There are those who assert that KM is “the new librarianship.”

Might it be?

When we transition KM from a stand-alone management function to knowledge services, certainly there are attributes that support that assertion.

When we think, for example, about the convergence that takes place with knowledge services, the coming together of information management, knowledge management, and strategic learning to reach a common knowledge development/knowledge sharing goal, the link between librarianship and knowledge services becomes very clear.

Here’s a valuable case study:

In the latest SMR e-Profile, Marcie Stone writes about Betty Mayfield. Stone’s description of Mayfield’s career - Evolving Connections: Betty Mayfield and “The Best Job in the World” – tells how Mayfield took the opportunities that came along, always connecting and practicing what we now call knowledge services. It was a smart way to manage a career, a career that, as Stone describes, was always fascinating.

And what are some of the trademarks of that career?

Stone identifies a few:

1. Using connections to produce knowledge services to benefit the organization and maximize the use of corporate resources to reach strategic goals….

2. An insatiable curiosity and a desire to go beyond the boundaries of a stated question to the associated implied requirements….

3. Relationships (“key throughout my career” is how Mayfield puts it).

And finally: “Connecting can be seen as a lot of things – selling library services, proactively providing answers to questions, continually asking your colleagues what they are working on, connecting yourself with content so that you can gain some understanding of the areas of knowledge your peers are working in, learning something new every day….”

Read Marcie Stone’s e-Profile of Betty Mayfield here.

- Guy St. Clair