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...educational preparation and professional development opportunities. It draws on research begun in 2005, which included a survey of advertisements for KM positions, a survey of KM courses in Australia; and an online questionnaire for LIS and KM practitioners and educators. The literature review highlights knowledge, skills and attributes associated with KM, and notes some overlap with those required for the LIS profession. The job analysis suggests that there may be some overlap between LIS and KM practice and between what are perceived to be LIS and KM core competencies, but that the two are quite distinct. Findings from the survey of KM courses suggest only a limited amount of overlap between what are considered by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) to be core LIS professional attributes and the curricula of the KM courses offered by Australian universities. The survey of practitioners did not reveal significant differences of perception between the LIS and KM groups, but noted that the two were not mutually exclusive. Significant comments from survey respondents are reported. Conclusions are mainly concerned with education and professional development, and are aimed primarily at educators and the professional association.
Introduction
In a 2003 issue of this journal, Cathie Koina asked whether librarians are really 'the ultimate knowledge managers' and pointed out that what librarians have done for many years is information management (IM), which, contrary to what many librarians believe, is not the same as knowledge management (2003, p.270). The project reported here starts out with a similar question and is prompted by the continuing interest in KM within the LIS community, not simply in terms of its application to the profession's own management practice, but also with an eye to opportunities for LIS professionals in the KM domain. LIS professionals are well placed to take on the role of knowledge managers, the argument goes, because they have been managing knowledge from time immemorial (Butler 2000, p.40; Corrall 1999; Townley 2001, p.53). With a view to addressing the issue of whether library and information professionals do indeed have the credentials to lead knowledge initiatives (or 'interventions', as the KM literature puts it) in their organisations, this project attempts to establish the state of knowledge of KM among LIS professionals, the extent to which they are finding positions in the KM sector, the extent to which they practise identifiable KM processes in their work and the adequacy of educational preparation and/or professional development opportunities.
The view that LIS professionals have been taking on a greater KM role or even migrating into the KM domain has been largely anecdotal, although research by Ling-Ling Lai (2005) demonstrated that 18.5 percent of all KM job postings asked for an advanced degree in library/information science. Whether these represent a new job market for LIS professionals or LIS-related jobs that have been re-badged as KM positions is unclear; however, our study may help throw some light on the transferability of LIS skills into the KM environment. It is also unclear whether LIS managers are following what are now reasonably well-established KM practices within their own organisations, let alone demonstrating an awareness of the contribution LIS professionals have to make in the KM domain (Ferguson 2004).
The project described here attempts to address questions such as:
* What is the state of knowledge of KM among LIS professionals?
* To what extent are LIS professionals finding positions in the KM sector?
* To what extent are they practising identifiable KM processes in their work as LIS professionals?
* Are they receiving adequate educational preparation and/or professional development opportunities for the practice of KM?
The study aims to establish the state of understanding of KM among LIS practitioners, especially those employed as knowledge managers in the business and government sectors, to identify common perceptions and understanding of KM objectives and practices amongst KM practitioners and LIS educators and to describe common elements in KM and LIS practice that might be used as a framework for teaching KM in the LIS field. The project was conducted as part of a Community of Scholars at Charles Sturt University (CSU), a scheme that provided small grants to facilitate the development of collaborative research groups. This part, 'Knowledge and Information in Organisational Contexts', was conducted by the authors of this paper, three from CSU and one a Knowledge Services Manager at CSIRO.
Literature review
A significant, if diminishing body of literature questions whether KM exists as a distinct and identifiable discipline. The most vocal and most frequently cited critic is Tom Wilson, who, in 'The Nonsense of "Knowledge Management"' (2002), argued that much of what is passed off as KM is in fact information management re-labelled More recently, Wilson was unrepentant, backing up his argument with the observation that the vast majority of journal articles published in 2003 and 2004 with 'knowledge management' in the title were, in fact, about the development of organisational information systems (2005, p.155). At the other extreme, a recent well-referenced Australian KM text manages to avoid any mention of information management or information management systems (Debowski 2006).
According to Standards Australia (2005, p.2), KM is:
A trans-disciplinary approach to improving organisational outcomes and learning, through maximising the use of knowledge. It involves the design, implementation and review of social and technological activities and processes to improve the creating, sharing, and applying or using of knowledge. Knowledge management is concerned with innovation and sharing behaviours, managing complexity and ambiguity through knowledge networks and connections, exploring smart processes, and deploying people-centric technologies.
While there is undoubtedly overlap with information management, especially among the thirty-four KM 'enablers' discussed in the Standard, there is much to differentiate KM from information management, most clearly in the focus on the social sources of information and knowledge in organisations, and their role in knowledge generation. Much of KM overlaps with strategic management and human resource management, as Debowski's text demonstrates. The inaugural issue of the Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (2002) makes the following distinction:
While information management deals with documented knowledge, knowledge management takes a holistic approach and looks at tacit or undocumented knowledge that can only exist in the minds of people in the form of skills and competencies.... Most of the traditional techniques and technology used to capture and process documented knowledge or information are not suitable for tacit knowledge management. Technology tools such as collaboration tools, discussion forums, ask the experts and so on can be used to facilitate tacit knowledge management by improving communication and interaction between knowledge workers (Hawamdeh 2002, p. iii).
There is a considerable body of literature that addresses the relevance of the LIS profession's skills base to KM activities (Broadbent 1998; Church 1998; Corrall 1999; Loughridge 1999; McGown 2000; Shanhong 2000; Abell 2001; Ajiferuke 2003; Koina 2003; Pantry & Griffiths 2003; Rowley 2003; Ferguson 2004; Henczel 2004; Sinotte 2004; Koenig 2005; Martin, Hazeri & Sarrafzadeh 2006). A 2004 IFLA collection opens with the challenging claim that KM is one of those concepts that librarians take time to assimilate, only to reflect ultimately 'on why other communities try to colonise our domains' (Hobohm 2004, p.7). LIS interest in KM is also reflected in monograph publications such as the practical text by Sylvia Webb (1998) and the edited collection by Kanti T Srikantaiah and Michael Koenig (2001). Content analysis of the literature that explicitly addresses opportunities for LIS professionals in KM (Rooi & Snyman 2006) suggests five broad roles for librarians in KM: facilitating an environment conducive to knowledge sharing; managing the corporate memory; transfer of IM and related skills to a new context, linked to business processes and core operations; development of corporate information literacy; and finally, management of information in a digital/electronic environment.
One of the most comprehensive and influential analyses of KM skills and attributes to be undertaken in the LIS sector, the TPFL study in the UK, found, among other things, 'significant overlap between recognized management competencies and those required for successful knowledge practitioners' and drew attention to those skills and attributes 'most often associated with change and project management', the 'ability to influence attitudes, to work in complex organisations, cross boundaries, and navigate political waters' and 'team-building skills,...
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