A bounded or unbounded universe?: knowledge management in postgraduate LIS Education

[The School of Computer and Information Science at ECU has made a commitment to teaching Knowledge Management (KM) and is, at present, engaged in the process of determining its place within existing postgraduate LIS and IT courses. In turn, it is engaging in debate with other academics and industry practitioners about the unique contribution that the LIS disciplines could make to KM. This paper reports on the research and consultative processes that the School undertook and discusses the findings and conclusions. It will also offer some thoughts on where the authors believe LIS, in particular, can make a contribution to the core knowledge and practice of KM]. Background and Introduction Knowledge Management (KM) has been practiced and reported on for a number of years. As early as 1988, Peter Drucker called attention to the primacy of knowledge assets in the future success of companies. By 1994, many articles addressed the importance of the individual employee’s knowledge as opposed to the company’s databases and reports (Ruth, Theobald and Frizzell, 1999). As the early enthusiasm for the concept subsides in the current management literature, KM is becoming part of the corporate culture of large complex organizations, especially those that operate in a multinational environment. Early insubstantial applications of KM theory and practice have given way to broadly focused initiatives that are transforming the way organizations work (Davenport, 2000). Despite this integration of KM theory and practice into the core operations of organizations worldwide, very few universities offer courses in this discipline area. One of the