Knowledge Management: The Emerging Challenges for the Library and Information Professionals

Abstract

The concept of knowledge-based economy has established its firm roots in the global market. The growth of interest ill knowledge management (KM) has essentially been contemporary with that of increasing use of the Internet, intranets, teleconferencing and videoconferencing. The Internet is a huge repository of information, largely illustrated. The ease and flexibility with which information is available from the Internet is most commonly described as "information overload". A library, of whatever type and size, it may be- is the first place for organizing knowledge. The pace, at which the non-print media are producing documents, is a matter of concern to library professionals. Each library model has its pivotal role towards organizing knowledge and disseminating it. For instance, the material library has a responsibility towards preserving the information of national importance and heritage and disseminating it. Academic library models are expected to support substantially the information supply to students, academicians and researchers, to achieve their academic goals. The corporate library \ models provide information support to the organizations to withstand the global competition. Thus, the hitherto” organization of knowledge" has rapidly moved to the stage of "information and knowledge management" and has established itself as a key issue libraries. While putting in place Knowledge strategy, the traditional variety of collection is extended to include information from non-print and online media. This has made the attention to focus on the quality of seamless flow of information. Users of the 21st century expect information they need, right at the desks, whether from online databases, multimedia, distributed web resources or the intranets. Rightful use of KM practices would ensure efficiency, accuracy and consistency in disseminating information because it enables distributed teams to search, apply, share and publish information across the geographic boundaries