KM IN Public library

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Sharon Teng, Suliman Hawamdeh,

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Sharon Teng, Suliman Hawamdeh, (2002) "Knowledge management in public libraries", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 54 Issue: 3, pp.188-197, https://doi.org/10.1108/00012530210441737

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Knowledge

management in public libraries

Sharon Teng and Suliman Hawamdeh

Knowledge management (KM) is a timely business strategy which seeks to capture the knowledge residing in people's minds and consciousness to help the company remain competitive and progressive in an era marked with revolutionary changes. As a formal definition:

Knowledge management is a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and put information into action in ways that strive to improve organizational performance (American Productivity Center, 1999).

Knowledge management is more than simply capturing ``knowledge''per se. It involves a complex process of aligning the company's mission statement with the best practices that enable the company to be competitive and profitable in its sector. This means finding out the most efficient, or most cost-effective, or most convenient way to get things done and then sharing that knowledge with others who can then apply it to the same or similar situations in the future.

Knowledge management as a business concept has thus far been traditionally applied to money-making organisations with the aim to enhance and improve operations to gain competitive advantage and increase profits.

However, knowledge management can and should also be applied to non-profit-making organisations such as government bodies and statutory boards to achieve different goals.

Knowledge management can be used to improve communication among and between top management and the rank and file employees to improve work processes, to instil a culture of sharing and to promote and implement a performance-based reward system for its employees. Keeping these in mind, the desired outcomes are:

. to enhance customer satisfaction;

. to attract and retain new customers;

. to increase public faith in the organisation, to strive to meet and manage customers' rising expectations;

and finally

. to be able to justify the spending of funds allocated to the organisation by the government.

The authors

Sharon Tengis Reference Librarian, National Library Board of Singapore, Singapore.

Suliman Hawamdehis Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Information, Nanyang

Technological University, Singapore.

Keywords

Public libraries, Corporate culture, Knowledge management

Abstract

Knowledge management as a business concept has been traditionally applied to money-making organisations with the aim of enhancing and improving operations to gain competitive advantage and increase profits. Knowledge management can also be applied to non-profit organisations such as government bodies and statutory boards. It can be used to improve communication among staff and between top management. It helps to instil a culture of sharing and promote and implement a performance-based reward system for its employees. Knowledge management involves a complex process of aligning the company's mission statement with the best practices that enable the company to be competitive and profitable in its sector. This paper investigates the current practices of knowledge management in the National Library Board (NLB). It also seeks to show how knowledge management can effectively be applied to the NLB to tie in with its mission statement of expanding the learning capacity of the nation, enhancing the nation's competitiveness and promoting a gracious society. The NLB also has a mission to deliver a world-class library system, which is convenient, accessible and useful to the people of Singapore.

Electronic access

The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

Received 15 October 2001 Revised 29 October 2001 Accepted 5 November 2001 Aslib Proceedings

Volume 54 . Number 3 . 2002 . pp. 188±197

#MCB UP Limited . ISSN 0741-90580001-253X DOI 10.1108/00012530210441737

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Although it sounds simple in conception, knowledge management is in reality a difficult process to implement particularly for an organisation whose employees have been conditioned to the idea that knowledge equates power. In such an organisational culture little or no sharing takes place between departments, or even among colleagues within the same section. The staff in this organisation would tend to hoard information, practise secrecy and needless confidentiality to prevent the so-called privilege, and hence the ``superiority'' of their enlightened position, from being taken away from them (O'Dell and Grayson, 1998).

Other barriers to the implementation of knowledge management cited by O'Dell and Grayson include:

. ignorance ± not knowing who has the right information required for the job;

. lack of time to find out and absorb the best practices recommended;

. lack of a relationship between the source and recipient of knowledge ± absence of a personal tie, credible and strong enough to justify listening and helping one another;

. time lag taken to implement best practices recommended across departments.

It can be seen, then, that several factors need to be in place or cultivated strongly for the implementation of knowledge management to be a success. Davenport et al. (1992)

summarise these factors very clearly and concisely in their paper Information Politicsby applying political theories to the concept of knowledge management. They identified five information models that illustrate the concept of KM in practice ± technocratic Utopianism, anarchy, feudalism, monarchy, and

federalism. These states or situations are by no means mutually exclusive and it is common for a company to exhibit behaviours straddling two or more of the states above.

