesses they serve, but they are making faster strides in the right direction than librarians are. Without this intimate knowledge of the business, neither librarians nor most of their information systems counterparts have been able to focus on actively determining the broad information needs of managers and employees and providing that information in a useful format. As a result, librarians and IS managers are often hard pressed to prove or demonstrate the value of their functions. Because of their distance from the usage of information, putting a value on the information itself is virtually impossible. Librarians have also declined to try to influence or shape information behaviour, or how employees identify, use and share information. Attempts at outreach programmes often involve teaching employees how to best use the facilities rather than how to solve information problems, or how information can create product and service value. This absence of focus forms a critical gap for many firms, since no other information-oriented function has assumed it either. As is perhaps obvious by now, the problems of libraries are not only structural and historical. They are also at least partially attributable to librarians themselves. Though there are many exceptions, the typical library professional does not relish the hurlyburly of business. As several librarians have told us, 'we librarians prefer books to people'. Few students would enter library schools in order to get on 'the fast track'. Though such reticence has its attractions, it hinders the effective use of information by business people who sorely need it. Of course, the fault lies not only with librarians, but also with managers who do not value information in the first place, and who are proud of their ability to act on uninformed intuition. We would argue more generally that the American business culture does not place a high value on acquiring and using information. An indication of this problem is the guilt many managers feel when they are seen reading a book or

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"Blow up the Corporate Library" a journal at their desks. This behaviour is much more the norm in Europe and Japan, where we have observed senior executives actually reading at their desks or in the library, with no apparent shame. Perhaps this cultural problem will be eased by the growth of computerized information sources; our culture's love for technology generally attaches much less of a stigma to staring at a cathode ray tube.

OUT OF THE WAREHOUSE It is time for a new model of the corporate library and the librarian. The warehouse concept must be blown up; librarians, or rather information managers, must view themselves not as warehouse custodians, or even as providers of centralized expertise, but rather as overseers of a multi-media network (see the Appendix, Table 1). They must be concerned with the structure and quality of the content that goes out over the network (programming), in what format it is distributed (media selection), to what audience it is directed (broadcasting vs. narrowcasting), and how the receiver's behaviour changes in response to the content (advertising response). However, just as television networks do not produce all of the programmes they broadcast, the role of the information network executive in firms should be to encourage wide participation in information creation and dissemination. Broadly speaking, the role of the information professional becomes the establishment of connections between those who have information, and those who want it. The library itself must be viewed as a virtual information network. The network should be multinodal, with eventually more nodes than there are employees. Several Japanese firms, including Mitsubishi, Nomura, and Dai-Ichi Pharmaceuticals, already have substantial technical and business information networks in place. These welldesigned networks provide access to internal and external textual and quantitative information, and will eventually allow access by virtually all employees. In the USA several firms have developed, or are developing, broad networks for employee conferencing and information access. The firms include Barclays and Chemical Bank, 4 IBM, American Airlines, 5 and several professional services firms. These networks serve both a communications and an information function; some percentage of the materials on them will eventually become part of the 'corporate memory'. For the technical and employee networks to be effectively combined, someone must devote considerable effort to structuring the information, deciding what should be discarded or saved, and educating the organization on how to use them. Some of the new technologies for information exchange, including Lotus Notes and NCR's Cooperation, are much more amenable to the provision of document-oriented information than previous technologies. However, no technologies currently available 4

Rothstein, P., Stoddard, D. and Applegate, L.: Chemical Banking Corporation - Developing a Communications Infrastructure for the Corporate Systems Division. Harvard Business School Report No. Nl-192-103, Boston. MA., 1992 5 Anderson, E. and Mckenney, J.: American Airlines: The InterAAct Project (A) & (B). Harvard Business School Re- port No. N9-193-013/4, Boston, MA., 1992

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Tom Davenport / Larry Prusak can decide what information should go onto the network, how different information bases should be structured, and what information is worth keeping around. We are likely to need humans for such activities over the next few decades. Librarians are the most likely candidates for these roles, if they take up the challenge. If no one accepts the roles, the technical networks firms build for information exchange are likely to be severely underleveraged, as was the case at one professional services firm where only information systems people were involved in implementation.6 This is not to imply that computer networks are the only vehicle for information networking. Librarians must be creative about the media used to help employees achieve 'current awareness', as it is called in the profession. This might involve arranging seminars, broadcasts over corporate video networks, or disseminating audio tapes for drive-time listening. At NEC, a large Japanese firm, researchers are asked to create posters about their research work, which are then hung on corridor walls for passers-by to study. Finally, there will probably always be a role for the human 'information assistant', who knows what information is needed by an executive, how to get it, and how to summarize and interpret it. These positions are expensive, but as long as senior managers have a greater need for information than they have time to obtain and digest it, they will continue to be valuable. Due to budget cuts, many of these information assistants are no longer around. In the September MIE meeting, Bob Eccles said he had to either teach 20 per cent more or lose his business analysts. Ed Hann of NCR said they have already lost their analysts. Those people not adept at gathering information take time away from their job to collect information. Under the network model, book-banning, never an activity favoured by librarians, must come into vogue. Though we love books as much as anyone, they are often inefficient vehicles for the dissemination of information in corporations. They have more information than most managers need for ad hoc requests and they are difficult to copy and distribute. Even technical journals contain much information that is not useful to an individual reader, and also have copyright problems. On the other hand, on-line databases and CD-ROM already contain most of the information that managers need day-to-day. Many publishers of books and journals are experimenting with unbundling of printed materials and with publishing them in electronic form. Even periodicals' clearinghouses, which manage lists of magazine and journal subscriptions for corporate libraries, are also addressing this issue. Information managers should work with these firms to try to speed their development efforts. The token copy of Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy can remain on managerial bookshelves, but the real use of information awaits new media and new approaches. With a decreasing emphasis on books and shelves, there should be much less of a need for the library as a place. While having a physical location for printed materials can be logistically beneficial, it does more harm than good. Librarians should attempt to place printed materials on credenzas and in briefcases, not in the stacks. Browsing, 6

Orlikowski, W.: Learning from Notes: Organizational Issues in Groupware Implementation. CISR working paper 241, MIT Center for Information Systems Research. 1992

