Course:LIBRA559A/Thomas, D. & Underwood, P. G. (2015)

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Citation

Thomas, D. & Underwood, P. G. (2015). The use of the intranet of the Durban University of Technology Library as a knowledge management tool. South African journal of libraries and information science, 81(1).

Annotation

The study was developed with the purpose of assessing the degree of understanding of knowledge management, the identification of KM practices and the use of the intranet for this purpose, at the Durban University Technology (DUT) Library.

The benefits of knowledge management were categorized in:

  • Staff empowerment: to reduce of job-specific training, as knowledge and experiences of others may be accessible in various forms;
  • Development and improvement of services: services more efficient as access to knowledge will facilitate more informed and innovative decision-making.

The study found that there was a mixture of informal and formal practices at the library (67%). There were efforts to capture knowledge from retiring staff, succession plans, retirees documenting, coaching and mentoring. Regarding SharePoint, the interface is was not user-friendly, there was a perceived exclusivity of use, which was a barrier, and it was noticed that there was a lack of awareness of the functionalities and features of the system.

The study concluded that there is the need for training on the use of Sharepoint, to show staff its features and functionalities and how to use them. Also, there is a need for better management and administration of the site to keep the purpose of knowledge sharing and enhancing its contributions to the organization.

The article is relevant for the LIS area because it reinforces the importance of knowledge management in libraries. Also, the article presents KM tools that can be used and considerations regarding its use, for example, the need of training to enable the staff to explore the tool and effectively manage knowledge. The technology is an allied for managing knowledge in an organization, so it is fundamental that the workers know how to use and the functionalities of the tool. It is also important that librarians pay attention to other factors that may affect the use of a technology, for example, the unfamiliarity with technologies in general, or even a bad usability or poor interface.

Areas, topics and keywords

Intranet. Knowledge management. Sharepoint. Libraries.

Page author Paula Arasaki