Sunday, April 13, 2008

Who owns the field of KM ?

I am studying Knowledge Management and currently work as a librarian, but i always worry that i might not be able to practise in this field. My worry is that i do not have the IT /IS expertise required for me to work as a knowedge manager. I can not design KM sytems, wikis, blog etc. Recently i attended an intensive course organised by the University of the Western Cape, University of Stellenbosch (2 South African universities), University of Namibia and Finnish Univesities and i am glad i did. I learned a lot, now i know that KM is still an emerging field and that some of the tools and prococesses used to manage knowldge have been borrowed from ther fields of study. Social networking from sociology, e.t.c and that i can still make a contribution. My favourite qout is “…while librarianship is practiced by librarians, knowledge management is practised by the knowledge community…” meaning that anyone can work as a knowledge manager. as long you have the neccessary skills and competencies you are capable of managing knowledge.
The CEO of a company called "Knowledge crusade"-based in South Africa, was amongst the speakers and he did a knowledge engineering course with the university of Cape Town and he boosted my confiodence even more when he told us that "...librarians are more capable of doing this job..." we have the training and the necessary skills. i guess i just need to be change my attitude and enjoy the ride....

2 comments:

Thea said...

Hi Lamla

Good to see your blog is up and running.

Where is your learning diary for the week?

Thea

Ncumisa9467548 said...

Lamla the question that you raised was everyone's concernt. I think we tend to underestimate our capabilities. We have a duty as librarians to change our image and the attitude that other people people have in our profession. I'm sure that you are at easy now because you are able to create a wiki and a blog.Let look forward and conquer the field of Knowledge Management