IL2007 - Session C204 — Librarians as knowledge Managers

Session C204 — Librarians as knowledge Managers
3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Susan Braun, Manager, Research Services, Library & Information Center, The Aerospace Corporation

Corporate memory needed to be saved and retained
Graying of technical staff was a catalyst
Had to get information and knowledge from the people before it was too late
Library was ideally positioned to do this as htye already did archives, reports, author files, etc.
Funded by knowledge management group
Training is a big part
"RSS" type feed from the document management system
Blogging also part of tool
CoP leadership role
4 embedded librarians in CoP
7 reference librarians total

Have a Knowledge Steward Community of Practice
Responsible for institutionalization of proper management of information
Leads training and fostering of tools
Consultants to other groups
Manage folder structure of document management system
Conduct knowledge audits
Recommend best practices
Set permissions on folders
Audit system of accuracy
All knowledge stewards trained by librarians
Lunch and learn sessions
Various levels of classes
Structure based on organizational structure

Next steps:
Corporate taxonomy
Expanded use of Wikis, RSS, blogs
Revising of training materials
More training
More imbedded tutorials
Federated search
New library software integrated

Value of effort
Recognized as key contributors
Recognized as experts in document management
Faster collaboration and knowledge sharing
Contributed to enhancement of corp. role