Library and information professionals and knowledge management: Conceptions, challenges and conflicts

The level of interest suggests that knowledge management needs to be taken seriously as an issue for information professionals and for the fields of librarianship and information science. Knowledge management is perceived to offer a substantial enhancement of the role of the information professional. However, the confusion, variations and concerns expressed indicate that knowledge management is a difficult area still requiring significant exploration and development. The definition of the area is still very open and in some ways quite problematic. There is an understandable desire for this to be resolved. A recognised definition provides people with a more substantive base to explain the concept and to argue for its adoption. It enables them to establish their identity with respect to a specific concept, program or set of tools. Further, the current lack of status of many information professions, and the pervasive uncertainty in many industries suggest substantial reasons for developing a more coherent and strategically relevant professional identity. However, the breadth of approaches represented just by this group of information professionals suggests commonality may be difficult to achieve within the profession, let alone outside.