Based on the definitions, it can be seen that the desired ideal state would be federalism, which is characterised by a strong leadership and a culture that encourages co-operation and learning. It is also the state that is hardest to achieve, as it requires free information sharing across divisions. Other factors favouring the implementation of knowledge management include:

. recruiting the best people for the job;

. exposing professionals to the complexity of real problems to stimulate and cultivate professional know-how;

. retrain professionals to react fast in problem-solving techniques;

. developing people with vision who aim to keep improving;

. boost professionals' problem-solving abilities by capturing knowledge in systems and software;

. overcome professionals' reluctance to share information.

The fundamental questions one must ask, however, are why adopt knowledge

management at all, if it goes against the grain of current practices, and whether

implementing KM will in fact ensure that things improve? Ruggles (1999) notes that organisations are finding it hard to keep up with changes in the nature of goods and services, scope of the typical firm and its market, size and attrition of employee bases, structure of organisations, capabilities and costs of information technology. In an environment where the only constant institution is change itself, knowledge becomes obsolete much faster and there is an intense need to compress the learning curves into a very short timeframe. The expansion and diversity of organisation operations and the trend of high turnover rates make it imperative to have a formal structure where the knowledge and experiences of its employees can be systematically and

deliberately captured and translated into best practices. This is to ensure that knowledge does not flow out of the company when its employees leave.

This paper seeks to show how knowledge management can effectively be applied to the National Library Board (NLB) to tie in with its mission statement of expanding the learning capacity of the nation, so as to enhance our national competitiveness and to promote a gracious society. The NLB (www.lib.gov.sg) strives to deliver a world- class library system, which is convenient, accessible and useful to the people of Singapore.

As the NLB evolves to a learning and thereafter possibly to a teaching organisation, the roles of library professionals must necessarily change to meet new and unknown challenges ahead. It is important for the organisation to constantly innovate and keep

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pace with the rapid change in technology and the changing needs of its customers to remain relevant even into the next millennium and beyond.

Knowledge management in the National Library Board

The National Library Board began its humble beginnings in the 1960s. During the post-war years, the role of the National Library then was to function as a repository of information materials (mainly print). The main objective was to serve as an institution to nurture a reading society and to provide book loans freely to the masses as part of the nation-wide campaign to promote reading and literacy.

With the information explosion and the need to remain competitive, it was necessary to restructure the National Library to meet the needs of Singaporeans in the twenty-first century and beyond (National Library Board Inaugural Annual Report, 1997). The National Library Board (NLB) was formed on 1 September 1995 to spearhead the formulation of new policies, strategies and implementation of the recommendations outlined in the Library 2000 Report (National Library Board, 1997).

Six strategic thrusts were outlined for the NLB to accomplish:

(1) Establish an adaptive public library system, consisting of a network of national reference libraries, a three-tier public library system of regional,

community and neighbourhood libraries;

assist in the setting-up of school libraries and develop specialised libraries for specific sectors.

(2) Create a network of borderless libraries linking all publicly funded libraries within Singapore to overseas libraries and information services through computer networking.

(3) Put in place a co-ordinated national collection strategy.

(4) Offer quality service through market orientation.

(5) Create symbiotic linkages with government, business and the general public.

(6) Help shape Singapore into a global knowledge hub, offering information on regional business and culture.

The NLB has made significant strides since its inception. With the $6 billion in grants given by the government, the NLB has initiated and rolled out many prototyped services and value-added facilities in the bid to anticipate and keep pace with the changing informational needs of its readers. The direction for the present and future is towards equipping and preparing staff and users to meet the challenges of a knowledge-based economy and to instil a corporate culture in line with that of the Singapore government's directive, of the philosophy of lifelong learning.

Current knowledge management practices

The NLB has put in place several knowledge management initiatives started in the last few years and is continually seeking ways to excel in customer service and information

provision. O'Dell and Grayson (1998), in a book titledIf Only We Knew What We Know, postulates that the key to making knowledge transfer of best practices a success is to approach it in terms of the core value propositions of the company. That is, to focus on the basic and fundamental goals for the existence and continuance of the corporation.

