KM Education at LIS Schools: An Analysis of KM Master's Programs

LIS embraced knowledge management (KM) during the mid 1990s, and in the context of the adoption of KM, this study explores the current state of KM education offered by LIS schools. The study conducted a survey of homepages of 600 LIS schools worldwide, followed by an analysis of selected LIS-based KM master's programs. Data were also collected from the World Guide to Library, Archive and Information Science Education (Schniederjurgen, 2007) and from the Internet. The survey shows that 17.7% of LIS schools adopted KM education in 140 different degree programs. The diffusion of KM education was high in master's degree programs, offering 65% of the KM programs or courses. The analysis of KM master's programs indicates that LIS schools concentrated more on IT and information than on business and human perspectives of KM. Implications of the study are to define the boundaries of KM and to integrate major perspectives of KM in designing KM education programs for LIS. Keywords: knowledge management (KM), KM education, KM master's program, LIS schools, content analysis Introduction The complex and competitive academic environment of the 1990s, shaped by political, social, technological and economic drivers, has forced drastic changes in higher education worldwide. Universities must adapt to many profound changes: the increased demand for higher education in a life long learning context, the internationalization of education and research, the need to develop cooperation between universities and industry, the proliferation of places where knowledge is produced, and the emergence of new expectations (European Commission, 2003). Education for LIS has also experienced dramatic changes. LIS is a vibrant field incorporating emerging elements such as digital libraries, Internet, e-commerce, knowledge management, web/library 2.0, etc. The rapid evolution of the discipline has a profound effect on its education and practice, affecting both content and pedagogy. A significant event faced by LIS was the emergence of knowledge management (KM) as a business concept during the last decade. According to the Gartner Group, KM is "a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving and sharing of an enterprise's information assets" (cited in Koenig & Srikantaiah, 2004, p. 362). There seems to be a close relationship between LIS and KM, and some authors explain that KM is an old concept (e.g. Hawkins, 2000), or a new name for what librarians or information professionals have been doing for years (e.g. Ajiferuke, 2003), while others consider that KM is distinct from both librarianship and information management (e.g. Davenport, 2004). Although perceptions and attitudes in the LIS community vary toward KM, most authors view KM through a positive lens, calling for full involvement of LIS in KM programs, arguing for the enhancement of LIS skills and competencies beyond information management (IM), and taking advantage of new opportunities (Abell & Oxbrow, 2001; Broadbent, 1998; Butler, 2000; Corrali, 1998; Hazeri, 2008; Koenig, 2005; Martin, Hazeri, & Sarrafzadeh, 2006; Southon & Todd, 2001). Responding to the emerging phenomenon of KM, some LIS schools have adopted KM education at different degree programs. The present study explores the current state of KM education offered by LIS schools. Education for KM KM is multidisciplinary so its discourses have occurred within academic programs of many disciplines, and KM education programs significantly vary in structure and teaching modes, and with a range of diversified course contents and curriculum areas emphasizing different disciplinary and professional perspectives (Al-Hawamdeh, 2005; Chaudhry & Higgins, 2003; Ruth, Frizzel, & Shaw, 2003; Saito, 2007; Sutton, 2007). KM Education Programs Throughout Academia Although there is an increasing demand for KM education, its adoption into mainstream academia is slow. …