Knowledge Management in Academic Libraries and Information Centres: A Case of University Libraries

In today's knowledge-based economies, appropriate Knowledge Management (KM) has proved a strategic management tool to survive and thrive in the ever-changing global market. Therefore, increasingly, all types of organisations including tertiary institutions are adopting KM. This paper focuses on university libraries and presents the partial ̄ndings of a study carried out to investigate and explore KM practices in Southern African Development Community (SADC) university libraries. A structured questionnaire was used to carry out the study. The study revealed the main reasons for practicing KM to improve library services: to improve library services and productivity, produce more with less, avoid duplication of e®orts and leverage existing knowledge. The major challenges were identi ̄ed as constant budget decline, lack of incentives, inadequate sta® training and expertise, a lack KM strategy, insu±cient information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and a lack of knowledge sharing culture. Finally, the paper puts forward some recommendations and a framework for KM implementation in university/academic libraries.