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"Blow up the Corporate Library" which happens rarely anyway in our book-averse culture, should be facilitated over networks. When we visit the new firms who do maintain attractive reading rooms, we rarely find people using them. And librarians themselves should be found not among books, but among users (either actual or potential) of information. At one contract research firm, for example, there is a kiosk equipped with an information professional and an array of printed and electronic sources in each technical area. Corporate librarians and information systems managers should align more closely. Better yet, those employees who are skilled at information content issues - not only librarians but also some information systems professionals, business analysts, and functional specialists - should align with each other, and providers of technological infrastructure in both camps can join together in a separate organization. The problem with folding them all into one information organization is two-fold. First, librarians and data centre operators have little in common in terms of knowledge and responsibility. Secondly, many organizations might fear the idea of a single functional entity with responsibility for all aspects of information management. If information is truly power, a united information function might prove to be powerful. Perhaps the appropriate model is similar to that in the current US telecommunications industry, in which some firms (e.g. regional Bell operating companies, AT&T) have concentrated on network infrastructure, and others (Dun & Bradsheet, McGraw-Hill, Dow Jones) have focused on content. Alliances between these two worlds are desirable and becoming common, but no one firm seems able to master both. As Peter Drucker has noted, we have only begun to understand how managers and organizations use information. There is a great need for understanding of how people use and value information - how they gather it, share it, act (or not act) on it, and dispose of it - and under what conditions it should be supplied, including preferred medium and source. The combination of all of this detail would yield a true information architecture, with flows, nodes, inputs, outputs, transformations, and usage patterns. Previous versions of information architecture have been much too granular, technical, and detailed to be of much use; future versions should be created not at the data element or entity level, but at the level of bounded information - often in the form of a document. Again, no one is better positioned than librarians to pursue and act on these issues; they deal frequently with information requirements and documents. The librarians or information managers in tomorrow's organization must realize that people, not printed or electronic sources, are the most valuable information asset in any organization. Legions of annual reports say that 'the experience and knowledge of our people is our most valuable asset', yet firms do little or nothing to capitalize on or provide access to this asset. The modern librarian will catalogue not only printed materials or even knowledgeable information professionals, but also that Jane Smith is working on a sales force compensation project, and that Joe Bloggs knows a lot about the metallurgical properties of wheel bearings. When another division or a customer calls to find out this sort of information, they will finally have a place to go. Several of the firms we have worked with already feel that this is a valid role for librarians; at one telecommunications firm, for example, librarians were referred to as

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Tom Davenport / Larry Prusak 'human PBXs' because of their ability to make connections between people requiring information and people possessing it. All these changes will undoubtedly seem daunting to information professionals (they are summarized in the Appendix, Table 2). They do comprise a radical shift in how people provide information throughout organizations. Better, however, to transform these information jobs than to lose them entirely. The old model of librarians guarding the stacks from information users, or of researchers and executives browsing in comfortable reading rooms, will never be appropriate again.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION As we can see, librarians have their work cut out for them. There are many potential roles to be performed for which they are well-suited. All the more shameful that they continue working in the passive, low-status environment that characterizes most corporate libraries today. Some of today's librarians may find it difficult to make the transition to network executives, and for virtually all this is a transition that will take a number of years. The combination of information functions, and the blending of different types of information skills, will make the necessary cultural changes more possible. Of course, the issues described here are bigger than the library. What we are talking about is, in fact, a larger set of issues around information management. Whether computer people, librarians, market researchers, or outsourcers provide these services is not really important. That they are ultimately provided in an effective form is what really matters. It may also be clear that the ideas presented here, because they represent incremental functionality, will require incremental resources. Some current information-oriented activities, such as purchasing the same information multiple times across the organization, spending time in searching for information (about 11 per cent of total work time, according to one recent study of 200 executives), 7 and buying information for the warehouse that never gets used, can be streamlined or eliminated through better information management. But the information revolution won't come for free. We must be willing to invest in the management of information that helps us make better products, decisions, and customer relationships. What makes this even more expensive is that once someone has been provided with good information, he or she often just wants more. When the information is germane and well-packaged, there is no such thing as information overload.8 The library was created at a time when formation access and usage was a more leisurely activity. We might want to return to those days, but they have not been η

Survey conducted by Accountemps and reported in Information Week, p. 47, 1992. 8

Bruns, W. and McKinnon, S.: The Information Mosaic. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA; 1992; the authors find little evidence of information overload among manufacturing executives, even though the information received is often of poor quality.

18

"Blow up the Corporate Library" present for a long time in the corporations we study and work with. To adapt to current and future information environments, radical changes must be undertaken in corporate libraries. Ironically, if they are not begun soon, libraries, and those who focus on content rather than computers, may become extinct in the information age.

Appendix Table 1. Models of information provision Model Warehouse

Primary objective Control and storage of printed matter

Expertise centre

Provide access to human experts and their information sources Connect providers and users of information

Network

Mode of operation Limited information distribution; establishment of formal systems Reliance on information professionals; some value added to information Computer-based multi-media networks with pointers to human sources

Table 2. Requirements for tomorrow's information professionals 1. Get out of the library, and into the business 2. Actively assess who needs information, and who has it, then help them to connect 3. Focus on multiple media, and how they can be exploited using tomorrow's technologies 4. Develop an alliance with the more user-oriented IS personnel 5. Don't assume that technology will replace humans in information provision 6. Develop an architecture of information 7. Work with external providers to develop more useful vehicles for information 8. Emphasize usage of information materials over control

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Parti Political and Ethical Implications CHANGE OF PARADIGM IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR THE COLLABORATIVE PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE OF KNOWLEDGE* Rainer Kuhlen Professor for Information Science Department of Computer and Information Science University of Konstanz, Germany [email protected]

ABSTRACT We propose a paradigm shift in the understanding of knowledge management. This puts knowledge management in the broader context of communication. Knowledge management is generally understood as a means of having better control over the production and usage of explicit and implicit knowledge in organizations of any kind, preferably commercial businesses, but also public administrations. The paradigm shift in the understanding of knowledge management (towards communications) has come about because knowledge and information are no longer considered as being simply there. Information is not just the result of a particular distribution or retrieval process, using and applying existing knowledge to new problems, but is also the result of communication processes. This can be called the network or communication approach to knowledge management. Knowledge and information in all areas and in all applications are increasingly produced, distributed and used collaboratively. We cover the following topics: (a) The paradigm shift is quite obvious with respect to knowledge management from an organizational perspective, (b) The paradigm shift towards communicative knowledge management also has consequences from a political perspective and (c) will have consequences for the media, (d) The communicative paradigm of knowledge management is also increasingly relevant as a means of organizing learning processes as collaborative cooperative, knowledge sharing processes, (e) It is obvious that the paradigm shift towards communication processes also dramatically changes the way that the production and the exchange of knowledge is and will be organized in the scientific environment, (f) The communicative approach has and will continue to have a strong influence on our understanding of the concept of authorship and, consequently, of

This paper was presented in the Plenary Session, Sunday 03 August 2003, of the World Library and Information Congress: 69th IFLA General Conference and Council, Berlin 2003.