They identify three categories into which value propositions tend to fall:

(1) customer intimacy;

(2) product-to-market excellence;

(3) operational excellence.

Customer intimacy focuses on capturing and using knowledge across the company about how to market, sell and service customers more efficiently and effectively. By sharing knowledge about customer needs and behaviour these companies hope to sharpen their sales and marketing edge, retain more valuable clients, and provide higher-value products and services with better profit margins. Product-to-market excellence involves using the best standards in product development to achieve the time-to-market strategy. Operational excellence transfers best practices from one location to another throughout the global organisation.

O'Dell and Grayson (1998) also believe that the presence of various factors is crucial to the success of knowledge management.

These factors or enablers involve:

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. a culture which is supportive of knowledge management;

. necessary technology to facilitate and aid knowledge management;

. support systems and infrastructure that are equipped to handle knowledge sharing and information transfer;

. measurements in place to gauge the benefits of the KM process.

Customer satisfaction and retention are the primary focus of the NLB, whose existence relies upon the public's patronage of the library. This means therefore that the NLB must seek to understand and cater to the varying needs of the public. This is being done through the transfer of knowledge and best practices through both formal and informal communication. Front-line performance and service are of paramount importance in presenting and preserving the corporate image of the statutory board, to inspire confidence and to win satisfaction from the public. Both formal and informal surveys are frequently being commissioned by the NLB to be conducted in public libraries.

Feedback is collected from readers about customer service, opinions of the collection and facilities of the library and new services on trial. This feedback is taken seriously and used as a gauge to measure staff performance and as input for further enhancements and improvements.

The NLB has also recently established a focus group feedback mechanism, which actively recruits individuals from all sectors of the population to give inputs on the current level of service and contribute suggestions on further improvements to be made. It is by constant solicitation of feedback from customers that the NLB can tailor its services and collections to be relevant to the overall population.

The knowledge of users' behavioural patterns, for example that most readers tend to visit the library to browse books according to subject categories, has led to the revamp of the library's collection classification system.

First prototyped in the Tampines Regional Library, the arrangement of books according to the ten broad subject categories (Arts, Business and Management, Computers and IT, Cookery, Home and Garden, Parenting, Pets and Animals, Recreation, Singapore Collection, and Travel Guides) has resulted in very positive feedback from the public.

This system is currently being rolled out to the other community libraries and feedback has been encouraging.

Based also on the type of enquiries most commonly received at the information counter, frequently requested materials are placed within easy reach at the counters to better serve customers in the shortest possible time. Resource files (information is collated and packaged from various print and non- print sources on a popularly requested topic) were also compiled in the past, on topics of common and recurring interest to students and placed at the counters for fast and convenient access to information.

The formation of the NLB Web site was a necessity to keep up with the Internet as an emerging tool for communication among the masses. The Web site functions as a one-stop centre, where information on its public libraries and collection, together with the provision of the online catalogue and

traditional borrowing services such as renewal and reservation functions, are housed together.

The aggressive introduction of multimedia terminals in libraries serves a twofold purpose:

(1) to expose the public to information stored in databases and the Internet; and (2) to provide affordable and convenient

access to these non-print information sources to the public.

As the NLB is moving away from ``spoon- feeding'' readers, students in particular are heading towards a self-help or self-reliant culture. These efforts not only help readers to obtain information they need faster, but also provide good training for them to learn about the way information is organised and to educate them on how research should be conducted. User education sessions,

information literacy programmes and Internet talks have also been implemented to aid in these efforts.

As a further attempt to play a more involved and critical role in education, the student virtual community (SVC) was launched to serve the needs of students, teachers and parents. SVC serves as a one-stop collection of information to aid students in the project- based environment with online resources and project tips tailored to the schools'

curriculum. The business virtual community and the Chinese virtual community have

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similar approaches and aims: to serve the needs of the business community and the Chinese-speaking community respectively.

These efforts are comparable with the marketing strategies adopted by commercial corporations, with the aim to garner customer loyalty and boost sales. The NLB serves a different clientele altogether and the ultimate goal is not commercial profitability but customer satisfaction and an accelerating exponential increase in loans. By anticipating the needs of readers and by careful selection and packaging of information sources, together with a staff dedicated to providing quality customer service, the NLB is in the process of capturing knowledge about its customers to serve them better. This will be elaborated briefly in a further section of this paper, on some of the measures the NLB can implement in the future to be more successful in shaping itself to meet customers'

perceptions and expectations.

