Are academic libraries ready for knowledge management?
| Pages | 137-151 |
| Published date | 06 February 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-01-2016-0008 |
| Date | 06 February 2017 |
| Author | Laila Marouf |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Are academic libraries ready for
knowledge management?
Laila Marouf
Department of Library and Information Science, Kuwait University,
Shuwaick, Kuwait
Abstract
Purpose –The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of organizational factors, such as the culture of
trust, human resources (HR) practice and top management support on librarians’ attitudes towards knowledge
sharing (KS), and the degree to which this attitude affects their perceived readiness to adopt knowledge
management (KM).
Design/methodology/approach –A soft copy of the questionnaire was sent to 217 academic librarians
in both public and private universities in Kuwait. A total of 150 valid responses were collected and tested using
a structural equation model. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS and LISREL software to verify the
research hypotheses.
Findings –The study found that apart from HR practices, all the other factors had signicant effects on
librarians’ attitudes towards KS. In addition, the attitude of librarians towards KS was found to signicantly
affect the readiness to adopt KM in academic libraries.
Practical implications –Findings should help libraries identify opportunities and barriers to adopting
KM. Results indicate that strengthening the affecting factors, such as a culture of trust and top management
support, lead to a more positive attitude towards KS and ultimately a better chance of success for any KM
initiative that will take place in an academic library.
Originality/value –The primary research contribution is the conceptual model of the effect of the
organizational factors of a culture of trust, HR practices and top management support on librarians’ attitudes
towards KS, and the degree to which this affects their perceived readiness to adopt KM.
Keywords Libraries, Knowledge management, Knowledge sharing, Kuwait, HR practices, Top
management support, Organizational factors, Organizational culture/Trust, Readiness assessment
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Libraries are considered to be repositories of knowledge and an integral part of education. In
the 21st century, libraries are attaching more importance to the provision of services for
people to benet from knowledge and information found in a variety of media, which is
instantly accessible through electronic and digitized means. Library success is dependent on
the ability to utilize the knowledge of their staff to serve the user community, while
managing the processes of knowledge creation, dissemination and possible exploitation.
Technological advances, particularly developments on the internet, have transformed the
nature of library and information services. Libraries are striving to present the right
information and knowledge at the right time with the right amount of nancial and human
resources (HR; Aswath and Gupta, 2009).
Mavodza and Ngulube (2011) stated that knowledge management (KM) is viewed as
having the potential to make libraries more pertinent to their parent organizations and their
users by being involved in the production, acquisition, organization, storage, transfer,
sharing and retention of knowledge. Sarrafzadeh et al. (2010) investigated the benets of
library involvement with KM and found that the majority of library and information science
(LIS) participants agreed that KM contributes to the future prospects of libraries.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
Academic
libraries
137
Received 11 January 2016
Revised 15 February 2016
Accepted 31 March 2016
TheElectronic Library
Vol.35 No. 1, 2017
pp.137-151
©Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-01-2016-0008
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