21

Rainer Kuhlen ownership of intellectual property, (g) Finally, knowledge management in the communicative paradigm - at least with respect to the topic of generating and disseminating knowledge in the communicative, selforganizing paradigm - will have major consequences for librarians' work and the structure and mandate of information transfer institutions.

A PARADIGM SHIFT This talk will be a surprise to most of you. You probably expect a talk about knowledge management - and the object of the talk is indeed knowledge management - , but what I will mainly be doing is talking about communications and the right to communicate. In the process of my talk you will hopefully agree that communications is in the center of knowledge management. •

•

•

The right to communicate seems the most obvious thing in the world, in particular in a world where information and communication technologies are the driving force in all domains of modern society. The right to communicate seems a basic right, a natural right, so fundamental that the founders of the Universal Declaration of Humans Rights and most other Covenants, Conventions, Charters etc. did not feel compelled to mention it explicitly or to enshrine it in the canon of universal rights and values. The right to communicate can even be considered a distinctive characteristic of the human race.

But amazingly enough the right to communicate is one of the most controversial topics of international debate in the last 50 years. How can it be that a fundamental, universal and obvious right can be the object of controversial interpretations, can be the focus of such heterogeneous, opposing interests, with the consequence, for example, that the USA government felt obliged to terminate its membership in the UNESCO some 25 years ago as a consequence of the debate about the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). Communications, this was the message of the early NWICO debate and is a major theme in the current preparatory process for the World Summit on the Information Society, is a highly controversial and political topic. The subtitle of my talk is "Framework for the Collaborative Production and Exchange of Knowledge". This can be related to what I am going to call a paradigm shift in the understanding of knowledge management. And this puts knowledge management in the broader context of communication. Knowledge management is generally understood as a means of having better control over the production and usage of explicit and implicit knowledge in organizations of any kind, preferably commercial businesses, but also public administrations. To put the objectives of traditional knowledge management in a nutshell: to know what an organization in principle knows and to make that knowledge available to the right people at the right time.

22

Change of Paradigm The paradigm shift in the understanding of knowledge management (towards communications) has come about because knowledge and information are no longer considered as being simply there. The classic view is that knowledge is produced by single authors, is published and stored in information containers (traditionally in printed books, journals, reports, today more and more in electronic forms such as data banks, knowledge-based-systems, non-linear hypertexts, and web sites), that knowledge is distributed to users or is interactively retrieved by end-users. This is the static view of knowledge management. We will call that the knowledge warehouse approach. The dynamic or communicative view on knowledge management does not take knowledge and information as fixed, but emphasizes the ongoing growth and renewal of knowledge and information in a continual process of exchange and communication. Information is thus not just the result of a particular distribution or retrieval process, using and applying existing knowledge to new problems - although this, of course will still be a major impetus for innovation -, but is also the result of communication processes. This can be called the network or communication approach to knowledge management. This shift from the distribution and retrieval of existing knowledge to the interactive and collaborative production of new knowledge in the communication paradigm of knowledge management has been made possible by what I call the telemediatization of all areas of intellectual life. "Telemediatization" is a cover term for the potentials of telecommunication (electronic communication via networks), informatics (electronic information processing) and multi-/hypermedia (non-linear multi-modal knowledge representation and usage). Telemediatization is not simply a neutral, application-independent change in technology but causes changes in all areas of life, in particular with respect to our intellectual life, not deterministically, but nevertheless with far-reaching consequences. This is why the communication paradigm of knowledge management must be put in the broader context of a genuine revolution in our understanding of and our behaviour towards knowledge and information. Knowledge and information in all areas and in all applications are increasingly produced, distributed and used collaboratively. Collaboration - this does not mean as in German or in French - work with the enemy (these are collaborateurs!) but just the opposite: cooperating and sharing resources with others in an open, friendly, often non-competitive, but supportive way - collaboration is in general organized in networks, not in hierarchies. Networks - as we know from organization and system theory - allow greater creativity and innovative power because they reduce barriers and constraints inherent in hierarchies. But networks need coordination. Coordination is another word for management. Knowledge production, enrichment, dissemination, and usage in the

23

Rainer Kuhlen network need to be managed. The communication paradigm is therefore a great challenge for knowledge management, and not only in commercial and administrative organizations but in all environments where knowledge and information are at stake. We mention only a few aspects of this enlarged understanding of knowledge management as a paradigm shift from a static, hierarchical to a dynamic, networked view of knowledge and information. •

•

•

•

•

•

•

The paradigm shift is quite obvious with respect to knowledge management from an organizational perspective. This is probably what most of you expected when reading the title of my paper. Consequently we will elaborate on the potentials of technical, computer-supported communication for the generation of knowledge in organizations and will concentrate on the value-added effects of electronic communication forums (fora). The paradigm shift towards communicative knowledge management also has consequences from a political perspective. Therefore we will elaborate in some detail the conflict about the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), which was in general a debate about the/a right to communicate. This is, of course, not intended to be a retrospective on the old NWICO controversy, with its dramatic consequences not only for the UNESCO. Instead NWICO revisited is of high relevance today, in particular with respect to the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) which will take place in its first part in mid-December of this year in Geneva (the second part will be held in Tunisia in 2005). Amazingly enough, one can experience 25 years later the same debate about dominance or repression of communications. At the end, we only very briefly will mention some of the consequences of this paradigm shift for the media. This is mainly a shift from the traditional distributional paradigm first to the interactive and second to the communicative paradigm. The communicative paradigm of knowledge management, and in this paradigm electronic communication forums are also increasingly relevant as a means of organizing learning processes as collaborative cooperative, knowledge sharing processes. And it is obvious that the paradigm shift towards communication processes also dramatically changes the way that the production and the exchange of knowledge is and will be organized in the scientific environment. This will have and already has consequences for the way the whole publication chain from authors to readers is organized. And this has and will continue to have a strong influence on our understanding of the concept of authorship and, consequently, of ownership of intellectual property. In the electronic environment, maybe we do not need such a concept of intellectual property, which seems no longer to be an incentive or a guarantee for knowledge generation, but an obstacle to free and inclusive communication, anymore. Finally, I have been told that the talks of the plenary speakers do not necessarily need to refer explicitly to library topics. But it is obvious that knowledge management in the communicative paradigm - at least with respect to the topics of collaborative learning and communication competence at universities and of

