On 7 February, Guy St Clair from SMR-Knowledge provided us with an inspiring presentation of his view of knowledge services, which he defined as the convergence of information management, knowledge management and strategic (performance-oriented) learning.

He stated that knowledge management is a hard term for senior managers to get their head around but that they seem to better understand the term knowledge services.  Providing a knowledge service can be likened to provide catering services or cleaning services, something that can be codified, measured and made tangible.  It’s about building a framework of Knowledge Development and Knowledge Sharing (KD/KS) which are basic to every transaction and every interaction that occurs.  Knowledge services support research, contextual decision-making, and innovation. 

I found what Guy said to be highly pertinent to the work that many of us perform; engaging with others, helping them use knowledge, putting knowledge to work.  In fact, he mentioned that the motto for the Special Libraries Association way back in 1914 was “Put knowledge to work”.  That was nearly 100 years ago and modern knowledge management practitioners could still use that as their motto.  Or as in Guy’s words, we move to integrate knowledge, collaboration and learning into the organisational structure, and help people feel, think and experience knowledge for what it is, the very thing that makes them function successfully as human beings.

His powerpoint is attached