The history of Knowledge Management at The Library Association

For a number of years the Library Association (LA) has been actively promoting library and information professionals as a core part of knowledge management (KM) activity.  Now the LA’s KM programme is coming to fruition as we begin to see a change in perceptions about what librarians can contribute to their organisations knowledge objectives.  ‘Knowledge’ has begun to appear regularly in job titles in the Appointments supplement of the LA Record, there are an increasing number of KM professionals with library and information science backgrounds and professional advisers at the LA are having to work less hard to convince largely sceptical corporate audiences of the professions involvement in KM.

One of the leading figures responsible for articulating and mapping the development of KM to the membership and advising on projects and initiating programmes at the LA, is Mark Field, professional adviser for special libraries.  Mark says “wherever, and whenever possible we have taken what we have learnt on the knowledge management circuit and offered it to the Association’s membership, in articles for the LA Record, in appearances at special interest group meetings, and now in the KM seminar series that we are developing with David Haynes Associates.”

Mark provides a chronological history of KM at the LA:

1998  - the LA took a stand at the KM conference at Earls Court.  The reaction from many was surprise and scepticism that the library and information profession was getting involved in KM.  But, as Mark explained, during that time perceptions were shifted and some visitors saw the potential contribution that the profession could make.  Also, he spotted a tiny number of enterprising librarians who were involved in knowledge programmes.

1999 - Mark attended a number of specialist KM events and spoke at the IKON conference on KM.  He describes his talk as “mapping organisational information and the tools of librarianship and their potential to identify and point to organisational knowledge without becoming mired in ‘knowledge accountancy'”. 

2000 - Mark and Lyndsay Rees-Jones, also professional adviser for special libraries, were being invited to talk about KM in a wide variety of settings.  These included LA special interest groups, independent specials interest groups and to members’ employers, and in some cases, where there was no information professional involvement, but some organisational recognition that this might be an important component.  Also in that year, the European Union offered the first KM Europe conference in Brussels.  The LA shared a stand with Sparknow, who Mark describes as a "small but highly-rated knowledge and change management consultancy".  According to Mark the contrast at this event with the London KM conference in 1998 was marked – “in the three years between the two events we had moved from novelty to innovation” (Mark).

2001 - the LA launched a series of KM seminars in partnership with David Haynes Associations, a private KM consultancy.  The first seminar took place in April at the LA, a summary of which is on this Web site, and the second seminar is due to take place in Edinburgh on 15 November.  A KM panel and competitiveness policy action group have also been set up to take forward the KM agenda.  The long term aspirations for the panel are to create a portal on the Web site, research the training issues, recruit external facilitators, map the professional landscape and define the KM communities.  In the short term the panel hope to create a policy paper, recruit external facilitators and monitor current activity within the profession.

The professional advisers have been able to gain first hand expertise and knowledge in the KM arena through project work and partnerships.  Most recently Mark has worked with the Countryside Agency on the library development strand of their knowledge programme.  He is also a member of the BSI knowledge management standard committee, “evidence of the growing acceptance that the Association represents a significant knowledge management stakeholder community” (Mark).

Caroline Nolan
August 2001