24

Change of Paradigm generating and disseminating knowledge in the communicative, self-organizing paradigm - will have major consequences for librarians and library organization. Knowledge management in the communication paradigm (and this means organizing and coordinating the processes of knowledge and information) will be one of the major objectives and tasks of modern libraries in the 21st century. We do not have time and space to discuss the last topics in greater detail but concentrate in the following on the paradigm shift of knowledge management from an organizational perspective and on the relation between knowledge management and the right to communicate from a political perspective. KNOWLEDGE WAREHOUSES VS. KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS Knowledge management from a business perspective is to be seen as a reaction to the information or knowledge society concepts from the 70ies when Daniel Bell, Fritz Machlup, Peter Drucker, Marc U. Porat, and Yoneji Masuda carried out their macroeconomic studies and discovered that the gross national product depends highly on the production, distribution and usage of information and knowledge products and service. It was in particular Porat with his distinction between the first information sector this is mainly what we call the information markets where information goods are exchanged either with a commercial, proprietary or with a sharing, non-commercial interest - and the second information sector - this refers to all kinds of information processing within organizations - who raised awareness for the importance of knowledge and information as a major resource and factor for success in organizations of any kind. If knowledge and information are major success factors, then it makes sense that they need to be organized according to management principles. This was the beginning of information management, mainly the coordination of internal and external information resources - hardware-, software- and brainware-based ones. Information management and knowledge management are often used as synonymous concepts. We do not wish to go into the never-ending terminological debate about the difference between knowledge and information. But the argument makes sense that the carrier of knowledge management began when organizations discovered the value of their employees as the main means of success rather than relying predominantly on information machinery and internal and external information systems. What people know is what an organization needs to know, information from machines and technical systems is only of additional value when people accept it, embed it into their already existing knowledge structure and when they, as people, use it. Knowledge, an internal cognitive structure of human beings, cannot be managed, but the processes that support the creation and exchange of knowledge can be the subject

25

Rainer Kuhlen of management, in particular those processes where many knowledge actors are involved. Without claiming to provide a comprehensive overview of existing knowledge management theories: in general there have been two major approaches of knowledge management so far. One goes back to the famous book of Ikujuor Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi: The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation (published 1995).

Tacit (implicit) - formalized (explicit) knowledge Tacit knowledge

tacit

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knowledge

Transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, mainly through representation, codification, standardization

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Engineering - Department of Computer and Information Science at the University Change of Paradigm In Knowledge Management - If LA 2003 - Berlin

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And the other approach is often associated, at least in Germany, with the work of Gilbert Probst and colleagues like Kai Romhardt, who introduced knowledge bricks or knowledge elements to describe the different components of knowledge1.

1

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26

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: http://www.cck.uni-kl.de/wml Don't just show how; tell why, tell sea stories. With these guidelines in mind, librarians can not only make the point about the need for user education and training and their ability to make a contribution, they can begin to describe specifically what needs to be done and how they can help accomplish it. REFERENCES: Allen, Thomas J. 1977 Managing the Flow of Technology: Technology Transfer and the Dissemination of Technological Information Within the R&D Organization Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Burden, Paul. 2000 Knowledge Management, the Bibliography, _Medford, NJ, Information Today for the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Davenport, Thomas H. & Prusak, Lawrence, 1998, Working Knowledge, Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press. Godhar, Joel D., Bragaw, Louis K,. and Jules J. Schwarts, 1976 "Information Flows, Management Styles and Technological Innovation." IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management EM-23, (1)51-61. Griffiths, Jose-Marie. 1982 "The Value of Information and Related Systems, Products and Services." In: Williams, Martha E., ed. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology: Volume 17. (White Plains, NY: Knowledge Industry Publications, Inc. for the American Society for Information Science; 1982) 269-284. Hansen, Morten T. Nohria, Nitin, and Thomas Tierney, 1999 "What's your Strategy for Managing Knowledge", Harvard Business Review 11 (2) (March-April 1999): 106-116. King, Donald W., McDonald, Dennis D., and Nancy K. Roderer, 1981 Scientific Journals in the United States: Their Production, Use, and Economics, (Stroudsburg, PA: Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.,), 319 p. Koenig, Michael E.D. 1992 "The Information Environment and the Productivity of Research," Recent Advances in Chemical Information, ed. H. Collier (London: Royal Society of Chemistry, 1992) 133-143., reprinted in: Information Culture and Business Performance, Information Strategy Report 2, prepared for the British Library by Hertis Information and Research, 1995. Keonig, Michael E.D. 1992. Entering Stage III-The Convergence of the Stage Hypotheses, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 43 (3): 204209, April 1992. Mondschein, Lawrence G. 1990 SDI Use and Productivity in the Corporate Research Environment, Special Libraries 81 (4) (Fall 1990): 265-279.

149

Michael E.D. Koenig

Nelke, Margareta. 1989 Knowledge Management in Swedish Corporation in T. Kanti Srikantaiah & Michael E. D. Koenig, eds., Knowledge Management for the Information Professional, Medford, NJ: Information Today, for the American Society for Information Science, 1999. Orpen, Christopher. 1981 The Effect of Managerial Distribution or Scientific and Technical Information on Company Performance, R&D Management 15 (4) (October 1985): 305-308 Poppel, Harvey L. 1982 Who Needs the Office of the Future? Harvard Business Review. 60(6)(November/December, 1982): 146-155. Roderer, Nancy K., King, Donald W., and Sandra E. Brouard. 1983 The Use and Value of Defense Technical Information Center Products and Services, Rockville, MD: King Research, Inc.; 1983 June. 115p. (Submitted to the Defense Technical Information Center). OCLC: 12987688,11599947. Available, by permission, from King Research, Inc., P.O. Box 572, Oak Ridge, TN 37831.

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Part 3 Case Studies KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND END USER WORK ENVIRONMENTS 2010* Wilda B. Newman The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory USA [email protected]

Research in Knowledge Management and collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University, Digital Knowledge Center will allow focus on the future work environment of the University as a whole. The sharing of resources, perspectives, ideas, concepts, and work environments will create a synergy for developing profiles of end users and their Knowledge Management environments. It will look at the published information environment, as well as the overall "information" environment of end users. The research will review how end users currently access and use information and develop future scenarios of end user profiles and how these are structured, from a Knowledge Management perspective. The definition of Knowledge Management as defined by the Gartner Group states that: "Knowledge Management promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, retrieving, sharing, and evaluating an enterprise's information assets. These information assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, as well as the uncaptured tacit expertise and experience stored in individuals' heads" (www.gartner.com). It also includes content management, best illustrated in the "traditional or industrial age library," as well as process flows in automated environments. Knowledge Management is a very broad umbrella and includes by necessity many people of diverse educational and experiential backgrounds. Many of these people are outside the field of Computer Science and are playing an important role in defining and developing the overall understanding of Knowledge Management. The Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has established an R&D arm that includes the Digital Knowledge Center (DKC) to assist with the transition of the information environment into the new millennium. The transition of this environment includes information that is both published and unpublished, as well as information that is internal and external to the organization.