Improving services means shorter queues at the counter and faster processing time for materials to be made available for borrowing.

From past surveys conducted in libraries, the common feedback obtained was that readers were most unhappy with having to queue for close to half an hour or longer to borrow and return books during peak periods. This perennial problem arose from the limited number of computer terminals available and a shortage of manpower. Solutions had to be devised to enable readers to borrow and return books without having to queue. The solution arrived in the form of self-check machines from 3M, which allowed readers to perform do-it-yourself borrowing and

returning. Queuing time was cut to less than ten minutes even during peak periods and staff were freed from performing manual and routine stamping of book duties to provide informational assistance to readers.

The process for book returning has been refined even further with the introduction of infra-red technology (RFID), which

automatically ``returns'' a book which is slotted into the bookdrop. Initially prototyped at the Bukit Batok and Toa Payoh

Community Libraries, this service is an improvement over the bookdrop system, which still required staff to be stationed in the backroom to return books manually for readers. This latest technology for returning books has since been rolled out to the

Library@Orchard and the Marine Parade Community Library.

The introduction of Borrower Enquiry (BNQ) stations was also a step towards enhancing the self-help culture and a way to cut queues forming at the counter. These terminals enable readers to check their loan records and to make payment for any fines or charges incurred. Thus, readers no longer had to queue at the counter to perform these services.

The NLB's eight-year plan, since its formation as a statutory board in 1995, was to ensure that a community library was sited within easy and convenient access of the various constituencies in Singapore and had to be located near the bus terminals or the Mass Rapid Transit stations. This directive saw the formation of the Library

Development Group, which was formed to oversee the planning and the setting-up of new libraries. In the past, the planning for a new library could take up to a year. With this group, a library could be set up within three to six months, as the experiences and lessons learned from one library project could be refined and then transferred to the next. This means a significant reduction in time, more efficient work process and a speedier development of new libraries across the island.

A team of staff solely dedicated to planning and implementing new projects and prototype services was also set up to facilitate the process of project management. A business process re-engineering unit at the NLB's headquarters looks into how current practices can be improved on and how the most efficient methods of performing a service can be rolled out.

The time taken by staff at the warehouse to process new items has also been shortened significantly, as most of the processing is currently outsourced to publishers and vendors. These ``shelf-ready books'' thus arrive at the warehouse already barcoded, labelled with the call number and security stripped and are ready to be transferred to the various libraries quicker, compared with the past when books had to undergo many processing steps and staff had to be deployed to perform them. Selection of new items has also been made easier with outsourced vendors, who regularly recommend items on subjects of interest to the library and

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librarians are on hand to either approve or reject their recommendations.

The NLB is not interested in reinventing the wheel (that is, tackling each problem as it comes along or engaging in constant

firefighting) but is constantly under pressure to be faster, better and bigger. This means understanding the customer base and using that knowledge to ensure the fast delivery and development of services. Feedback from staff is also crucial in making sure that ``ideas and practices flow throughout the organisation'' (O'Dell and Grayson, 1998). This is done through the WITs (Work Improvement Teams) suggestion scheme, which awards staff monetary rewards for each suggestion rendered. By sharing their creativity and best practices with one another, performance can be boosted and standards drawn to ensure uniformity of service and operational policies.

Thus, through the transfer of best practices, whether informally among staff or formally through official briefings and seminars, the NLB can shorten the time taken to produce results by ensuring that ideas and comments flow to the right place and development of products are warranted and successfully launched.

Operational excellence translates to higher productivity and higher efficiency in staff performance. Under the lifelong learning plan, staff have recently been inducted into a

``Learning not enough'' seminar, which propounds the necessity of constant

upgrading of skills and knowledge to keep up with changes in the information age. A number of experts in their various fields have also been invited on a regular basis to share with the NLB the ``secrets'' of remaining competitive and overcoming obstacles amidst the ``permanent white-water'' situation of the twenty-first century.

