Standards and practices of knowledge management in academic libraries: Ekiti State University in perspective

• Published in: Information studies (Madras, India) India), 2015-01, Vol.21 (1), p.19-32
• Main Authors: Folorunso, Olayinka, Bamidele, Olawale, Adegbilero-Iwari, Idowu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Advantages; Collection development; Colleges & universities; Community; Explicit knowledge; Knowledge management; Knowledge management practices; Librarians; Libraries; Library and information science; Library collections; Nigeria
• ISSN: 0971-6726; 0976-1934
• DOI: 10.5958/0976-1934.2015.00002.6

Knowledge Management is a new field encompassing several disciplines including library and information science. Knowledge Management can be incorporated into library operations to promote job effectiveness, thereby offering the opportunity to expand the role of libraries in other areas where librarians have had little impact in the past. This study summarizes knowledge management practices and its applications in academic libraries, which requires academic librarians to reappraise their functions and expand responsibilities to effectively contribute to meet the needs of a large and diverse university community. This work adopted survey research method and used questionnaire to generate data, which were handed out to the respondents, who are professional librarians at the Ekiti State University Library. These people were selected because of the pivotal role they play in the day to day running of the library. The data were analyzed using simple percentages and tables. Among other things, the result showed that 80% of the respondents share knowledge either formally or informally within the library. 60% of the respondents agreed that the library had used partnership with other libraries to acquire knowledge to sharpen their skills in this dynamic information technology environment. On the importance of Knowledge Management Practices (KMP) in the library, 80% of the respondents agreed that it is good to identify and protect strategic knowledge present in the library. 70% agreed that KMP is important because of the need to identify and fill knowledge glut for the smooth running of the library and 90% said to map and capture the internal and external knowledge available to the library is the reason KMP is important. Requirements for KMP and the benefits of KMP in the library were also estimated. Recommendations were made based on the findings.