* Paper presented at the 65111 IFLA Council and General Conference 20-28 August 1999, Bangkok, Thailand

151

Wilda Β. Newman The DKC has two major activities: (1) Evaluation of technology and determining where it is going and its limitations, and (2) Building collaborative relationships with other areas of the University in general. The DKC focuses are electronic pedagogy, electronic scholarship publishing, and emerging technology. The work proposed will take advantage of these focal points and promote a collaborative approach between the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory and the University as a whole in Knowledge Management. [See Figure 1]

Figure 1

The use of technology is prevalent throughout our facilities; however, we have yet to leverage that technology in ways that the organization begins to reap more fully the benefits so that technology can assist in data, information, and knowledge delivery. This may mean internally produced content or externally produced content and include not only text and graphics but also multi-media, such as streaming video, digitized audio and real time content creation. Knowledge Management also includes procedures and processes that are related and embedded in the functional operations supportive of the infrastructure in the work that occurs as part of all divisions and levels of the University. For example, how will the executive, scientist, researcher, faculty or engineer conduct his or her business, make decisions and manage? How will the administrative, business, or secretarial employees interact in the new environments? And, how will the Program Manager differ in how he or she manages the program environment? In other words, we need to think not just about what we do now, but rather what we do and how we would like to do it in the future. This will require new concepts, tools, and strategies. Basic to this are the building blocks that include knowledge processes, organizational culture, knowledge support, and information technology infrastructure, as noted by Richard N. Fletcher, Principal, Energy Futures Research Associates, Dallas, Texas.

152

End User Work Environments 2010 The future Eisenhower Library will carry forward the digital and network revolutions in the creation, distribution and use of scholarly information but will also integrate a more market-based, customized and entrepreneurial approach to the packaging and delivery of information. The MSEL will become a center for research and development in the application of technology; an aggregator and publisher, and not just a consumer of scholarly information; a campus hub for working with faculty on the integration of technology and electronic resources into teaching and research; a national center for lifelong learning opportunities for information professionals; and a provider of information services to broader academic, research and business communities. "This vision for the Eisenhower Library predicts a significant moderation in the cost increases for knowledge acquisition as the traditional model of scholarly communication is replaced, a redefinition of the MSEL as a virtual resource not limited by time and space and so dependent on buildings for the housing and use of information, and a positioning of the Library as a successful competitor in the information market, and for corporate, foundation and federal investment." (Neal, James G., Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Director, Dean University Libraries, "Vision 2010," 1998.) Knowledge Management has many definitions, but is generally acknowledged to be the next "age" or revolution, in businesses and organizations and is seen as a discipline. The concept behind Knowledge Management is applying an environment of management to the most valuable asset of an organization, its knowledge. The research proposed will pursue Knowledge Management as previously defined, that is, as an integrated approach to information assets. These may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, tacit expertise and experience, as well as content management. Collaboration with the Eisenhower Library's Digital Knowledge Center will allow focus on the future work environments of the University as a whole. Further more, sharing resources, perspectives, ideas, concepts, and work environments will create a synergy for developing profiles of end users and their Knowledge Management environments. To accomplish this research the following tasks are identified. [See Figure 2]

153

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5.1 THE GENERATED METRO MAP AND ROUTE MAPS Figure 1 shows the Metro map used as the user guidance system. The different routes in the map present recommended ways through the user guidance system. Each route represents a certain topic. The topics are: literature, library orientation, study guidance, project writing, Internet, vocabularies, writing laboratory, virtual libraries and information retrieval. If the user wants to follow the recommended sequence s/he just has to click on the oval figure of a route. Otherwise s/he can jump directly to a particular station by clicking on it. When clicking a station in the Metro map, a route map is shown along with the contents of the particular station. If the 'Virtual Libraries' station is clicked in the yellow route the frameset in Figure 2 is presented. The frameset consists of two frames: a navigation frame and a contents frame. The navigation frame shows the selected route and indicates the user's position on the route by red colouring of the current station. The contents frame shows the contents 179

Tove Bang of the current station, i.e. the URL that the station represents. Each station can be selected directly by clicking on it, and the route map highlights the current station. The Metro and route maps help to maintain an overview of the user's whereabouts in a large body of related learning resources. 5.2 THE USER INTERFACE OF THE WEBNIZE GUIDED TOUR SYSTEM The guided tour editor is a drawing editor (see Figure 3) that makes it possible to define the sequencing of stations in the guided tour in a general graph. Stations can be added to the graph in different ways. One way is adding a URL to the guided tour by using the command 'Add to guided tour' in an extended popup menu of the Internet Explorer. URLs (from the Address field and links in the web pages) can also be dragged into the guided tour editor. More facilities are described in details in (Sandvad et al., 2001)).

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REFERENCES COVITA, H. (2000) - Rede de Centros de Recursos em Conhecimento & sua plataforma virtual [On line]. Lisboa : Inofor. Available at: http://193.137.98.84 /crcvirtualnet /biblioteca/fset.asp?id_biblio=24&url=/3_14_2001_12_l 1/ [Accessed 4/08/02] EUROPEAN UNION. Commission (1997) - Towards a Europe of knowledge [On line] : communication from the Commission. COM(97)563 final. Available at: http://europa.eu.int./comm/education/orient/orie-en.html. [Accessed 22/07/02] LUNDVALL, B. A. and BORRAS, S., ed. (1997) - The globalising learning economy : implications for innovation policy : draft version. [S.l : s.n.], 1997. Report based on the preliminary conclusions of several projects under the TSER programme. NYMAN, B., ed. (2002) - Taking steps towards the knowledge society : reflections on the process of knowledge development. Luxembourg : Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Summit Of The European Council, Lisbon, 2000 - Presidency conclusions : Lisbon Summit of the European Council, 23-24 March 2000. Available at: http://eu.eu.int /Newsroom /Load /Doc.asp?BID=76&DID=60942&LANG= 1. [Accessed 22/07/02], TOWARDS a European vision of quality : the way forward. Coord, by the European Organisation for Quality and the Centre for Excellence - Finland. Helsinki : Finnish Ministries of Finance and Trade and Industry. Versäo 1.0, Jan. 2000. EUROPEAN UNION (2000) - CAF - Common Assessment Secretariado para a Moderniza?äo Administrative].

Framework.

[Lisboa :

BIBLIOGRAPHY BERTOT, J. C. (1999) - Developing national network statistics and performance measures for U.S. public libraries : models, methodologies and issues. In Northumbria International Conference On Performance Measurement, 3, Northumberland, 1999 - Proceedings, p. 310.