With 17 community libraries across the island and more being built each year, it is important to ensure that everyone practises the same standards and that best practices are shared among the branches for consistent and efficient operations. This is done through regular fortnightly meetings among the managers of all the public libraries with the directors, as well as formal briefings and communications by the manager of each branch to her branch staff. With the NLB's propensity for policy revisions and

implementation of new services, it is especially important for staff to be kept

informed and in-the-know about new projects in the pipeline and those that are currently in existence. Product demonstrations and briefings are thus a regular feature to

encourage staff participation and involvement in projects and to ensure that staff are equipped with the right knowledge to assist readers in using these services and facilities.

Operational excellence also means sharing knowledge about what works best and ensuring that everyone has that same

knowledge and experience to implement that practice in their individual tasks. This prevents duplication of effort and is a time- saving device, especially for staff facing the pressures of front-line service. This is partly the reason for the creation of the InfoXpress, which is a database for capturing frequently asked questions from the public. Staff having access to this database can use it to quickly satisfy readers' queries, as answers and reference sources have been indexed by topics. This enables staff not only to provide an in-depth customised reference service but also to become knowledgeable about handling different enquiries. A similar database using Lotus Notes as a platform for consolidating and sharing best practices is also in place at the Tampines Regional Library.

The NLB has also recently been admitted to the Singapore Service Quality Class (SQC). SQC was launched by the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board in July 1997 and recognises organisations that have achieved a high standard of performance. The NLB has already established and put into practice documented Service Standards over the last two years for various aspects of work performance, such as in the areas of customer service, collection development,

administration and finance, grooming, programmes, staff development and human resource management. These measures ensure that:

. workflows are consistent across departments;

. the efficiency and effectiveness of services delivered can be systematically accessed;

and

. output for all divisions is maintained at a high level.

The recent formation of the Programme Development Group in 1999 has also contributed to efficient operations in libraries.

This group acts as a co-ordinating body for all

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programmes to be hosted at each of the 17 community libraries. As a result duplication efforts are eliminated, as the librarians at each library are no longer required to source for speakers and programmes on their own. With a central programming unit overseeing and managing the planning, sourcing and

organising of various large-scale as well as bi- monthly programmes, the programme workflow for branches is shortened and has become less operationally intensive. Staff at the libraries are thus freed from such

administrative duties and can focus on serving the needs of the public more concertedly.

The roles and expectations of

paraprofessionals in the NLB have expanded in scope and depth. Traditionally, they have handled routine and unchallenging tasks such as the processing of books for borrowing and returning. Now, they are expected to provide basic reference information service and receiving both structured and on-the-job training is essential to their job requirements.

Databases like the above are thus vital tools to enable paraprofessionals and professionals alike to share their experience, knowledge and expertise with one another, so that the NLB's information service as a whole is raised to a new level of competence.

In view of the numerous comments about the user-unfriendliness of the OPAC system, the NLB has spent a total of $6 million to upgrade its computer systems. With the Everybody's Catalogue replacing OPAC, users no longer need to type-in commands, but can click on the displayed tool bar menu to navigate their searches. Thus, knowledge gained from usability studies has helped the NLB to design an interface that is windows- based and is easy to use. This simple yet powerful online cataloguing system thus makes it more conducive for readers to perform do-it-yourself searches.

In addition, due to a complete revamping of its borrowing and returning system at a cost of

$50m, NLB has also recently won the Innovative Organisation of the Year title under the first Singapore Innovation Award in 2001, for its patented Radio-Frequency Identification self-check and returning system. As a result, some $220m has been saved; queues have become a thing of the past and waiting-time has been reduced to virtually zero during off-peak hours in the library.

Best practices, operational procedures and policies in general are regularly circulated among staff and are also posted to the NLB's intranet to ensure that staff actively acquire the knowledge essential to perform their duties as well as they can. The Project Broadcast database, as part of the Lotus Notes platform, was also implemented to record team members' contributions and accomplishments for projects to which they have been assigned. This is valuable in accessing staff performance and also for tracking the success and failures of various initiatives and gives a good guide to how successful ideas and work processes from one project can be applied to the next.

The above are just some examples of knowledge management efforts in which the NLB is currently engaged. There is a strong corporate culture within the NLB, which allows ideas and expertise to be shared among staff of all grades and across time and space.