BROPHY, P. and CLARKE, Z. (2001) - Library performance measurement and quality management system [Online] : edited final report. Version 1. LB-5634/A EQUINOX 24471/0:EQUINOX. Available at: http://equinox.dcu.ie /reports/d2_5.html [Accessed 28/02/02], COOK, C.; COLEMEN, V. and HEATH, F. (1999) - SERVQUAL : a client-based approach to developing performance indicators. In Northumbria International Conference On Performance Measurement, 3, Northumberland, 1999 - Proceedings, p. 211-218. IFLA Satellite Meeting, Berlin, (1997): Performance measurement and quality management in public libraries : proceedings. Berlin : Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut. ISO 2789. 1991 - International library statistics. 2nd ed. ISO/DIS 2789. 2001 - International library statistics. [Draft] ISO 11620. 1998 - Library performance

indicators.

ISO/DIS 11620.1998/DAM 1. 2001 - Library performance additional performance indicators for libraries.

indicators : amendment I :

KINNELL, M.; USHERWOOD, B. and JONES, K. (1999) - Improving library and information services through self-assessment. London : Library Association Publishing..

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A Knowledge Partnership in Portuguese Information Services MAC DOUGALL, Α.; OFARRELL, J. and WILLIAMS, J. (1997) - EQLIPSE : Evaluation and Quality in Library Performance: System for Europe [Online] : final report and final functional specifications. LIB-EQLIPSE/4-3019.3077. Available at: http://www.mmu, ac.uk /h-ss/cerlim/projects/del7.doc [Accessed 28/02/02]. OCHÖA, P. and PINTO, L.G. (2002) - A aprendizagem da Rede de Centros de Recursos em Conhecimento: visoes da qualidade, realidades e expectativas. Draft report presented on 08/03/2002. OCHÖA, P., coord. (1999) - Gestäo Qualidade: relatörio de investigagäo nas bibliotecas da Administragäo Publica' 98. Lisboa: Ministerio da Educapao - Secretaria-Geral. OCHÖA, P. and PINTO, L.G. (2000) - Evaluation of Total Quality Management impact on Portuguese Public Administration libraries. In Northumbria International Conference On Performance Measurement, 3, Northumberland, 1999 - Proceedings, p. 181-186. OECD. Centre for Innovation, Research and Innovation (2000) - Knowledge management and the learning society. Paris : OECD. PINTO, L. G. and OCHÖA, P. (2002) - Indicadores de desempenhopara α Rede de Centros em Conhecimento : novas fontes de aprendizagem. Lisboa : Inofor, Secretaria-Geral do Min. Educacäo. Draft report. ZWEIZIG, D. [et al.] (1996) - The TELL IT! Manual. Chicago : ALA.

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CORPORATE BUNKER OR CYBER CAFE: RETHINKING THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF THE LIBRARY IN THE CORPORATION - A CASE STUDY* Alvin L. Jacobson, Ph.D. Hartwell Associates [email protected] and James M. Matarazzo Dean and Professor Emeritus Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College, Boston [email protected]

INTRODUCTION Certainly one of the most painful questions to be asked of a corporate librarian is "what is the value of the 'library' to the business?' Following an initial pause, often there is a volley of cost savings figures cited, and even a smattering of anecdotal evidence illustrating the value of the library. Invariably, the question raises anew the irrepressible issue "what is value?" and "how do we measure it?" Given the fact that some estimates put the total number of corporate libraries in the neighborhood of 10,000 with an associated operating budget of $3.2 billion, the question is not easily avoided. Indeed, not to address the issue directly can and has invited competing business demands vying for scarce library and information resources. The traditional way most studies have approached the issue of valuation has been to employ an "economic replacement" cost approach or to ask end-users directly to evaluate the utility of services received. In our view both approaches are flawed. Cost analysis is not the same as valuation analysis. An object or service may, for example, cost $17.50 to reproduce or replace, but the value of the service may be far less or far greater than $17.50. A replacement cost approach may therefore under or over-estimate the true value of services, and it is highly unlikely that even the directionality let alone the magnitude of the bias can be discerned. On the other hand, asking end-users to evaluate services consumed avoids the "cost" problem but creates a problem of comparability and objectivity. Two individuals may perceive the value of the same service quite differently. Library-assisted document searches are a case in point. Some end-users prefer to do their own searches while others will prefer

* The paper has been presented at the 92nd SLA Annual conference, San Antonio, Texas, USA, June 9-14, 2001. The authors would like to express his gratitude to the staff and management of Bristol-Myers Squibb's corporate library, the Scientific Information Resources group, for their cooperation and involvement in the work represented here. Portions of this paper appeared in an article entitled "Bristol-Meyers Squibb: Building the New Corporate Library," Alvin L. Jacobson and Omar Cheema, Knowledge Directions, Fall/Winter 2000, pp. 7-2 1.

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Alvin L. Jacobson & James Μ. Matarazzo professional assistance. Are we then to conclude that the aggregate value of the service is "zero?" and if not, how do we combine utility scores across individuals and across business units? So what is to be done or said in response to the question, what is the value of the library to the business? and more pointedly, what can or should we as practitioners be doing to enhance that value? We believe that the key to understanding and measuring the value of information services is to take a strategic rather than product or service perspective. In our view, corporate libraries and information services only create value in the extent to which they directly or indirectly contribute to the strategic goals and objectives of the corporation. Creating, sustaining and enhancing value requires a continuous process of aligning and realigning the infrastructure, processes and services of the library on the one hand, with the larger corporate objectives on the other hand. Based on work-in-process at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), this paper illustrates this value-alignment or strategy-focused approach. As part of a larger space-needs assessment study, BMS undertook a long-term strategic assessment of the future position of the library within the corporation. The main driver in this assessment was to enhance the overall value of the library to the corporation. While the work is ongoing, we believe the approach and methodology used here has broader applications outside of the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to describing this work however, we first look at a couple of the prevailing archetypes of the corporate library. The first is what we have termed the "bunker" mentality, and the second, its counterpoint, here referred to as the "cyber cafe." These two models provide a useful context for understanding the concept of the strategy-focused library. TWO CONTRASTING MODELS OF THE LIBRARY Several years ago, Davenport and Prusak wrote a thoughtful and highly provocative article entitled "Blow Up the Corporate Library"1. In that paper, the authors noted a vexing fact about libraries: "While these should be halcyon days for corporate libraries,... they have been left largely behind by the information revolution." Instead of being on top of their game, the library as they observed it was mired in a bunkerlike mentality. The librarians, according to the authors, viewed their role in the corporation as custodians rather than champions of information resources. The notion of a customer or customer segmentation was rare; the concept of customer service was even more unusual. Davenport and Prusak's portrayal of librarians emphasized their estrangement from the rest of the organization ("we prefer books to people"), and a belief that, despite the benefits of their service, their contributions were undervalue and under-appreciated. 1

Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak, "Blow Up the Corporate Library," International Journal ofInformation Management 13 (1993), pp. 405-412. (reprinted in this volume) 214

Corporate Bunker or Cyber Cafe Not all the responsibility for the bunker mentality comes from within, however. The authors note that managers outside the library often expressed a lack of understanding of what the library did. Even more profoundly, managers often lacked an appreciation for the value of the information services offered. Findings from a separate survey of senior managers support Davenport and Prusak's assertion that "outsiders" find it difficult to understand and value library services. Over 50% of a sample of senior managers from US-based large corporations stated that the only way they knew how to value library services was to poll information users in an annual survey. In response to a separate question, less than one-third of senior management felt that the library contributed to the strategy of the firm. Even if some libraries have hunkered down in bunker-like positions, not all have limited their options to "blowing themselves up" or to remaining under a state of siege. Some have fashioned bold transformations and gone on to establish themselves as leaders in their firm's knowledge revolution. Others are in the early stages of defining a new value proposition and exploring opportunities for playing a more integral part of the knowledge management (KM) programs. One of the forms that this transformation has taken is what we have termed the cyber-cafe concept of the corporate library. As the name implies, the cyber-cafe view of the library sees value being created primarily by providing automated access and connections to information sources, documents, and other individuals. The essential backbone of the cyber-cafe is, of course, the electronic or virtual network. By linking end-users to personalized web pages, filtered news alerts and documents, e-joumals and e-books, and even chat rooms and message boards, the cyber cafe offers instant access and instant connectivity. Moreover, it presumably offers services without the inefficiencies and costs of maintaining a physical library. Despite its intuitive appeal, seeming cost efficiencies, and hi-tech "buzz," the concept of the cyber cafe qua library has yet to gain widespread support. To be sure, most corporate libraries have embraced some features and aspects of the virtual network, but we know of only one instance where a company by design has sought to replace the physical library with a virtual network. A large part of the resistance, we suspect, goes back to the fundamental question we began with, namely how do you create, sustain and enhance the value of the library to the business? Instead of looking at the value proposition in terms of a particular type of delivery system (i.e., physical or electronic or mixed), we need to turn the question on its head and ask, "given a set of corporate objectives, what are the most effective services I need to design and deliver to specific customer segments using the most efficient mechanisms possible?"

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Alvin L. Jacobson & James Μ. Matarazzo A study of the role of corporate libraries in large Japanese firms supports this concept of linking library services to strategic outcomes. Prusak and Matarazzo2 found that, in contrast to their American counterparts, Japanese businessmen and women not only valued information more but also were more inclined to use it in their day-today business decisions. This happened, the authors found, because information and library resources were integrated with the business units. At one large insurance agency, information specialists from the library were directly responsible for creating and maintaining profiles of existing and potential clients. A direct sales force in turn used these profiles in its calling campaigns. When the information specialists were asked how they valued their own services, they unhesitatingly responded in terms of sales dollars. At another large industrial firm, library resources were viewed as an important source for self-development, a central value in the company's mission. Overall, the authors of the study observed that "all of the information centers we visited had a clear understanding of both the direction their firm was heading toward and what their own role is in moving the enterprise towards-these goals. Libraries and information functions operations are well designed to support the firm's directions."

BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB SETTING Perhaps, nowhere is the need and pressure greater to produce value-add information services than in the pharmaceutical industry. By tradition an information-intensive environment, conditions in the last couple of years have lined up to create the "perfect information storm." First, a wave of mergers and consolidations in the industry has raised the bar in terms of competition and market valuation. More efficient and effective information and knowledge management have accelerated an already fiercely competitive race. Second, a number of breakthroughs and developments in combinatorial chemistry, numerical simulations and genomics have greatly quickened the pace of drug discovery and development. These developments in turn have led to an explosion of data and information. Third, the FDA itself has recently modified some requirements for drug approvals and testing. These changes expedite the filing process and also increase the pressures to complete filings in a timely, comprehensive and accurate manner. Fourth, the biotech industry has spawned a new niche player focused more on gene discovery than drug development. The rise of genetic research has touched off a huge scramble to stay abreast of patent information and business intelligence. Finally, the amount of information on the Web, in electronic journals and print media has grown dramatically. Like the confluence of weather systems that produced the "perfect storm" in the book and movie of that name, these multiple factors combine to generate a monumental storm of information. Scientists feel intense pressure to absorb staggering amounts of it. Librarians struggle to act effectively as gatekeepers and filters of information that threatens to overwhelm researchers.

2

James M. Matarazzo and Laurence Prusak, Information Management and Japanese Success, (Working Paper No.2, Ernst & Young Center for information Technology, November 1991)

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Corporate Bunker or Cyber Cafe In early 1999, Bristol-Myers Squibb faced all of these forces. In addition, the company had recently launched a major new strategic objective aimed at increasing the number and pace of blockbuster drugs brought to market. As head of the corporate library (the Scientific Information and Resource group, SIR), Carol Bekar had been at BMS for nine years and had experienced these pressure points before. The group had successfully launched a number of innovations including expanded access to e-journals from the scientists' desktops and customized portals for various work groups and project teams. Despite such recent successes, it had been three years since the library had developed a long-term vision of where they wanted to go and a strategic plan to get there. In view of the growing importance of information and knowledge management throughout the company, Carol believed that it was time to achieve a new level in the value of services she and her group brought to the R&D scientists and technicians. With the strong support of her own management team as well as senior management above her, she launched the Scientific Pharmaceutical Information Resources Excellence (SPIRE) study in February of 2000.

STUDY FRAMEWORK The SPIRE study's main aim was to help the BMS library group develop a long-term vision for the year 2005 and to craft a strategy that would help make that vision a reality. The study involved six major components or tasks: 1. Develop an internal (to the library group) vision statement 2. Corroborate and refine the vision statement and build an enterprise-wide survey based on focus groups discussions and senior management interviews 3. Conduct an enterprise-wide survey for identifying customer segments and prioritizing strategic initiatives 4. Compare recommended strategic imperatives against best-in-class practices 5. Develop a strategic plan 6. Design and implement a balanced scorecard approach for monitoring strategic performance and adjusting the plan going forward Elsewhere3 we have described in some detail the process and findings related to steps 1-4. The remainder of this paper concentrates on Step 5, Developing the Strategic Plan. THE STRATEGY FOCUSED LIBRARY In the course of our management interviews, one senior officer turned to us and candidly remarked, "If the results of your study cannot be measured in terms of an incremental positive impact on our strategic goals, then I would consider the project of little value to BMS." He then quickly added that those goals were twofold: enhance the speed and quality of decision-making and build-up our stock of intellectual capital (i.e. innovation). Likewise, another senior official stated that from 3

see Alvin L. Jacobson and Omar Cheema, "Bristol-Meyers Squibb: Building the New Corporate Library,", Knowledge Directions, Fall/Winter 2000, pp. 7-2 1.