This pro-sharing environment is also strongly supported by very advanced technology and infrastructure, in the form of the best PCs available, the fastest connections possible, the best facilities for the newer libraries and the recruitment of the best staff for top key management positions. What is perhaps lacking is the glaring absence of a knowledge audit system to record the expertise of staff and to keep a record of the best practices of branches or divisions, which can be

transferred across departments.

The next section will touch on the challenges faced by librarians in this knowledge-based environment and how the corporate culture is essential in helping staff to internalise the knowledge-seeking, sharing and lifelong learning process.

Roles and expectations of librarians in the knowledge management

environment of the NLB

The traditional role played by the librarian was passive and he or she was engaged in routine and mundane tasks, such as shelf- reading of books, processing of books for borrowing and returning and, in general, performed duties which did not require much mental stimulation. In an era of continuous information explosion and expansion, librarians are increasingly valued and remunerated for their analytical skills and

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``professional'' judgements. These are skills that are deemed to have been picked up by librarians from their constant exposure to all forms of media and other information sources in their working environment.

The current trend in the NLB is to employ people with varied educational and working backgrounds in order to tap into their areas of specialisation and knowledge. There is also a need for librarians to be open to changes and to be willing to acquire and apply IT

knowledge in their daily work ± two vital characteristics essential to working in the knowledge-based environment of the NLB.

The NLB has recently set up an Institute to look into the continuous upgrading of the skills and knowledge of its staff. Courses, seminars and workshops are run for the benefit of staff to expose them to current information-processing trends and the information technology skills necessary to cope with new and emerging formats and databases acquired by the NLB for the public.

Librarian as information manager Librarians' core duties now include information packaging and information customisation. The initiative falls on the libraries to reach out to the community by targeting, anticipating and then meeting their informational requirements. Thus, various virtual communities have been set up ± student, business and Chinese virtual community ± to cater to the interests and needs of the specific groups within society.

Continuous review, evaluation and revision of packaged information would be an important task for librarians to perform, to remain relevant to their audience.

Often, knowing where to obtain

information is the key to being able to give readers the information they need. This involves active sourcing and extensive reading on the part of librarians. The reference point enquiry service provided by the National Reference Library is a good example, which aims to provide phone-in, e-mailed-in or faxed-in customised answers to enquirers.

Owing to the nature of the enquiries received, often only pointers to specific Web sites or books or journals are necessary to satisfy the requests.

The three-tier library system envisaged in the Library 2000 report also aims to support this structure, which clearly differentiates the

roles played by staff in the three levels of information dissemination, based on the type of clientele they attract. In a Children's Community Library, for instance, the information needs of children below the age of ten years are not as sophisticated as those of adults and tertiary students, who visit the regional library in search of information.

This means that staff at the regional library would need more specialised reference training to be equipped to provide a more in- depth reference service to their readers.

Librarian as teacher

User education, information literacy packages and class visits now assume a core

responsibility on the part of librarians to educate readers on how to search for

information, how to conduct research, how to use electronic databases and the Internet to obtain information they need, and finally how to evaluate information obtained from print and non-print formats.

Librarians' roles have evolved from being mere disseminators of information to taking on the responsibility of ``teaching'' the public to acquire the basic reference skills necessary to conduct research on their own, with additional guidance from staff.

The core role that librarians need to play in general is active, involving research to be conducted, information to be packaged and knowledge to be passed on to the public.

Some of the skills needed by the information professional in a knowledge-based

environment can be summed up in the following:

. IT literacy, that is knowing how to use the appropriate technology to capture, catalogue and disseminate information and knowledge to the target audience and knowing how to translate that knowledge into a centralised database for employees of the organisation to access;

. a sharp and analytical mind;

. innovative and inquiring;

. enables knowledge creation, flow and communication within the organisation and between staff and public.

The next section will discuss the future directions for the NLB, as it moves rapidly into the knowledge management arena.

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Practical methods

O'Dell and Grayson (1998) advocate that the first step towards creating a successful knowledge management system is being able to identify the core values of the organisation that will keep customers happy and satisfied.