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Alvin L. Jacobson & James Μ. Matarazzo the standpoint of the drug discovery process: "The avalanche of information today prohibits us from processing and using information as we have in the past. We need to find new ways to cope with information, to create more intelligent systems for sifting, through and linking gene targets to known compounds." Both remarks make it patently clear what it is that creates value in the organization it is designing, building, and implementing business and support units that all are aligned to enhance the larger corporate objectives. This is what is meant by the strategically focused organization, a concept recently advanced by Nolan and Norton4. Building on their seminal work on the balanced scorecard, Nolan and Norton use strategy maps to trace out the causal relationships between key inputs and desired outcomes. The four critical components of the balanced scorecard serve as a framework for building strategy maps. Outcomes or strategic goals center on the "financial perspective", whereas the key inputs are defined in terms of the "customer perspective", "internal process perspective", and "learning and growth perspective". This was the approach used in this study. For each of three principal strategic objectives - enhancing the speed and quality of decision-making, facilitating and nurturing innovation and creativity, and building the franchise - we developed one or more (depending upon the level of detail desired) strategy maps. The maps then served as an important basis for communicating the proposed plan, demonstrating where the value was coming from, and what needed to be done to make the plan work. Figure 1 below illustrates this approach for one objective, "enhancing the speed and quality of decision-making". Assume, as shown in the strategy map below, that one of the critical requisites for "enhancing speed and quality of decision-making" is to have a deep understanding and knowledge of the client's priorities, decision deadlines, and work priorities (it is possible to break this factor down into its various constituent parts but for now we will deal with it as one). It would be difficult, for example, to imagine how we could enhance "the speed of decision-making" if we lacked a good understanding of who needs to make what decisions when. Having identified these informational requirements (and others as well), we then ask what are the internal processes we need to have in order to provide answer to these questions? The strategy map identifies a number of key processes such as capturing information on customer profiles, developing a customer-relationship-management style process for maintaining profiles, training associates to ask for this information, etc. But these internal processes themselves require various organizational, technological and human resource inputs. For example, we need to have a database or some method for storing this critical information, we need web-based tools for alerting us and end-users when and what types of information is required to make a decision, and we need some means for gauging what has and has not worked in the past. Clearly we can make the strategy maps as detailed as we wish, and in fact for some of the steps we have been involved with, the strategy maps cover multiple layers of increasing detail. 4

Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, 'Waving Trouble with Your Strategy? Then Map It," Harvard Business Review, September-October, 2000, pp. 167- 176.

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Corporate Bunker or Cyber Cafe Figure 1: Illustrated Strategy Map for Enhancing the Speed and Quality of Decision-Making Objective^

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ENHANCE SPEED & O U A U T Y OF DECIS1C1 Sl-MAKING U S T O M E ß _ E E ß S P E C T I V E ^ HOW DO OUR C U S T O M E R S S E E U S ? Develop deep understanding of client deadlines, priorities of remiests

Customer satisfaction based on understanding of customer segments/business needs (continuous improvement over 5 consecutive years)

Ensure proper blend of filtered/targeted information that is formatted for easy consumption and is trustworthy

INTERNAL PROCESSES - WHAT PROCESSES MUST WE EXCEL New Customers

Existing Customers

Process for keeping abreast of new and continuing research/business initiatives within TAs, PWGs, and 0$B alignments as well as outside PRI Process for capturing new client profiles (identification of potential new clients, gathering requirements, conducting interviews, risk analysis) Process for client relationship management (maintenance, follow-up, enhance planning or potential new requests for existing clients, SLAs, performance reporting, profile updates) Service "order entry process", including priority triaging (ROI) QA process Process for training clients Process for keeping track of SIR staff expertise Process for capturing continuous feedback and assessment of the quality and impact of information services and support Process for sharing lessons learned among SIR staff TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING & GROWTH (INTERNAL DELELOLPTVfENT) - H Q W DO WE CONTINUE TQ IMPROVE & CREATE VAIlUE Business area knowledge /

Enhance eXPERT database

Partnerships | with other BMS

Develop SIR staff expertise: Interviewing skills, "information architecture" skills, CRM & "marketing" skills, teambuilding, coaching, web develooment. XML.

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Maintain "Climate for Action" based on employee satisfaction (rewards & recognition^ Fed-Ex type tracking system of service orders (including client profiles, priorities, etc.)

Alvin L. Jacobson & James Μ. Matarazzo

It is still too early to gauge the effectiveness of the full strategic plan as developed at BMS. Senior management as well as the existing library staff is just now beginning the implementation process. Nevertheless, this approach to valuation and strategy deployment has already reaped a number of benefits. We have found, for example, that using strategy maps makes explicit exactly what assumptions are being made to create value, and what needs to be done in order to make this happen. In the strategy sessions we used to develop and reline these maps, we have further discovered that the actual process of building maps is extremely useful for communicating the breadth and relationship of a variety of ongoing services and activities. Several participants remarked that the sessions helped to interconnect services they had previously not considered related, and a number of new and very creative ideas emerged from this discussion.

THE CORPORATE LIBRARY HORIZON We believe that the approach BMS' library and information services staff is taking in rethinking their vision for tomorrow, and the strategy they are building for achieving that vision, offers an attractive and promising method for others to follow. Breaking out of the traditional passive "bunker-like" mentality of the past requires a huge break with the past. We need to rethink who are our customers, what products and services we should be offering, and most importantly, how what we do contributes, or not, to the larger corporate goals and objectives. Thinking and using the library as strategic resource, and then demonstrating this value to management, offers a far more positive way of viewing the library of the future. The implications for corporate librarians and their senior managers are profound and warrant some long overdue strategic planning. Librarians must become more business savvy, client-oriented and prepared for performance measurement aligned to the corporate bottom line. At the same time, senior managers need to fulfill their obligation to optimize the dormant skills and largely untapped potential for knowledge value within the library. We have demonstrated a methodology for moving stakeholders inside and outside the library towards this strategic imperative.

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