Once the core values have been identified, the focus should turn to the key enablers that are important in supporting the KM system. The NLB's focus has always been on its

customers, sometimes to the extent of bending rules and regulations to satisfy their demands. Much has been done to probe and record the customer profiles of the NLB and a great deal of knowledge has been put to good use in the design and customisation of databases and collections for users. Attention must now be turned to two key enablers discussed earlier in this paper ± corporate culture and measurement for further

improvements and for systematic KM efforts to be accomplished on a larger scale in the NLB.

Knowledge auditing is one way to measure the success of the KM efforts. This involves the identification and audit of intellectual assets and tagging a non-monetary value to them. As knowledge audit is undertaken to validate the organisation's ability to achieve its goals and to monitor development of strategic capabilities, this can be measured in terms of compliments from customers, an increase in loans and attendance at public talks and workshops held at the libraries. Push technology and alert services can also be implemented to customise even further the information needs of its customer base.

Knowledge mapping is another practical method used. This involves a visual representation of intangible assets in an organisation in the form of a tree or map.

Thus, an NLB directory can be created, which details staff's expertise and knowledge, and this can be a useful tool for people seeking specific types of information.

Recognition is also given to the ``expert'' for making known his or her area of

specialisation. The reputation of the individual is also garnered from this ``free publicity'' of the person's inherent knowledge.

A scenario-planning tool such as TANGO is a third method used to measure the success of the KM efforts. This helps managers to learn how to manage a knowledge

organisation. Perhaps the creation of a

Knowledge Management Centre and the appointment of a Chief Knowledge Officer in the NLB can give credence and backing to the knowledge management efforts. This centre can look into ways of measuring the

intellectual capital and knowledge transfer in tangible terms, such as implementing a monetary reward system to create an environment for the free flow of knowledge sharing and transfer.

Ultimately, however, the success of the knowledge management process is measured by both internal and external satisfaction from the NLB's employees (internal customers) and their customers. Visible signs are a low turnover rate, loyalty to the organisation and a high morale among staff, who are able to keep up with the tremendous changes in the information rat race. Increased customer patronage and positive feedback from readers, together with increased loans and usage of library facilities, are healthy signs that the organisation is meeting the customers' needs and expectations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although knowledge

management has already been incorporated into the management of many organisations in recent years, it is ultimately not a concept that is confined to the corporate business environment. Knowledge management simply presents a way for corporations to capture, record and measure the intellectual assets of its employees and to transplant the best practices into its profit-making enterprise to generate even more profits.

The NLB as a statutory board is only now slowly adopting parts of the knowledge-based management concepts in its operations. Many improvements have been made and, also there have been many behind-the-scene failures. What is encouraging is that staff and the public are being equipped with the knowledge necessary to cope with the rapid changes of the twenty-first century, which is more information-driven and knowledge- generated than any other era.

What the NLB needs to focus on next is a way to encourage more informal sharing and transfer of knowledge among staff and to devise a financial system to motivate and cultivate this sharing process. The KM process must ultimately become a self-

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running and employee-driven system. More can be done to make the voices of its rank and file employees heard and be counted. Just as customers are the driving force for the NLB's existence, its staff are those who make the organisation work and function. Simply transplanting outside consultants to assume key management positions in the NLB and inviting them to give talks and seminars would not make the knowledge-sharing process effective and open. More employees can be groomed and encouraged to share the knowledge they have acquired through many years of experience. The NLB must touch base with its ground level staff for the KM process to be a success. Only when knowledge-sharing efforts become truly effortless can the NLB lay claim to being an aspiring lifelong learning organisation.

References

American Productivity Center (1999),What Is Knowledge Management?, available at: www.it-

consultancy.com/extern/apqc.html (accessed 30 August 1999).

Davenport, T.H., Eccles, R.G. and Prusak, L. (1992),

``Information politics'', in Klein, D. (Ed.),The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital, Butterworth-Heinemann, Boston, MA, pp. 101-20.

National Library Board (1997),National Library Board Inaugural Annual Report 1997, available at:

www.lib.gov.sg/info/annual/index.html (accessed 14 September 1999).

O'Dell, C. and Grayson, C.J. (1998),If Only We Knew What We Know, The Free Press, New York, NY.

Ruggles, R. (1999),Why Knowledge? Why Now?, available at: LHTNwww.businessinnovation.ey.com/

journal/issue1/features/whykno/body.html (accessed 14 August 1999).